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Post subject: How much better are bone nuts and saddles?
Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:16 am
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I bought myself an Esteban Celestial Night guitar for Christmas and I'd like to convert it from a "wall hanger" to a player. How much difference in sound is there between plastic and bone? Is bone a warmer tone? Brighter? Or just better all around? If I was just going to try replacing one at first, would I be better off replacing the nut or the saddle? If I replace one and the sound didn't improve much it's likely to go back on the wall, but if helps then I'd go ahead and swap out the other. Thanx


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Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:23 pm
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The only way to improve your sound is practice.


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Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:33 pm
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x2mars wrote:
The only way to improve your sound is practice.


I've been practicing for close to 40 years - it is the tone for my new guitar that I'm trying to improve...


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Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:36 pm
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stagemasterplayer wrote:
x2mars wrote:
The only way to improve your sound is practice.


I've been practicing for close to 40 years - it is the tone for my new guitar that I'm trying to improve...


really? I wouldn't have thought :?


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Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:42 pm
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x2mars wrote:
stagemasterplayer wrote:
x2mars wrote:
The only way to improve your sound is practice.


I've been practicing for close to 40 years - it is the tone for my new guitar that I'm trying to improve...


really? I wouldn't have thought :?


I wasn't aware that you had heard me play...Where was it?


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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:29 pm
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You can try different strings and bridge pins also to get a better tone. If it is too bright you may want to try coated strings and wood pins. If that doesn't help i hope it's nice looking. As far as changing the bridge and saddle from plastic you will get a cleaner sound because of the harder material found in bone or tusk and graphite. I hope this helps.


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Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:16 am
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Hi 6twang, never too late to try something new. I say go for the bone and all the non intrusive mods you want to try. As I already said, some people hear the difference and some don't. You could have someone play your guitar so you can hear it from some distance and sometimes that is where you can hear the difference. Record a song so you'll have something to compare to if you are to mod your guitar. Good luck. 8)
Claude.


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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:26 am
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I had never given the bone parts a thought. But than the preamp went bad in my Montara. I tried to work w/Fender customer service to get a replacement and avoid cutting a bigger hole but (no offense intended) I was give much help.

I did manage to locate a Dean preamp unit that was the same width just longer to accomodate the batter access, originally on the Montara the battery was accessed through the soundhole.

When I took it to the Luthier for installation, he suggested the bone nut and saddle because he needed to put a new/narrower saddle into accomodate the pickup.

After all that was done the guitar sounds markedly better both acoustically and plugged in. There is great sustain and depth when playing acoustic now with the harder bone parts.

It's a cheap upgrade so you aren't out much to try it.


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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:58 pm
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slaying tone demons with bone, righteousness!


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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:17 pm
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6twang wrote:
You can try different strings and bridge pins also to get a better tone. If it is too bright you may want to try coated strings and wood pins. If that doesn't help i hope it's nice looking. As far as changing the bridge and saddle from plastic you will get a cleaner sound because of the harder material found in bone or tusk and graphite. I hope this helps.


Swapped out the factory strings for Elixers and that definately helped. Still debating on the bone though. It isn't my main guitar and not sure how much I want to put into it. I have 2 electrics and another acoustic but sometimes friends stop by after work without bringing anything to play so thought I'd pick up an extra acoustic to have around as "an extra". It spends most of the time just sitting on the stand. My other acoustic doesn't have a built in pickup so was hoping this would be my new "main" acoustic and the old one would be an extra. It does look nice, too bad it doesn't sound as good as it looks.


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Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:06 am
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I once had an estebon guitar but never could get it to sound very good so i sold it to my wifes grandad. PLayed it the other day and now the pickup is gone bad. Hope this won't happen to yours. :wink: :)


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Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:06 pm
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Bone will give more sustain and more vibration to the strings which is awesome....


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Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 3:15 pm
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Dropped it off yesterday but went with a bone nut and Tusq saddle. Should be ready to pick up in a few days!


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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 5:34 pm
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haha! What a conversation!

I have a bone nut and saddle on my Martin D 28, I was browsing a hock shop and I found a D 28 just like mine, and it had the bone nut and saddle both REPLACED! It sounded poor, regardless of the experience of the player.

For modern materrials, you might want a graphite nut, I was playing an acoustic totally made from graphite up at Modulus in San Fransisco, and it was the most unusual sound, it was a good sound though.

What you really want is Ivory, but there are too few elephants left in the world and their ancestors were harvested by Steinway.


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