I need to replace the nut in my strat and thought this'll be easy I'll just order one from Allparts. And then I saw all the different options and now I am confused - can anyone tell me from experience what the differences are between, bone and graphtech and TUSQ - and are there any other options. I am big time into SRV but my band do play a lot of covers so it needs to be versatile. Does a nut make that much diffference that I need to be worried!

Thanks

The bone nut is somewhat self lubricating. The Graphtech more so. Lubrication on nuts is for tuning stability. Whammy/trem users like it as the string is more likely to return to its natural resting position. A properly made nut goes a long way towards this. Plastics are normally used because they are cheaper to make and easier to shape.

Other materials:
Corian
Delrin (slipstone)
Nickel/silver
Brass

There might be a slight difference in tone and only then when the strings are played open. If you never had a problem stick with what you had before.

A Graphtech nut would be the best way to go if you're into SRV and heavy whammy use or behind the nut bending as the strings are less likely to bind.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Thanks for the tips and advice. I am going to give the graphtech a go as I haven't tried one before.

Cheers

Hi Brian - oops, then I'm probably too late with this. But...

I've always had good satisfaction from TUSQ nuts. If you buy the pre-slotted ones in my experience they usually need very little tweaking to set them up perfectly, and at least once I have been able to find absolutely no adjustments at all to make - the slots and height were right straight out the box. Useful.

I've also made bone nuts. Satisfying to do that yourself using a bone from the butcher (or dug up from the neighbour's garden where their dog had buried it) - but I'm damned if I can hear a massive and vital difference to the synthetic ones.

Good luck - C