My PRS Mike Mushok FINALLY arrived back home after going through a general setup at the luthier/ guitar tech.

At my friend and band mate's advice, I asked the tech to install a bone nut instead of the plastic nut that was initially found on the guitar. In the mean time I have read a lot of reviews and it seems that the sound is significantly improved by that little nut. Incredible huh?

It seems that if the nut is made out of bone, not only are the strings less prone to cut through it but as I said above, the sound is better, having more clarity and fullness. I am excited to try a recording with the guitar and compare it with the recording I did last year with it for the PRS demo.

Have you guys ever had any experience in this particular issue? Were you able to feel/ tell any difference?

Cosmin

I have read about the tone differences between bone and other materials I have never used one myself, I'll be curious to see if you can see/hear a difference. I like to read about things like this as I try to build a guitar now and then, and sometimes I think "what's better" for things like this is just what you prefer, or have gotten use to.

I've installed a few Bone nuts, you can notice the difference. As bone is more 'dense' than plastic it transfers a better vibration through the neck to add to the natural resonance of the guitar. This is also why Brass ones are used too!!

i think my strat has a bone nut.. don't even know. I hope it does

anyway, all i know is, the bone nut will probs keep the guitar in tune better than the plastic as there will be less friction or something. not sure though! I think the best kind of nut is the roller nut though. could be wrong.

I believe that my Parker Nitefly has a graphite nut, and I absolutely love that guitar in every way.

Though I don't encourage people to go overboard or "overthink" it, I have personally experienced several "tone upgrades" over the years and I am now a firm believer that each individual should go on a "tone-quest" and try and find a setup that channels their individuality as a player.

For me, putting a gibson 335 pickup in my parker/getting into tube amps/getting a few choice, botique pedals/finding the right v-pick have all been crucial tone-upgrades, and each really wasn't THAT expensive.

So what I'm saying is....everyone that can, should explore upgrades like a bone-/nut, and more. You never know what LITTLE thing could make a LOT of difference in your playing!!

Indeed, exploring and trying stuff that seems insignificant at first glance can lead to great results - it's just like Todd said about placing a TS 808 in front of Mesa Boogie or Engl and making it sounds way better! The screamer actually makes the sound shinier and more compact - I can literally feel it in my hands - the Mesa is an amp which is not particularly friendly when soloing and the TS 808 makes things a lot easier

I never knew bone nuts existed.

Actually I don't even know what nuts I have on my Gibsons, I never changed them so they are the original ones that Gibson uses, whatever that might be. I also have heard a lot about bone, plastic or graphit nuts, but to be honest I never saw a need to mess with mine, I like the way my guitars sound so I don't see why I should change anything.

Standard Strat will be a plastic one.

Roller Nuts are good, but only when used with Locking Tuners!



Great advice Marcus!! If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!

Exactly Jones. After all changing a nut is not something like changing a pickup, I can't change the nut myself, I would have to give my guitars to the custom shop, wait... doesn't sound tempting. But I am curious about Cosmins opinion about his new nut.

Cosmin likes it a lot Honestly speaking, there is a slight difference in the depth of the lower registers - it's more clear somehow.

Of course, I must experiment more and see what is there to observe!

Hmmm now you made me curious, after all my Gibson Customshop is only 20 minutes away from where I live... but maybe I should find out first what kind of nuts Gibson is uing anyway

I think it might be graphite, now that I come to think about my band mate's Les Paul

Depends on how your guitar is Marcus. If it's less than 10 (ish) years old it's fitted with a nut made from 'Corian'.

For replacement I can recommend Tusq nuts, similar to bone but synthetic!

Corian??? Never heard of that ^^ well, some of my Les Pauls are older, some are within this 10 years, I guess I will just ask Gibson

Hmmm, never heard about Corian myself - it sounds like a GREAT name for a band though

Hehe, true, it doesn't sound bad ^^ If those nuts sound as good we should give them a try

From Wiki:-
Corian is the brand name for a solid surface material created by DuPont. It is composed of acrylic polymer and alumina trihydrate (ATH). Corian can be thermoformed by heating it to 300 °F (150 °C), allowing unique shapes to be created. Its primary use is in kitchen countertops, bathroom vanity tops, and wall cladding in showers.

I do remember it being mentioned in a review of a Les Paul when they first started using it!

I've a really nice japanese Martin D 42 clone, which is my 'beater' acoustic guitar, I had a bone nut and saddle put on it and you could definitely tell the difference.

On electrics I'm not sure I could tell the difference between the material of a decently cut nut, though I'm sure the sustain would be better with bone than plastic.

Talking about nuts I use just play an acoustic and the amount of strings I broke. If I didn't change strings before a gig then I was going to brake a string ever time and always on the bridge. The worst I ever did was 3 strings. I tried every type of string and got my guitar looked at and nothing worked. I think it came down to playing to hard and also because I was the lead singer I didn't pay enough attention to my playing. Now I don't sing much and when I play acoustic I'm freaking out not to break a string. So Annoying. I wanted to try bone and graphite nuts but never have. Mine is was and still is plastic. Current acoustic guitars Yamaha LSX36C and Ovation Standard Balladeer.

Check the edges on the Bridge, make sure they're nicely rounded and not sharp. Then check the String Grooves the same way, any sharpish edge will create a pressure point on the string and gradually cause it to break at that point!

Nice pair of guitars! I have a Balladeer also and it's never broken a string in anger!! This is quite surprising really as it's had a hard life and been bashed about a bit!!

I did check that out (sharp edges) but really I seemed to break strings on any guitar. So it must have been my strumming technique.

I had a Gibson LP not to far back but far enough!

I could never keep the g-string in tune. I could stretch the string all day long still would go out. I took it to a friend of mine who is a luthier. He worked on the nut and it still did it for me. So he told me the only way to fix it was either use graphite or get a new nut which he recommended a bone nut.

He claimed that it would increase sustain, keep the strings in tune longer/better, and also that bends wouldn't cut out as fast because of how smooth they are made.

I used the graphite trick till I traded it for a better guitar tho.

Ah, fair enough! I guess we should call you 'Lead hand' instead of 'Leadbelly', eh??

Guys, I am really happy - I have compared the feeling of my bone nut with the same model today at the dealer, having the plastic nut. Less sustain indeed and less depth indeed!

Such a small, "insignificant", and rather inexpensive upgrade can make quite a difference!

I know that many (and some GREAT players) lean towards the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra.... yet your story is one of many reasons that I encourage players to explore gear upgrades within their budget/means. When you get that tone that vibrates with your particular style, and you just connect to the tone, the end result is pure magic. Unfortunately, in most cases, that magic costs $$$$$.

Thank you mate! Well, I have a friend that uses a Russian made device, which he operates with a little piece of paper and some crayons - DON'T ask me how and he uses it as a power amp

He also modded a VERY OLD and CRAPPY guitar which still looks crappy but has the EXACT tone of a telecaster

So, yes, sometimes, magic can be achieved without that much $$$

Now I am REALLY getting curious about bone nuts...

Marcus will be trying bone nuts and going Musashi style, after reading Gorin No Sho in the airplane on the way towards USA!

Would an Ivory nut have similar characteristics as a bone nut I wonder?

I've also heard about tusq nuts - I HOPE they are not made out of ivory, as I would be very much against killing elephants for having their tusks on my guitar...

this may be dumb but how do the steel locking nuts of floyd roses compare? i imaginge they would transfer most of the sound through the neck.

They do indeed, in fact very early Guitars/Lutes etc had Ivory ones.


No they're not actually Ivory, it's a composite material that is hard like Bone or Ivory and has the same kind of properties.

Fear not, no living Tusq animals were harmed in the making of these nuts!!


Not dumb at all and a very valid question! They do transfer a lot of resonance through the neck, BUT because the bridge end is free floating it loses at that end.
The idea of these replacements is to help increase tone and sustain therefore they're meant for fixed bridge guitars.