Nut poll opinion (So many nut options so little time)
 

So many nut options so little time. Lets cut to the chase.
I would like your opinion on what type of nut you would use on your bass and why. ( bone, tusk, brass, nickle, synthetic, ect.. )
I will keep a tally on all of the votes daily and hopefully in a couple of weeks have an answer to the question...

What is the most popular nut material for bass players?

Remember type of material and most important WHY.

When I need to replace a nut I use unbleached bone.
I use it because it is traditional and don't like plastic.

What is the difference in the way it sounds bone versus plastic?

I would go for brass. Very hard material (very good if you use thick string gauges), clearer sound and it looks cool :)

Bone, Tusc, Corian. It doesn't matter to me, because it only really affects the sound of open strings. What I'm quite fussy about is having it cut to a 1/2 breath shy of too low. I have yet to see a new bass that couldn't have it's nut cut lower.

for me I vote bone. I have my fender mim precision. When I was wrapping up a practice session with the band, I lowered my bass to the stand. I guess I have a tougher grip than I thought I guess cause the G string rolled over to the side of the fretboard snapping the nut. Had it replaced with bone. To ME, it didnt really have any noticeable difference in tone though. But I do like that its much more durable. More peace of mind at gigs. Would like to eventually do it to all of my basses.

Brass and nickel on the other hand, upon my research while getting the nut replaced, I read that they tend to give a more metallic/open/bright sound. Given that I'm playing "BASS" I didnt think bright would be particularly pleasing to my ears.

I started out on guitar for about 16 years. During that time I managed to purchase a really nice taylor acoustic. Love it. Anyways. I replaced the saddle with bone vs their tusq stock saddle. I DID notice a big difference there though. The bone added a LOT more low end to the guitar and tamed the highs quite a bit. Didnt like on the taylor though so I switched it back.

Point is that maybe switching to bone DID affect my tone. But given that I was without that bass for about 4 days, it was tough for me to really compare the two.

so far bone is winning. anyone else??

i had a graphite nut installed 25 years ago in a bass i still have. it was to replace a badly rattling factory brass one.
that nut has been great through countless string changes and has never worn down

I vote "cut properly is more important than the material".

brass.

Brass and bone are tied. any other opinions out there?

walterw has installed bone nuts on my fivers. I also like the black graphite / Graphtech components. If you can find a scrap, ivory works well and polishes up like nobody's business. Ivory is also illegal along a dozen different avenues.

Riis

Bone, I have a '89 Foundation S with a polished bone nut and a Bad Ass Bridge II and a stock "86 Foundation S. The "89 has a much better tone and much more sustian.

Hi.

^THIS

I prefer Graphtech plastic ones on electrics, bone on acoustics.

Regards
Sam

This is true, and why I like bone.
Bone is much easier to cut. I hate trying to file a plastic nut. It plugs up the file and makes it a lot harder to get a precise slot.

Brass here

If you want Tone you must vote Bone. The legal trade in Ivory only perpetuates the illegal trade in Ivory.