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Should I get a bone nut on my 01 R9?

Stephens

Active member
Joined
Dec 30, 2001
Messages
438
I need to refret my 01 R9. There is a guy here in Austin, TX (Skermetta Guitar Repair) that has good reviews on his work. With the refret he also does a bone nut. Is this considered a good upgrade on an R9? I have not used a bone nut on any of my guitars before.
 

Tim Plains

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Joined
Aug 1, 2013
Messages
795
Anything is better rhan the crap corian nut your guitar came with. Bone is good. Personally, I've always replaced them with nylon 6/6. They're a little more money and the guy might charge you more because it's a hard material to work with.
 

57Strat777

Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2015
Messages
347
Pete Skermetta refretted my R8 with Jescar 6100 stainless frets and a bone nut. Love it! Pete does top notch work. You're gonna love your R9 when he's finished. Pete has refretted 3 of my guitars and he also has done a ton of other work for me over the years. Pete put a bone nut on my Strat which gets heavy tremolo use. It stays in tune as well as my non tremolo guitars. I live in Lakeway if you want to come by and take a look at my R8.
 

Gold Tone

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Joined
Apr 2, 2002
Messages
6,825
Anything is better rhan the crap corian nut your guitar came with. Bone is good. Personally, I've always replaced them with nylon 6/6. They're a little more money and the guy might charge you more because it's a hard material to work with.

This exactly

Nylon is superior...super hard, inherently slippery as heck!
 

Texas Blues

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Joined
Apr 13, 2008
Messages
4,641
In my experience.

The nut material doesn't matter.

Bone. Tusq. Brass. Nylon. Corian. et. al.

I've tried them all.

The nut is just a pivot point.

It contributes very little if any 'thang to tone.

What does matter.

Is how its cut to accommodate the string size and action vs. the fret board.

And then theirs locking nuts.

Like on a Floyd Rose.

The nut could be made out of metal from a can of SPAM.

It doesn't matter.

It might be relevant on an acoustic guitar.

But on an electric?

I don't think so.
 

Gold Tone

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Joined
Apr 2, 2002
Messages
6,825
In my experience.

The nut material doesn't matter.

Bone. Tusq. Brass. Nylon. Corian. et. al.

I've tried them all.

The nut is just a pivot point.

It contributes very little if any 'thang to tone.

What does matter.

Is how its cut to accommodate the string size and action vs. the fret board.

And then theirs locking nuts.

Like on a Floyd Rose.

The nut could be made out of metal from a can of SPAM.

It doesn't matter.

It might be relevant on an acoustic guitar.

But on an electric?

I don't think so.

Agree with you regarding tone

Patently disagree that material doesn’t matter. Yes, whatever material it is needs to be cut correctly, but that taken as granted necessity, materials absolutely perform differently
 

El Gringo

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Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,657
Anything is better rhan the crap corian nut your guitar came with. Bone is good. Personally, I've always replaced them with nylon 6/6. They're a little more money and the guy might charge you more because it's a hard material to work with.

That is 100% correct as I had to replace the nut on my 2002 R8 and replaced it with nylon 6/6 nut
 

El Gringo

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Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,657
The most important issue regarding a nut is that it must be cut properly regardless of material . Properly for a string to travel/pass thru without any hang ups or the dreaded pinging sound and smoothly to insure good intonation and solid tuning . Very critical and very important !
 

Stephens

Active member
Joined
Dec 30, 2001
Messages
438
Pete Skermetta refretted my R8 with Jescar 6100 stainless frets and a bone nut. Love it! Pete does top notch work. You're gonna love your R9 when he's finished. Pete has refretted 3 of my guitars and he also has done a ton of other work for me over the years. Pete put a bone nut on my Strat which gets heavy tremolo use. It stays in tune as well as my non tremolo guitars. I live in Lakeway if you want to come by and take a look at my R8.

Thanks for the feedback everyone- appreciate the info! This guitar is well overdue for the refret and I never knew how much a higher quality nut would affect the guitar.

57Strat- thanks for the recommendation. I took my R9 to Pete. Super cool guy and he took his time to make sure he knew what I wanted. I also tried his SG Junior he made and it played flawlessly. I can only imagine how great my R9 will play when it is done!
 

Stephens

Active member
Joined
Dec 30, 2001
Messages
438
Got my R9 back from Pete on Saturday. I never thought my Les Paul could play this well! I’m not a shredder by any means, but man- it’s like it wants to be played faster now. It’s even easier to play in the upper octave as well. He did excellent work. I even brought him my Amos V to do a proper setup and he took care of it same day. Cannot recommend him enough.
 

Big Al

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
14,537
Corian is not crap and makes a fine nut. Bone is great and I cut one for Tupolo Honey when I refretted her with 6100's, same as Bad Betty. I have no use for nylon.
 
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