What exactly is TUSQ?Traditionally, guitar nuts and saddles are crafted from natural materials such as bone, ivory and other organic materials.Due to their natural state, these materials tend to be inconsistent from one piece to another in the form of soft and hard areas. No two pieces of bone are the same. From a musical standpoint, this can dramatically affect the tonal response across the nut or saddle and therefore its ability to effectively transfer the vibrations of the string to the instrument.In a bid to combat these issues, the TUSQ range was born. All TUSQ nuts are precision engineered and specially formulated to improve upon these imperfections and some more. Its unique properties deliver other numerous benefits which dramatically enhance a guitarÂ’s natural range and response across the whole tonal spectrum along with improved harmonic sustain. The material itself is also self-lubricating and is said to be 500% more slippery than graphite and helps prevent strings from binding or sticking in the nut which often lead to tuning issues.TUSQ nuts come in the form of pre-slotted nuts, blank nuts (no string slots) and saddle slabs so you can sand and craft your own exacting nut shape for your guitar if you would prefer. TUSQ is a very versatile material so can be easily sanded down using various grades of sandpaper (240 to 400 grades are recommended).The pre-slotted nuts are made to suit a wide variety of electric, acoustic and bass guitars manufactured today so you don't have to make the string slots yourself. The 6-string nuts are designed to accept string gauges from;- 09-42 to 11-49 for electric guitars- 10-47 upto 12-53 for acoustic guitars- 40-95 and 50-105 gauge for bass guitarsIf your usual gauge is a little larger than these sizes, the nut slots are designed so they can easily be modified to your specific string gauge simply by using the correct nut file size.Please NoteWhilst Graphtech products are intented to be as close fit to specific guitars as they can, each guitar is different so inevitably they may require some minor alterations to their length, height and thickness to ensure a perfect fit for your instrument.When deciding which nut is the right one for your guitar, it's important to check the measurements carefully. If in doubt, it's always worth going slightly larger than you think as you can always make the nut smaller, you can't add on extra. If you are at all unsure of what item is the right one for your guitar, just give us a call. We'd be happy to help.Why is your guitar nut important?The nut is one of the most important parts of your guitar. It may be surprising that such a small part plays such a vital role in shaping the playability, action and tone and isn't something that should be overlooked. As one of the few points of contact your strings actually make with your guitar, you can start to understand that a poorly fitted nut can play havoc with the tuning, sustain and performance of your instrument.How do I know if I need to replace my guitar's nut?It's not unusual for a guitar's nut to need changing and there are several factors that can cause this.Through years of playing a guitar's nut can become damaged or chipped. If the damage is around one of the string slots, this will almost certainly cause playability issues.Over it's lifetime, the nut is subject to a lot of wear and experiences a huge amount of downward pressure from your guitar's strings. As a result, strings inevitably wear down the nuts slots. This wear is often uneven and can cause rough or sharp edges and often leads to string breakages. This wear can also create uneven string spacing too.Your strings move a lot over the nut through those big bends, tremolo use and tuning. This movement also causes wear meaning the slots in your nut can become too low affecting your guitar's action. If the action at the nut is too low, this can cause string buzz around the first few frets.If you are thinking of changing the gauge of strings you are putting on your guitar, you may wish to consider a new nut to be fitted. The sizing of the string slots should ideally be tailored to the gauge of strings you are using and if the slots are too low or too high you may come across some action and tuning issues.If you are generally unhappy with your guitar's tone, making a small change such as changing the nut can make a dramatic difference to a guitar's performance.
