New nut, what material ??

[wolf]

I have the Earvana nut on my gigging Strat and hate the tone, dull and lifeless so I plan to get it replaced.

What's THE best nut material for tone???

Some say Pre Ban Ivory but it's not available outside the USA.

Graphtech Tusq ?
Unbleached Bone ?

:confused: :confused:

[bruce]

Some like Tusq, some like bone, some like brass;) .. They all have advantages and disadvantages.. but these are my top 3 choices for tone, wearability, workability, and availability.

[wolf]

Tone is all that matters.
Which would you choose ?

[tom]

we use tusq here. i have put bone on a few guitars and not heard any improvement or worsening in tone. i think tusq is more predictable than bone and i like that a lot. i also do think that tusq works better for tremolo guitars for tuning stability.

how the nut is cut probably has more influence than the material.

[wolf]

The guy who's fitting the nut has convinced me to try Stainless Steel.
He did one for a friend of mine years ago who still swears by it.
He's promised that if I don't like it, he'll replace it with whatever material I want free of charge, so I figured might as well.
This is the progress so far... he had to fill the slot slightly as the Earvana nut is wider than a regular nut.
Truly lovely job so far and can't wait to get it back in a weeks time.
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x182/wolf5151/002_zps75b93109.jpg (http://s180.photobucket.com/user/wolf5151/media/002_zps75b93109.jpg.html)