The standard plastic nut will slowly grind away – which will cause your action to, without you wanting it to, lower itself – and it will do it unevenly. I have replaced all with bone from peghead to strap pin. Clearer, brighter highs, and clearer less muddied lows. A J45 custom in 2010. Bone nut, tusq saddle and plastic pins. The sound on each, amplified and unamplified is 100% better. Graphtech TUSQ XL nut vs Cheap Plastic Nut 28 November 2020 If you’ve ever wondered what the difference between a Graphtech nut and a regular cheap plastic nut then here’s a quick clip that will help demonstrate. The nut makes a very noticeable difference, especially if you play … TUSQ, Nubone and Micarta. Same story. I use the Tusq xl nuts on my Allparts necked tele's and strats, (pq5000-00) they do ping when dropped on a hard surface similar to bone whereas plastic sounds dull in comparison. This comes in a few different types – e.g. While you'll certainly see an improvement moving from a budget, plastic nut to a nicely fitted bone nut, the difference between, say, a Tusq nut and a Corian or a bone nut is much less marked. I get compliment after compliment at how good they sound. Once you fret a note, that's the nut out of the picture. Plastic nuts fail almost all of the specifications for a good nut material. Here's the other thing: Any discussion about a nut's tonal benefits applies only to the open string. Mid ranges are awesome.