Question StingRay Nut. Standard Plastic vs Tusq

[rocksully]

Hello everyone. Im brand new here. I just purchased my first EB MM StingRay bass.
I love it, but Im wondering about the Nut.
It's plastic, and with all of my guitars, I have Tusq nuts, as of course, plastic does not resonate nearly as well.

Has anyone here replaced their StingRay Nut?
Upgraded to a Tusq or anything else?


Cheers!!

 

[tbonesullivan]

i'm always amazed how much stock people put into nut materials when in an electric guitar or bass, the only time the material is actually in use is on the open strings. For an acoustic with a bridge, it is much more important, as that is involved 100% of the time the instrument is played.

the current production MM nuts are also compensated, so I'm not sure a suitable replacement could be made with tusq without some serious labor involved.

 

[Golem]

`
@five7

He means "with a unitary bridge saddle", and
he's correct, even tho he writes in short form.
In the context of the thread thus far he's clear
enuf as he's written it. Well .... full disclosure,
I do keep my web reader set at 135%


@rocksully:

Altho there are some tone freaks in the bass
world, they just don't compare to the extreme
level of obsession and superstition that exists
in the geetard world. I wouldn't expect anyone
around here ever considered swapping out the
current-issue plastic bass nut.

 

[solderjunkie]

I made one from bone, and heard no discernible difference.

 

[sanderhermans]

Since mm bases arent the cheapest in the bunch i would think they use the best materials.... ive never even tought about what materials are used in my mm bases but i am surprised they use plastic now. and isn't tusq/bone way harder then plastic? Making it a better material against wear over the years?

 

[Golem]

`

No.

 

[sanderhermans]

Ok that's clear just dont know annything about nut matereals. Just seems that bone would be the better choise of the two..

 

[Golem]

`

There's so much myth, fashion, faddism, etc about
this stuff, all "tone" stuff, not just the nut. One of
the more amusing ones is that "bone" nuts were at
their height of fashion at approx the same time as
were "zero frets" ... so kay pazza widdat ?

Often, someone's personal affliction concerning a
"premium" feature of item lacks any understanding
of what the benefit of that feature might be. I have
someone else's custom order specs on a fretless
Warwick. They never picked up their ordered ax so
it was bumped out a clearance bargain, brand new.

Anywho, it was ordered with a brass nut instead of
the usual synthetic material. A brass nut, to some
peeps, is a premium item ... spozed to make all the
open string notes sound the same as fretted notes.
And, to my ears, this does seem true: all the open
string notes sound fretted, which is really dumb on
a fretless bass ....

I simply shoved a piece of heavy yarn up against
the nut, under the strings. Problemo gonzo. On a
FL this causes no intonation problems, or at least
none that rival my personal intonation problems