What material makes the best guitar nut?

[verbotenco]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

That's not entirely true. The nut and the bridge will cause the strings to resonate differently, giving the pickup a different frequency to read.

Don't fall for that marketing hype from guitar manufacturers man, you think you hear a difference, but actually you don't. It's the power of suggestion. Furthermore, when you've played guitar long enough, it's sorta embarrassing if you admit you can't detect subtle difference in tone cause of different nut, bridge, fret, etc., so you are inclined to claim 'hearing more sustain', 'more balls', etc.

Plastic nuts are scoffed at cause they look cheap and normally associated with cheap guitars.

If you want to improve tone, noticeably, change your pickup.

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

That's something I don't understand too. Why would the nut make a big difference if only open notes sustain on it?

 

[tonello]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

That's something I don't understand too. Why would the nut make a big difference if only open notes sustain on it?

that's true, but if you're a rhythm player doing open chords often, then the nut has a very big effect on timer. I say make every guitar with a zero fret and be done.

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

that's true, but if you're a rhythm player doing open chords often, then the nut has a very big effect on timer.

Yeah... but how often do I play open notes? I have maybe 5 songs that I wrote that I jam on often lately and I can only think of one song that uses them and only in the beginning of the song. Even then I don't need to sustain those notes because it is not holding those notes, the song just moves along. Even just strumming open chords my plastic nuts sound fine.

 

[Grindspine]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

Bone, cut from the femurs of children.

........I was using a bone saw at work today and completely failed to come to that idea!

 

[J E C]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

The Graphtech materials work grate. The tusk as well as the standard black material that they have. Corian (the hard counter top material) also makes a good nut.

 

[constant mesh]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

Bone is best for me, decent to work with, extremely hard so it sands slower, but overall the best thing. Slots are smooth, a little oil and they are super slippery. I notice the strings down leave extreme indents especially wound strings, anything other will wear out faster.

Sometimes it's the slots that are cut too deep not the nut material that is giving you a foul tone.

 

[lNllClK]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

You're wrong about that my friend.

The same guitar with Klusons will sound quite different with Grovers.

The same guitar with a 60's style zinc stop tailpiece will sound different than with a 50's style lightweight aluminum stop tailpiece.

mmhmm.. idunno about all of that vintage stuff but i do believe that the headstock has a great deal to do with sustain and resonance, and the better the transfer of vibration from the nut to the tuners would lead to more resonance and sustain. call me crazy, i have a freaking tusq nut and it's better than the stock plastic piece of garbage. that's all.

 

[loversmoon]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3o2FHxz9O8

 

[Ball&Chain]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

Ive worked with most materials from plastic to graphite, tusq and bone. Imo, the best nut materials are the most dense. Right now all my guitars are fitted with bone nuts. The upgrade made a huge difference from the hollow graphite and plastic nuts, but made very little if any difference when replacing a tusq nut, which oddly enough, well not really, wasn't hollow.

The difference I hear and feel in the guitar is not just limited to open notes either.

 

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

The teflon impregnated stuff seems to hold tuning better.

 

[J E C]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

It's amazing as to what can change tone at times. A good friend of mine has an old Yamaha acoustic that didn't sound that grate, and had a really fat neck that he didn't care for, so he carved the neck down to a shape that was more comfortable to him. That guitar sound amazing now. I cut the peg head down on my Strat to a Telly, and it warmed it up. On another guitar doing either one of those things could destroy the tone. Ya never know.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

Ive worked with most materials from plastic to graphite, tusq and bone. Imo, the best nut materials are the most dense. Right now all my guitars are fitted with bone nuts. The upgrade made a huge difference from the hollow graphite and plastic nuts, but made very little if any difference when replacing a tusq nut, which oddly enough, well not really, wasn't hollow.

The difference I hear and feel in the guitar is not just limited to open notes either.

Yep. That's been my experience too. Exactly.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

I use Tusq or bone (non bleached if I can get it). Depends on what I have on hand when I need it.

 

[Dr.J4ckal]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

Then people shouldn't use it cause open string sounds 'twangier' and more 'resonant' than fretted note.

Bone, brass, plastic, graphite, doesn't really matter in electric. It's the pickup that defines the tone.

Somebody should make a guitar with bone/tusq frets

 

[tonello]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

Yeah... but how often do I play open notes? I have maybe 5 songs that I wrote that I jam on often lately and I can only think of one song that uses them and only in the beginning of the song. Even then I don't need to sustain those notes because it is not holding those notes, the song just moves along. Even just strumming open chords my plastic nuts sound fine.

Oh i understand, but for a player like Malcolm Young who doesn't use power chords often, then I would assume that the nut material has a great effect on how his guitar sounds. His whole rhythm style is based off of everything that a rhythm player doesn't normally use (small amps instead of large ones, open chords instead of power chords, very little overdrive versus the cranked up monster I'm playing on), and yet he's probably the best rhythm guitar player in all of rock.

 

[indie folk guy]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

Bone hands down (ivory/fossilized ivory is great but it's $$$)

Tusq comes close

and yes I would say that all things considered it's a noticeable improvement both on open and fretted strings on any guitar (acoustic or electric).

And yes other factors do impact tone pick, playing style, string gauge, string material, tuning used, instrument setup, tuning machines, individual pieces of wood, pickups, bridge, yada yada.

To say that bone and plastic sound the same shows a complete lack of knowledge and experience. If you can't tell the difference it doesn't mean it isn't there to someone with a well trained ear. I was a classical music major and played with orchestras, etc.

Not only did I find bone the most musically pleasing but as a guitar tech I find it the easiest material to work with. Nothing is better than using bone nut, saddle, and bridge pins on an acoustic and setting up the buzz feiten system

aside from tone having a well cut nut made from a material like bone (that's kept lubricated) can offer other advantages like helping with intonation, avoiding string binding in the nut, etc.

 

[Ashurbanipal]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

I've heard that the pelvic bone of a virgin gives a very sweet, lyrical tone.

 

[Ball&Chain]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

I use Tusq or bone (non bleached if I can get it). Depends on what I have on hand when I need it.

I get my bone materials here. They are unbleached, reasonably priced and solid shipping.

http://www.guitarpartsandmore.com/

 

[brunogio]

Re: What material makes the best guitar nut?

Every guitar repair guy has suggested bone to me in the past. I'm not saying other materials don't work but if you have to do a replacement, I would suggest going for the bone.

I don't have any evidence to prove it but I feel the strings sit better in a bone nut and transfer vibration better to the neck.