Tusq will slot consistently and wear concisely, which means consistent tone and sustain.This means some strings may sound good while others will buzz or have less sustain. As bone and ivory will have soft spots, you may find they are hard to slot to the exact depth you want, and you may also find that they’ll wear unevenly over time.You can buy one off the shelf and get exactly what you expect. Tusq on the other hand is a synthetic material, and as such will be consistent not only within the nut, but from one to the other.They will also be different from blank to blank, and you’ll need to try several to find the best one.

Bone and ivory nuts are natural, and thus inconsistent – they will have soft spots within that will effect how they can be slotted.

Now that we’ve gone over everything, let’s have a quick recap. Something else that users mentioned is that bone and ivory will typically stay white, whereas Tusq will darken over time – one person even said they took in a guitar for repair where they couldn’t distinguish between the nut and the rosewood fingerboard.ĭifferences between Tusq Nuts and Bone Nuts Once a note is fretted, the nut is no longer part of the tonal equation. One thing to bear in mind when discussing the tonal differences of a nut is that it only applies to open strings. Every material sounds different, and bone is probably the most inconsistent between various blanks, but a good well-cut bone nut is hard to beat. The higher the pitch, the higher the density and the closer to fret density you’ll be. He pulled out a handfull of various blanks and had me listen to the various sounds when dropped on a hard surface. I took a class with Dan Erlewine years ago and the first thing he said when cutting nuts is “first you gotta pick the blank”. One forum user shared an experience they had during a class with renowned master luthier Dan Erlewine.Įven with bone blanks they will often sound different. Something else to consider is that all Tusq nuts will sound the same, whereas you’ll find great variance between bone nuts. A bone nut will produce something of a ring, while Tusq has a pronounced ring, almost musical on it’s own. Drop a plastic nut and you’ll hear just about nothing. One quick way to hear the pronounced difference between a bone nut and a Tusq nut is by dropping the blanks on a hard tile floor. Tusq tends to produce notes that have more sustain and many find the tone much clearer and sharper. While the difference between the two isn’t as pronounced as going from a cheap plastic nut to a bone or Tusq nut, there are definitely some advantages with Tusq. Tusq XL nuts on the other hand are self lubricating, so offer improved tuning stability without having any maintenance. There’s also the fact that bone nuts need to be lubricated, either with graphite or a product such as nut sauce, otherwise strings can catch in the slots. Many luthiers say they will be slotting a nut and then run into a soft spot in the material that will means you can’t always get to the exact depth you want, and the slot might naturally deepen over time. It is that last issue that makes bone and ivory nuts most difficult to work with. This plays out in several ways – they can have uneven sustain through the nut (so different strings ring in different ways), and they also will have soft spots within the material.

While bone and ivory both have a reputation for big open lows and clear bell like highs, they are both natural materials, and as such are quite inconsistent.

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