Fender

gball said:
And the holy grail of all guitars, the '59 Les Paul, shipped with a nylon nut - plastic.

Makes no difference to me, I think the plastic ones sound better than bone.
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The Delrin Nylon nut was the best one ever used by Gibson.
The most sought after solid body guitars ever made in history were Delrin Nylon.
And the Delrin saddles are my first choice...
IMHO helps the sustain and reduces the microphonic tendencies. Also a bit easier on the strings.

Brass and metal nuts I do not like the sound of.
None of these actually improved the sustain, neither did a brass bridge.

Graph Tech / Tusq gives a noticeable boost to the high frequency harmonics....
but did not actually improve sustain as claimed.

Delrin is an extremely durable material which can be machined into gears or other mechanical parts. It resists wear and holds shape very well.

Fossilized Mammoth Tusk:
It's not actually ivory, because it has fossilized. It's approximately 50,000 years old.
Well, it 'is' fossilized ivory. But not from an elephant.
The mammoths died out at the end of the last ice age. But there are many frozen mammoths to be found and their tusks.
 
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Amp Mad Scientist said:
The Delrin Nylon nut was the best one ever used by Gibson.
The most sought after solid body guitars ever made in history were Delrin Nylon.
And the Delrin saddles are my first choice...
IMHO helps the sustain and reduces the microphonic tendencies. Also a bit easier on the strings.

Brass and metal nuts I do not like the sound of.
None of these actually improved the sustain, neither did a brass bridge.

Graph Tech / Tusq gives a noticeable boost to the high frequency harmonics....
but did not actually improve sustain as claimed.

Delrin is an extremely durable material which can be machined into gears or other mechanical parts. It resists wear and holds shape very well.

Fossilized Mammoth Tusk:
It's not actually ivory, because it has fossilized. It's approximately 50,000 years old.
Well, it 'is' fossilized ivory. But not from an elephant.
The mammoths died out at the end of the last ice age. But there are many frozen mammoths to be found and their tusks.
Click to expand...

I never liked the nylon saddles. Even releasing string tension, stripped saddles were all too common. They are a nostalgic thing, like cloth jacketed wiring.
 
Robert Herndon said:
The material the nut is made from is a matter of personal preference. The engineers choose a material that is cost effective, durable and offers easy setup.

I prefer brass for durability.
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When I worked for Bunker Guitars (RIP DAVE Sr.) all we used were brass nuts. It was an integral part of his Tension Free neck system.

I like brass a lot, it's my favorite. I also like high quality bone, but prefer TUSQ & NuBone. I've installed graphite and micarta as well with no complaint. The great thing about the synthetics is they work easier and don't stink up the joint when taken to the combo sander. PEEEEEEE-UUUUUUU!!!!!
Don O said:
Cool, I can now say that I know someone who has Brass Nuts :dood:
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Now you can say you know TWO people with brass nusts! Both my Bunker guitars have brass nuts on them. I really like the way open strings ring out.
 
StrumerJoe said:
When I worked for Bunker Guitars (RIP DAVE Sr.) all we used were brass nuts. It was an integral part of his Tension Free neck system.

I like brass a lot, it's my favorite. I also like high quality bone, but prefer TUSQ & NuBone. I've installed graphite and micarta as well with no complaint. The great thing about the synthetics is they work easier and don't stink up the joint when taken to the combo sander. PEEEEEEE-UUUUUUU!!!!!

Now you can say you know TWO people with brass nusts! Both my Bunker guitars have brass nuts on them. I really like the way open strings ring out.
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I really like working with brass.

I've made banjo nuts from pearl and that was challenging!
 
Beagle said:
One of my Strats and my Junior have TUSQ, my Epiphone LP has NuBone and my CSL has bone. My other Strat and Tele have the original nuts. I don't find there to be any difference, other than the smell when I was filing them. I did the brass thing in the late 70s/early 80s, but those guitars are long gone.
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So did I,, a Strat and a Explorer
 
My Irish friend. Mark used to tell me stories of places in Ireland where the people were supposedly super cheap like the Scots.

The story goes in a county or town called Cavan, the folks are so cheap, that one day Tommy was sitting in the pub having a pint and a fly was buzzing around and wound up landing in his beer.
Tommy picks the fly up by the wings and holds it up over the glass and says,

" Now spit it back!!!!"


Another time, Seamus came over to Tommy's house and Tommy was stripping the wallpaper off the walls.
Seamus says to Tommy, " I see you are doing a bit of remodeling."

Tommy says, "Uck No,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Remodeling Nuthin, we're movin!!!!!"
 
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I've been fine with many nut materials over the years. Bone, various plastics, I even like the graphite ones on my PRSs.
The only one I've really disliked has been brass. Okay, it might last forever, but open strings were twice as bright as fretted notes.
The problem was worst on a heavy ash Strat back in the Seventies. Pretty bright guitar to begin with.
But I also had one on a Les Paul Custom for a while and the difference was almost as pronounced on that one.
 
eclecticsynergy said:
I've been fine with many nut materials over the years. Bone, various plastics, I even like the graphite ones on my PRSs.
The only one I've really disliked has been brass. Okay, it might last forever, but open strings were twice as bright as fretted notes.
The problem was worst on a heavy ash Strat back in the Seventies. Pretty bright guitar to begin with.
But I also had one on a Les Paul Custom for a while and the difference was almost as pronounced on that one.
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What I don't like about brass:
at first they told us it would increase sustain but of course it didn't. Not at all.
Ever since then I doubted brass and couldn't be bothered with all the extra effort.

But I think the wound steel strings do dig into the brass over time and wears it down.

But during this period:
I eventually discovered for myself that it was the wood of the guitar that made the biggest difference in sustain.
After changing all those parts, bridge, nut, pickups, electronics, caps, strings, it didn't make any difference at all brass or otherwise.
It turned out to be only the wood that was affecting sustain.
So in that respect, the brass parts were educational.
 
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Robert Herndon said:
I never liked the nylon saddles. Even releasing string tension, stripped saddles were all too common. They are a nostalgic thing, like cloth jacketed wiring.
Click to expand...

But you would be surprised, it reduces the microphonic ringing and squealing from feedback.
It works pretty well for a tremolo tailpiece because the steel string slides easily over the nylon without digging into the material.
So in some respects there are advantages...
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
But you would be surprised, it reduces the microphonic ringing and squealing from feedback.
It works pretty well for a tremolo tailpiece because the steel string slides easily over the nylon without digging into the material.
So in some respects there are advantages...
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I can see the advantage with a Bigsby, but I probably have run higher gain settings live than most here (ask @Mitch Pearrow SJMP as he has been present at performances) and I've never encountered squealing or ringing...
 
Maybe a dozen years ago I acquired the lower leg of a moose from a hunter. I had read it was one of the densest types of bone known, second to camel, and favoured by certain luthiers. I guess all that weight on a long leg makes the need for such, biologically. I replaced a number of nuts on my guitars, and an acoustic saddle. The tonal difference was striking, even to me who admittedly can hardly hear differences between pickups, particularly on the acoustic.

Still have some, but working with it is stinky and a rather huge PITA
 
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