Bone, Brass, Plastic, Roller, Locking or Graphite?

[eyeslikefire]

What's your poison?

My personal favorite bone and graphite.
However I had... (i hate to say that ) a Carvin that had a brass nut which was great, no pinching or breaking strings and sustain for days on open chords.

 

[scottboyher]

I always had bone but recently tried a roller nut and it kicks ass! Dunno if I would ever go back. This, of course, is on a fixed bridge.

 

[64Firebird]

It depends. On a guitar that doesn't have a whammy, I'd really like to have brass, but it costs so damn much that I always go with bone. If the guitar does have a whammy, I'd prefer a locking nut, but if that isn't an option I like graphite.

 

[kid klash]

I've changed over to graphite ("GraphTec") and haven't broken a string on my Strat's or Tele's since. Intonation issues are gone now too. At only $25-$30 per guitar, I'll stay with graphite unless something better comes along.

 

[Even]

I have put bone nut/saddles on all of my acoustic guitars.

I have graphite on the one electric that I modified, and bone on the carvin neck.

 

[trogdor]

Graphite is good enough for me...locking nuts give me 80's hair band nightmares.

 

[DeadPoet]

I don't know for nuts, but there used to be this small hype on basses: a zero fret. Is that used on guitars as well ???


Herwig (brass)

 

[badassmak]

A zero fret is kinda like a double nut is it not?...if so I haven't seen many around, but obviously I'm no expert. What would be the reason for this?...to be able to bend the open chords/strings without major risk of breaking strings? Hehe do you actually bend standup bass strings ?

 

[DeadPoet]

I think it was designed in order to get a more even tonal balance between open notes and fretted ones. There was this one brand that used to promote this (Warwick ? don't know).
Breaking strings on a bass is luckily not much of an issue.

Bending standup strings ... possible, but your sustain drops like a brick... Since an upright is basically a fretless instrument you could get the effect with a slide.

The bending itself isn't too hard. If you can bend a low bass B at the second fret you can bend the Estring of an upright.


Herwig

 

[TheGuitarMan]

A zero fret gives you a bright, sharp attack.