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My bass nut broke off while playing

I broke a nut tonight while playing bass, but it wasn't ON my bass....

You need to take your bass to a good luthier/repair shop and have them replace the nut. It's not an expensive repair. What kind of bass do you have? A lot of inexpensive basses use fairly soft plastic nuts that break easily. You should go with bone if you want a classic tone, graphite if you want something more modern sounding, or brass if having "nuts of brass" is at all appealing to you.
 
lol. alright. thanks. hey, you know any strings that can cut through distorted guitars while played in low tuning?

Yes. DR DDTs... the ones with the nasty spider on the package. They come in horrifically huge guages. This could be part of the problem with your nut... if you use a string guage that's too fat for the groove cut in the nut, you'll break it for sure.
 
cool. thanks. yea, i know about sanding down the nut to fit the heavy gauge strings. The string that broke cam with the bass though so i guess i just picked it too hard on an upstroke. You know anybody who sells them cause i know that guitar center in my area doesn't see them. The only one's they sell and recommend for deep tuning's are GHS bass boomers which i don't really like.
 
cool. thanks. yea, i know about sanding down the nut to fit the heavy gauge strings. The string that broke cam with the bass though so i guess i just picked it too hard on an upstroke. You know anybody who sells them cause i know that guitar center in my area doesn't see them. The only one's they sell and recommend for deep tuning's are GHS bass boomers which i don't really like.

The only strings GC carries that I would ever buy are DR Marcus Miller Fat Beams. You want a good selection of strings, point your browser to [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. They carry everything, their prices are good, and they ship same day. One of the best online retailers I've ever done business with.
 
How does a nut pop off a bass with the strings on it? The strings under tension hold even unglued nut on since they also go thru nut slots. I know this for a fact cause an expensive bass I used to have arrived with the nut only held on by string tension, mfg forgot to glue nut on. Untill I took all the strings off to replace defective pups that the bass also arrived with, the nut was held on by the strings just fine. I have seen plastic nuts break off an end due to cheap plastic (on several kramers from the 80's). I dont see how a brass nut would break though. Its a metal. Perhaps it was cheap brass colored plastic?
 
How does a nut pop off a bass with the strings on it? ...I have seen plastic nuts break off an end due to cheap plastic...

I think he was saying that part of the nut snaped off under/at the B string.

...I dont see how a brass nut would break though. Its a metal. Perhaps it was cheap brass colored plastic?

?? don't think he ever said it was brass...misread?
"My bass nut broke off" not "My bRass nut broke off"