Well, I finally got a nut I liked to fit this... First I ordered a stock Tusq nut from Stewmac, but it was for the wider P neck and I didn't like how the strings were so close to the edges of the neck. I would occasionally slide the string off the side if I got carried away... But the sound was an improvement over the stock plastic nut. I knew I would have to cut one by hand sooner or later...
I found some "40 year old camel bone" nut blanks on ebay.... Now, how would you know if it's true or not? Well, when they arrived I can verify they are definately bone, but from what animal I cannot be sure, much less how old they are...
One thing to note, the stock nut slot in the neck of the SX is a bit wider than others I have seen, but this meant I didn't have to file the thickness down nearly as much to make it fit. After an hour or so, with the original nut as a guide, stenciled onto the blank, I had a close representation out of the bone stock.
Took quite a bit of filing, and I also decided to go bold with this bass and set it up BEAD instead of EADG which took more filing of the nut to hold the .125" B string.
Finished! I'm thrilled with the tone improvement. It made more of a difference than the bridge change did. The sustain was also significantly improved.
Also of note, the traditional dead spot on the G string completely disappeared when I restrung as BEAD. This has confirmed my thought of this popular issue being a flaw of the resonance frequency issue with the design if the Fender style bases, in that specific fret area. Well, maybe that was to be expected.
Before I was happy with this bass, now I'm thrilled.
