bone nut and saddle on cheap guitar.

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by Herringbone

If you like the way it's sounds now, I would say... why bother?1st I don't think the nut will make a difference at all. And I'm not sure the bone saddle I put on an old guitar made a noticeable difference to me. I'd invest the money into another guitar or strings. But that's me.

Tim

Tim, this is pretty much my idea, too. If I need to change them, I use bone (though I hate the smell)...otherwise, I leave them alone.

Ken C.

[Guitar Hack]

A nut won't affect the sound much but a bone saddle will improve the sound fairly dramatically. Your notes will be clearer and the tone will be better. Instead of changing the nut put in some bone bridge pins. You can buy them on ebay for not a lot of money.

I first noticed the difference by putting on bone bridge pins and thought if it makes that much difference with bridge pins what will it do with the saddle. I did and the improvement was pretty dramatic.

[Neil K Walk]

I said yes to a bone saddle: they're cheap and a novice can install one with good instructions. Hey, I did it.

As for a bone nut, that takes a pro to properly install and I'd have it done only if you had a problem with the way the open strings sound.

BTW - I put a bone saddle on my lam-top "lawsuit" Tak to replace a plastic saddle that I had installed a few years ago to replace the original non-compensated one. I'm told that the stock nut on it actually is bone to begin with so it's possible that the saddle was too.