Guitar Nut - GraphTech TUSQ XL or Bone?

[EddieDavis]

Hello!

I just ordered my first Warmoth custom body and neck  this week and I'd love some opinions on this...

Order has been placed with GraphTech  TUSQ XL and I don't plan on making any more changes to my order with Warmoth. 

Once I get the neck however I may opt to switch the nut for an unbleached bone nut.  I'm using a luthier for assembly and I realize this may add to my shop fees. 

What do you think?  Stick with GraphTech Standard  or switch it out for a Bone nut when I get the neck?  Will it make that much of a difference?

My priority is obviously best sound and best tuning stability, and the guitar body will have a vintage 6 hole tremolo (heavy user!!!).  Help!!!  Ok

:blob7:

 

[AirCap]

Most luthiers will go with real bone.... for lots of reasons.
Personally - I HATE Tusc.

 

[rgand]

On the other side of the scale, I have TUSC nuts on both my Warmoth builds. I have no intention of changing them since the guitars sound great as is. If you prefer bone, though, go for it.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

After installing Tusq nuts on several guitars for clients, and their feedback their tuning stability, I may never work with bone again.

Tusq is softer to tool on, but because so, it's far less brittle than bone, and I find that they facilitate quick turnover in nut jobs getting in & out the door.

I think they sound just fine too.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I have the black Tusq XL nuts on all of my tremolo equipped guitars, wouldn't have it any other way. Combined with locking tuners, the headstock end of your tuning stability equation will be solid. As far as the sonics, I've had bone nuts and brass nuts and fossilized ivory nuts and the Tusq nuts sound just fine to me.

 

[aarontunes]

I prefer TUSQ to bone as well.

 

[Ace Flibble]

I'd go for TUSQ or TUSQ XL, every time. It's really hard to recommend bone these days. If you were making a completely 50s-correct build then yes, go for bone, although even then, the off-white versions of TUSQ can be made to look like bone very easily. (And also if you were doing a totally 50s-correct build you wouldn't be using Warmoth parts anyway, so...)

Perhaps most importantly, I've switched many guitars from bone to TUSQ and never noticed or had reported any difference in tone, but have always had it reported that the guitars now stay in tune better. Conversely I've never had a request to switch a guitar form TUSQ to bone, period.

I know some guitarists get hung up on 'vintage' parts, as if something simply being an older design somehow makes it better. Nine times out of ten there's a modern replacement which is objectively, outright superior in every regard; TUSQ is one of those.

For any guitar with a vibrato, the only time I wouldn't use TUSQ XL is if I was installing a roller nut, or other metal nut; highly-polished metal or ball bearings are pretty much the only things which will keep a vibrato in-tune better than TUSQ XL. And those nuts give a very different tone to TUSQ or bone. Some people like it (I do), but many do not. So TUSQ XL remains my go-to 'default' for any guitar with a vibrato.

 

[bagman67]

I haven't had anything but graphtech/tusq nuts in years.  They work fine.  Don't let the cork-sniffers put you off.

 

[Cagey]

The only time I don't use Tusq is if I have a cream-bound neck. Then, I'll use unbleached bone. Otherwise, always Tusq. It's a good material. It's not as soft as some think - if you take a bunch and shake 'em in your hand, it sounds like you have a handful of coins, only brighter. They kinda "tinkle" (and not in a porno way). They're easy to tool, but it's not because they're soft, it's more like they're friable in a very fine way. The dust is almost like talcum powder.

In any event, the influence of the nut - as long as it's properly cut - is primarily on playability. A well-cut nut will set your action right and not hang the strings up, causing tuning problems. Sound-wise, it's out of the picture as soon as you fret a string, which means unless you play a lotta cowboy chords, you never hear the nut material.

 

[zebra]

Sound-wise, it's out of the picture as soon as you fret a string, which means unless you play a lotta cowboy chords, you never hear the nut material.

This.

 

[Logrinn]

... cowboy chords ...

:toothy12: :toothy12: :toothy12:

 

[snouter]

Once I get the neck however I may opt to switch the nut for an unbleached bone nut.  My priority is obviously best sound and best tuning stability...

A decade or so ago I stopped by Carmine Street Guitars in Manhattan and owner Rick Kelly whipped out a baggy full of mastodon tusk material he got from Russia he was going to use for neck nuts.  For tuning stability definitely get the TUSQ stuff and even then you have to tweak it to prevent binding. 

 

[amigarobbo]

To be absoultly honest, on all 3 necks I've had to lower the nut slots slightly. They were possibly in, say Fender spec, they were certainly no worse than the average new Fender bass/guitar I've tried, actually that last Fender Jazz Bass I tried, woo, terrible. but they were definitely on the high side of spec. So even if you buy a Tusq nut you might have to some work.

But then, I am an extremely lazy, and feeble fingered finicky when it comes to nut height.

 

[rgand]

... cowboy chords ...

:toothy12: :toothy12: :toothy12:

Yup. :icon_thumright:

 

[ghotiphry]

Anyone ever try a Zero Glide nut?  https://goldtonemusicgroup.com/zeroglide/

 

[Cagey]

I haven't tried one yet, but I intend to. I think it's a great idea.

 

[ghotiphry]

I thought so, too.  Just discovered it recently.  I don't see a black color option, tho.  I'm partial to black.

 

[rgand]

Now that looks like a good idea.

 

[ghotiphry]

Oh, they have custom orders...

 

[rgand]

Oh, they have custom orders...

It's really tempting.