Nut - the least friction

[CarlosG]

If I could expand on this, a perfect nut will either let the string move without any friction, or it won't let it move at all. Anywhere in between is bad.

My way of doing it where I lock the string at the tuner and use a zero fret for essentially no friction at the nut is almost as stable as a locking nut, but without the drawbacks.

I've read many times that a zero fret improves tuning stability. It seems like a good idea to cut grooves in the nut so the strings have as little contact as possible, similar to a zero fret.

 

[CarlosG]

I find your techs conclusions dubious at best... Brass is notorious for issues with tuning. Tusq / bone etc are fine but the use of a lubricant in the slot of any nut is strongly recommended. I like Big Bends Nut Sauce which appears to be a silicone based product but good old pencil graphite works well to...

I conducted an experiment. I cut identical grooves in each material and strung a string on a makeshift tool. I rubbed the string in each groove. The string moved most smoothly in brass and bone, while the TUSQ XL caused the string to jam.

 

[ehdwuld]

I got some nuts from China some years back
Different materials

ABS
PPS

The PPS has the "glass" tinking as it is dropped

After looking at the physical properties of PPS
I believe this may be what is trade named TUSQ actually is

We just have marketing here in Murica
They wont say that

 

[ICTGoober]

Tusq is just marketing. I won't stock them. I used to make clients buy a blank if they wanted one. Now I won't even do that. IMO it's a shit material. I do like Graphtech's NuBone. It looks just like unbleached bone. If you shape it on the sander it even smells like bone. It works like bone when slotting a new nut. They don't sell blanks, but several makers offer nuts and saddles of NuBone already installed. I like that stuff.

All I stock these days is bleached bone and unbleached bone. I have about 5 pounds of bone blanks in all sizes. If you want a bone nut on your 10 string lap steel - I got it. Need a bone nut on your mando? Got ya covered. Want new bone saddles to replace your cheap plastic saddles? No sweat.

As for nut lubes, I've used them all - and went back to using the same stuff I use to lube woodscrews for necks - Chapstick. It's cheap, and a tube lasts for years. It's easy to apply, easy to clean up, doesn't contaminate the wood fibers.

 

[GuitarStv]

YMMIV I guess. I've had way more problems with bone nuts than tusq nuts over the years.

 

[ICTGoober]

Any nut material can have problems if the luthier didn't cut the slots properly.

 

[GuitarStv]

Any nut material can have problems if the luthier didn't cut the slots properly.

Agreed. I've had 12 new nuts cut though . . . four bone - all of which had binding issues and needed to be replaced. All of the tusq nuts were cut properly the first time. I figured that it must be an easier material to work with or something (more consistent maybe?).

 

[jeremy]

i do find tusq more consistent than bone sometimes, but not always. depends on the actual piece of bone?

 

[Bill Dennis]

I conducted an experiment. I cut identical grooves in each material and strung a string on a makeshift tool. I rubbed the string in each groove. The string moved most smoothly in brass and bone, while the TUSQ XL caused the string to jam.

I conducted an experiment. I cut identical grooves in each material and strung a string on a makeshift tool. I rubbed the string in each groove. The string moved most smoothly in brass and bone, while the TUSQ XL caused the string to jam.

What where the parameters and measurables of this experiment...