Nuts and tone

[Busker]

I've got a Schecter Model T. Nice bass.

But it has a plastic nut. Would a nicely made bone nut significantly change or improve the tone?

I know that basically any hard, dense material will work for a nut. Aesthetically, bone is preferable to me (the less synthetics used in a guitar the better, for me). But will the strings be able to tell the difference between bone and plastic?

[Busker]

Thanks Joshua. I see your point. I'll just be happy with the plastic nut then. It works fine, the bass plays and sounds good.

[stedtale]

yep, when fretting, the nut makes no difference to the sound.

[Jimbob Jones]

But you could get it replaced, then show off to your less experienced friends, and say "that's a Bone nut that is"

[JimmyM]

Holey moley! A rare bout of sense in the modding group!

I've had bone, plastic, graphite, brass, rare space age polymers, pretty much everything. The only tonal difference I hear is with brass. And I think it's too metallic for most basses, and results in an open note that sounds like a different bass. But the softer materials pretty much all sound the same. Graphite's probably my favorite because it doesn't bind but I'll live with pretty much any nut a bass comes with.

[Brass Nut]

To me anyways, a hard (brass) nut gives off a more likened sound (tone -timber - sustain) when open as a fretted (hard wired) note. I do feel it's less noticeable on a bass for some reason. On an acoustical guitar I feel it's much more pronounced. Acousticly it's really noticable with chords IMO. But I don't think it matters much on a bass. Tried once and switched back to bone.