In search of my first electric guitar

[marty bradbury]

Does the nut material matter on an electric like it can on an acoustic?

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

Does the nut material matter on an electric like it can on an acoustic?

Well most things matter at least a little. On electric guitars I'd sumarize and say the nut material matters a bit less overall than on an acoustic.

Some details:

Many acoustic players play a lot of notes with open strings. When doing that, the nut is one of the two contact points of those open strings, and materials like bone vs the softer plastics can make a subtle difference in sound when playing acoustically (or clean amp electrically). Many electric players play few notes with open strings, not only because it's easier to fret up the neck and/or using barres with most electrics, but because fretting-hand damping of strings is a common electric guitar technique. The nut is out of the picture sonically then. And of course many electric guitar tones are proportionally more dependent on the electric part of the whole electric guitar system (amp, effects, speakers, etc). This is of course a generalization and not universal, but it's true enough as a broad statement.

Some electrics will feature a Tusc nut, which is a fairly hard plastic that is slippery by design. Some electric guitars have vibrato bars, and even some of those players whose guitars don't have that feature will often use extreme string vibrato, and a slippery nut slot is nice to have to help keep the strings from hanging up in the nut slots. Of course a well cut nut of any material, perhaps with the assistance of powered graphite (pencil lead) or a little lube such as Chapstick* shouldn't have this issue.

Some materials have adherents. Bone has a long tradition and so some swear buy it on acoustics and electrics. Back for awhile in the last century, there was a fad for brass nuts on electric guitars because "It's dense and it'll aid sustain" which in the case of something as small as typical Fender nut was a taking a lot on faith.

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*Which is why my guitars should smell subtly of cherry when I've been using the wiggle stick.

[TiffanyGuitar]

I agree with Frank on nut material. I had my old Sheraton's nut replaced with a bone nut - but this was done mainly because the old plastic nut was a truly cruddy, unremarkable stamped or molded plastic (saw that it was hollow underneath once it was removed) that had shrunk to be less wide than the fret board. My luthier puts bone on everything. Kind of hard to argue. But, most of my electrics have Tusque. I have no idea what the 335 is - I think it is plastic. In the next few months, my luthier will go through it as well and will upgrade that nut to bone.

When the Sheraton came back to the fold with its shiny bone nut, the tone seemed the same to me. But, it was cleaned up, looked a lot better and felt better to my fingers since the sharp ends of the plastic were gone and it completely filled the nut slot. People don't think about it, but plastics do shrink - especially cheap plastics.

For a first electric, I wouldn't worry much about nut material. That can be changed later if you want and it doesn't affect tone much if at all on an electric. What affects the tone of an electric the most is (in no particular order), the pickups, the amp, your playing style (tone is in your fingers) and your choice of pick material and thickness. Wood has a little affect. Nut material has a little. Bridge material has a little. What I am saying here is likely to stir up a hornets nest of debate...not my intention.

[marty bradbury]

Tiffany, Frank, Dru, and all other folks input. I think I made my decision...more to follow. Thank you all so much for your input!

[akhan]

No affiliation with the seller but there is a nice Eastman T386 listed in the classified section right now. I've had 2 of these in the past, very nice guitars, I currently own the T59/V model and I really love it for the type of music you mention playing.

Doesn't leave a lot of money left in your budget for an amp but for just a bit more I'm sure you can also find a nice small amp.

Good luck to you.

akhan

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

Tiffany, Frank, Dru, and all other folks input. I think I made my decision...more to follow. Thank you all so much for your input!

Excellent - looking forward to your next thread, Marty.