Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

Ball&Chain

Ball&Chain

Active member
So, the question is, what is your preferred nut material? Bone, tusq, graphite, steel, brass?

I undertook a little project this weekend to replace the nut on my new cheapo guitar. It was already fitted with a graphite nut, but the fit wasn’t quite right so I figured I could either remove the nut and fix it or replace it. In the end I decided to go with bone and made a new nut from scratch with a bone blank.

The end result was pretty impressive for me actually. It came out better than I had hoped. What I really wasn’t expecting was the difference the new nut made. A lot of factors could be at work here, but the improvement in tone and sustain was most definitely noticeable. The feel and playability of the guitar was also much different though I suspect the custom string spacing I did had a lot of effect on that. Overall the guitar just plain felt much better after the change.

One thing I noticed when removing the graphite nut was that it was mostly hallow. I wondered how much that would affect the foundation of the string at that point on the guitar and as a result, tone and sustain? I would think a solid piece of material would be much better all around. I seem to remember several years back when I installed a pre cut graphite nut several on a project guitar, that it was hallow as well. So is that a common characteristic in graphite nut material?
My other guitar has a white tusq nut. Are those hallow as well? Whats the difference between tusq and graphite?
 
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Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

I have tried all types and love good old fashioned, made with love and kisses in a science lab, TUSQ.

I judge the tone of a guitar nut by dropping it on the table and listening to the timbre it has --- I like a brittle, ceramic sounding timbre in a nut --- that DOES NOT relate to a brittle sound in the guitar; it means hardness, which means, in physical terms, a solid major node for the vibration of the string.

Think: the opposite of felt. The harder and more brittle and rigid the better for me, and TUSQ delivers.
 
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Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

My favorite is vintage bone. It's very hard and I like the yellow/ivory color of the vintage.
 
Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

I like bone or graphite. This reminds me, I need to adjust the nut height on my PRS SE that I cut a while back. It's a tad low that a shim can fix easily.
 
Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

I know of one guitar maker who prefers to use the LSR roller nut even on hardtail guitars, because he thinks the combination of the metal nut with the rubber pad behind it gives a sound similar to a fret with a finger behind it - so the open strings sound more balanced with fretted strings.

Never tried one myself though...
 
Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

sosomething said:
I like the bone
Click to expand...

Bet you say that to all the guys... :D

As far as nuts go, I seem to have all sorts installed; LSR's, corian, tusq, graphite, presumably plastic too. I'm not sure I have any bone ones fitted. I can't say I've thought too hard about the tonal difference, but mainly whether they are cut right. There's something deeply satisfying though, in taking a blank and working it into a finished item before installing it on the guitar.
 
Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

Chris of Arabia said:
There's something deeply satisfying though, in taking a blank and working it into a finished item before installing it on the guitar.
Click to expand...

Yup, sure is. I've done that twice now on a couple of my guitars and it's nice to know I have the ability to make a nut from a blank if I need to. Saves me the time and money of getting it to someone to do it.
 
Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

I have never had a preference, though I am interested in this discussion because I am in the process of setting one of my Strats up so that I can actually lean on the vibrato without throwing the whole thing way out. I am looking at black Tusq and brass. I love the sound of brass on the open strings, but I am not sure how well it works with dive bombing.
 
Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

Ball&Chain said:
So, the question is, what is your preferred nut material? Bone, tusq, graphite, steel, brass?


My other guitar has a white tusq nut. Are those hallow as well? Whats the difference between tusq and graphite?
Click to expand...

I think it depends on the guitar in question. On a Telecaster style guitar I really prefer 3 barrel brass. Some people will argue that the intonation is always out a bit but I don't see that as much of a problem. On my Stratocasters that are setup to use the whammy's I prefer Graphite. In my case I felt the graphite added some more warmth to my tone & I noticed a significant increase in sustain. It could be that it was professionally setup. On a few of my Strats I have left the bone nut. The reason why I like the graphite on my whammy equipped guitars is tuning stability. I have graphite saddles, graphite nuts, locking tuners and no string trees. The added stability in tuning is the end result. Most of my Gibsons are setup with bone.
The difference between graphite & tusq is nothing. Tusq is simply white graphite.
 
Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

Bludave said:
I think it depends on the guitar in question. On a Telecaster style guitar I really prefer 3 barrel brass. Some people will argue that the intonation is always out a bit but I don't see that as much of a problem. On my Stratocasters that are setup to use the whammy's I prefer Graphite. In my case I felt the graphite added some more warmth to my tone & I noticed a significant increase in sustain. It could be that it was professionally setup. On a few of my Strats I have left the bone nut. The reason why I like the graphite on my whammy equipped guitars is tuning stability. I have graphite saddles, graphite nuts, locking tuners and no string trees. The added stability in tuning is the end result. Most of my Gibsons are setup with bone.
The difference between graphite & tusq is nothing. Tusq is simply white graphite.
Click to expand...

so.. what kind of nut is on your tele?
 
Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

I like cow bone... that's the only other kind I've tried other than Corian. On the same axe, the bone did help the guitar have a stronger, rounder tone overall i.e. took out the "plinky" quality.
 
Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

White TusQ is my fave. Plus i love bone, too.

For the situations includes dead spots on fingerboard i'd go for higher density brass ones...
 
Re: Preferred Guitar Nut Material?

sosomething said:
so.. what kind of nut is on your tele?
Click to expand...

I have 5 Teles..pretty sure its bone. I've never had any reason to change it. This guitar is currently slated to be refretted so I haven't been playing it much. The one with brass is setup with Three barrel brass, bone nut, Kluson tuners & a Vintage 54Neck & a Jerry Donahue in the bridge. As far as the nut is concerned well I've never had any reason to change it. Once the frets are done I will take a closer look and if it needs it we will do it at the same time.

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