Bone Nut

What is the advantage of having a bone nut instead of a plastic one on an electric guitar?

Ed B.

Better response,better tone,better sustain and I'd imagine improved tunability because bone is harder than plastic and the strings should move through nut slots without binding.Alot of people say that the things I mentioned only come into play with an open string.They can think as they please and keep using plastic

What is the advantage of having a bone nut instead of a plastic one on an electric guitar?

Ed B.

Dogs will chew on your guitar.

: What is the advantage of having a bone nut instead of a plastic one on : an electric guitar? : : Ed B.

It may make the guitar a little brighter or more treble sounding. It probably won't radically change the guitar sound. I think it costs about $50-75 USD including new strings. To get an honest appraisal record something now and record again after the new nut. Have someone else run the recorder while you listen. See which recording sounds best. I think you'll hear very little difference.

Dave M.

You don't think much, do you Keith? It's physically impossible that the nut will do anything, except on an open string. Deal with it. You could be right about tunability,

Durability and quality. Maybe a minor tonal difference, if your ears are audiophile-level.

The Repair Guy

Guy,

How does durability weigh in here? I've seen plenty of 20 yr old guitars with plastic nuts. How often do you replace worn out nuts in your shop? Some of the newer plastics like Graphtec really haven't been around very long so I don't think you can say that they are less durable than bone.

Dave M.

I don't know that I've ever seen a totally worn-out nut. The cheap plastic ones get chewed up by wound strings pretty easily, though.

When I say 'plastic', I mean that crappy white stuff they use for nuts & saddles on $50 guitars - the kind that melts when you hold it against a belt sander for 10 seconds. I still get plenty of guitars like this to work on. I use other materials, too - corian, graphite, etc. I prefer anything to the old cheap plastic.

The Repair Guy

I've never seen a broken bone nut, but the cheapie plastic nuts they put on the low end made-overseas guitars

Hey pecker neck.Anything that touches the string has to do with tone.As you raise and lower your finger is that string open then? Did you absolutely kill all the strings vibration? Will the strings not being fretted vibrate?With an ivory or bone nut if you cough in the same room as the guitar it'll start singing. Its obvious you've never tried anything other than plastic for nut material or thought through what your strings are doing while you play or you'd see what I'm saying.The strings vibrating that you're not fretting at the moment add depth and sweetness to the guitars tone.I use ivory for the nuts I make and it works so good that its hard to tune a guitar with an electronic tuner. When you pluck the string even lightly that you're tuning all the others start vibrating and singing as well.Keep using plastic dip shit.

Better response,better tone,better sustain and I'd imagine improved tunability because bone is harder than plastic and the strings should move through nut slots without binding.Alot of people say that the things I mentioned only come into play with an open string.They can think as they please and keep using plastic

What is the advantage of having a bone nut instead of a plastic one on an electric guitar?

Ed B.

The ones I see are Fenders - it's always the bass E string.

The Repair Guy