I'm getting a bone nut...
Relax, this is guitar tech talk and not what you are thinking. Ten years ago I bought a left-handed Les Paul style guitar made in Asia. I paid $250 and it looks much like a $2,500 Gibson Les Paul. Does it sound like a Les Paul... Naah, but who cares?I'm left-handed and typically, it's rare to find left-handed guitars, so I making a collection.
The workmanship is really nice but the thing I didn't like was the setup that includes, neck adjustment, string height and the nut. It's been played less than an hour and sits in a case under the bed.
The nut is the piece that holds the strings at the top of the fretboard/fingerboard. Depending on the manufacturer, nuts come in all sorts of materials, from plastic, composite, metal and bone. Some guitarists are fanatical about nut material as it helps to influence the sound of the guitar. As the strings vibrate, the nut transfers resonance into the neck giving the guitar more sustain.
Guitar maker Paul Reed Smith is borderline fanatical because it's important in the sound his guitars make. Here's a short video of his explanation of selecting nut material.
So, I'm replacing the nut on my guitar for one with slightly different spacing and lower height. Oddly, the custom work is around $125 or half the price I paid for the guitar!
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