best nut for a Tele?
- Thread starter bossaroo
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Jared Purdy
Poster Extraordinaire
I'd say that the best nut for any guitar is either fossilized ivory (expensive) or bone. Any good guitar repair shop will have them.
KevinB
Doctor of Teleocity
Unbleached bone is pretty much the standard.
(link removed) has good blanks, but you just don't buy a new nut and glue it in place; it needs to be properly fitted and filed.
If you don't know how to do this and don't have the (fairly expensive) tools, then just find a good (i.e. not a Guitar Center
) local luthier or shop. Typical cost is $60 or so.
(link removed) has good blanks, but you just don't buy a new nut and glue it in place; it needs to be properly fitted and filed.
If you don't know how to do this and don't have the (fairly expensive) tools, then just find a good (i.e. not a Guitar Center
) local luthier or shop. Typical cost is $60 or so.
the best nut is the one you have decided you like.... the nut affects only 6 notes on a guitar... on a 6 string guitar that is..
Ron Kirn
Ron Kirn
jefrs
Doctor of Teleocity
The nut only sounds 6 open notes but it seriously affects the intonation and action.
I find bone easier to work than plastic, it certainly looks better when polished up like jewellery.
Unbleached bone is yellower than bleached white and contains more natural greases, choose by looks and availability, and quality.
Whatever you choose it will need accurate and experienced work to fit it properly, it is not a drop-in job. The fitting and filing is the important bit.
I find bone easier to work than plastic, it certainly looks better when polished up like jewellery.
Unbleached bone is yellower than bleached white and contains more natural greases, choose by looks and availability, and quality.
Whatever you choose it will need accurate and experienced work to fit it properly, it is not a drop-in job. The fitting and filing is the important bit.
Careful with that unbleached one you might end up with:
Why does it need a new nut?
Reeek
Tele-Holic
Tusq XL is not a compromise to bone IMHO and I choose it most of the time.
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I'm a big fan of the Tusq as well, especially the Tusq XL, which is PTFE impregnated (sounds scandalous) - self-'lubing' for extra slickness.
I find such treatment important, as I'm an agressive bender, bend behind the nut, and also use D-tuners (either Keith banjo or Sperzel D-Thing) so this helps tuning for me quite a lot.
I find such treatment important, as I'm an agressive bender, bend behind the nut, and also use D-tuners (either Keith banjo or Sperzel D-Thing) so this helps tuning for me quite a lot.
AJBaker
Friend of Leo's
A trick I sometimes use is to use acoustic saddles (or blanks) to make fender nuts. Usually I can get 2-4 nuts from one saddle.
I put a Tusq XL on one of guitars recently. I'm impressed. They are cheap, easy to work with and do the job perfectly.
jefrs
Doctor of Teleocity
No, no you cannot hear any difference at all. Do note that.
You can also make nuts from very hard wood such as ebony or box, or metals such as aluminium.
I just prefer to make them from bone because they look so pretty. Plus I can get bone blanks in sizes and shapes, without slots, not available in Tusq. Tusq s not difficult but I actually find bone easier to work but then I have more practice with it. Tusq is a resin (loaded plastic) and seems to gum up the files more than bone does. Plus I like to make the 1st top-E further inboard than standard because I pull it off the edge otherwise, just a personal quirk but others seem to like it too.
The usual Fender synthetic bone nut is similar to Tusq.
Tusq is uniform and reliable quality. Bone can be poor quality, it can split, it has to be inspected. The usual luthier suppliers normally provide good bone though, beware of cheap bulk purchase stuff.
Saddles for acoustic instruments can also be had in Tusq or bone or wood or even metals for the jazzbox, and these do affect the sound. Quite often the best sound will come from cheap plastic.
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ShabbyChic
TDPRI Member
Have a local shop who you trust install whatever they recommend. The material used is far less important than having the slots cut accurately and specifically for your guitar. There are lots of potential DIY items on an electric guitar, but getting a nut set up properly is something I always recommend having done by a pro... it takes a level of sophistication that requires quite a bit of experience IMO.
+1 for staying inboard of the fretboard edges - I have the same issue; I'm prone to pulling them off the sides too.
jefrs
Doctor of Teleocity
The main reason I started doing nuts, long and long ago, was that absolutely none of the local shops were capable of doing a decent job. One idiot actually used a soldering iron to melt a plastic nut deeper, that was the final straw. I was using home made tools and needle files long before I discovered expensive nut files.
If you are good with precision engineering tools or jewellers tools, then it is not difficult to learn, but experience matters, you get better all the time. I'm now on my third set of nut files, having worn the others out.
Having no need for their services now, I have found a couple or three decent luthiers. Just proves that they/we are out there
