sterling nut replacement

[Richie G]

hello!!! I wanted to put a compensated nut on my 2001 sterling but I thought it wouldn't be possible. I found a GRAPHTECH BLACK TUSQ XL lubricated nut in a local guitar shop. It was too thick but it can easily be sanded. I did it myself and I think I did an OK job (I think). But I don't know if it makes a difference in tone, sustain, or tuning. Just looks cool in black. Did I just make a major mistake or does this nut do something good to my bass?

 

[tbonesullivan]

is the current nut that is on the guitar broken? usually I would never replace a nut unless it needed to be. I would also never use a nut with pre-cut slots in it. The slot height and shaping has to be precise or else you can have intonation problems as well as buzzing, high action, and also binding in the nut. There's also the whole "getting the old nut out" issue.

 

[Richie G]

Actually, the original nut was working fine. The graphtech nut was just gathering dust in my hardcase. So one day I got the itch to replace it. I know, I know I'm bad. But the original nut came off surprisingly easy with just a few taps. No wood chipped and the stock nut didn't get damaged. The slots on the graphtech fit the d'addario chromes .45-.100 gauge just fine with around 50% of the string width well inside the slot. I sanded the graphtech nut as close to the shape and thickness of the stock nut. So far everything's perfect but I can't tell if there's a big plus in tone or if it's worth replacing it after all the trouble.