Graphtech Tusq vs. Corian

[Belva]

This is just an FIY thread. I just did a nut using a Graphtech Tusq blank provided by the customer. I have a bunch of Corian left from when I did the countertops in my house. I pulled it out and did a quickie comparison. Looks, cuts, feels and even smells exactly the same to me.

Could it be that Graphtech is getting Corian scraps and turning them into a sellable product for very little outlay? If so, more power to 'em. But for you fans of Tusq nuts, save a little cash. Go to a local countertop shop. Be a nice guy. Chances are they'll give you all the scrap you could ever use. And I'll bet there ain't a swingin' dick in the world that can tell the difference.

After all, Warmoth sells Corian nuts installed for, IIRC 35 bucks. I charged my customer 40 bucks and he's happy as a pig in, well, you know.

[UMT]

I went to Home Depot and they gave me some black and white samples free. (they were about 2" x 2" apx) Stuff is easy to work with.

[Casey4s]

 

This is just an FIY thread. I just did a nut using a Graphtech Tusq blank provided by the customer. I have a bunch of Corian left from when I did the countertops in my house. I pulled it out and did a quickie comparison. Looks, cuts, feels and even smells exactly the same to me. Could it be that Graphtech is getting Corian scraps and turning them into a sellable product for very little outlay? If so, more power to 'em. But for you fans of Tusq nuts, save a little cash. Go to a local countertop shop. Be a nice guy. Chances are they'll give you all the scrap you could ever use. And I'll bet there ain't a swingin' dick in the world that can tell the difference. After all, Warmoth sells Corian nuts installed for, IIRC 35 bucks. I charged my customer 40 bucks and he's happy as a pig in, well, you know.

 

 

Do you do fret work too? I need the first 5 replaced on my Rosewood Tele (RI), do you do that kind of stuff?

[Belva]

I have done some fret work, but not much. One refret and replacing 3 on another guitar hardly makes me expert enough to do a guitar that I haven't seen.

[Jkater]

One of my guitar has a corian nut. No issue or anything bad to say about it.

[WRGKMC]

 

Do you do fret work too? I need the first 5 replaced on my Rosewood Tele (RI), do you do that kind of stuff?

 

 

I'm going to be refretting my maple tele neck starting this week. The stock frets are pretty crummy. Maple is alot harder than rosewood to refret. My fretboard had real thin lacquer that is all worn away so I need to resand it first, then put a few coats of lacquer over it first. This seals and protects the sanding before refreting. Then afterwards, I apply more lacquer right over the frets. Then I remove the laquer from the frets only.

 

rosewood in comparison doesnt need that of course, but it does have its issues too. Main thing is it easily chips removing the frets. Any small chinks that accidentally pull up need to ge glued back in with tweezers.

 

I use super jumbo frets on my guitars for that fluted neck feel. Unbound necks are the easiest because you can just use a razor saw to clear the fret channel.

 

Replacing just 5 frets as you suggest, I find that can be harder than just doing them all. getting the new frets to match in height and crowning to the old can be very trickey.

 

You can however level all the existing frets and recrown depending on how badly grooved the original lower frets are. Its something I always suggest first. You can actually go quite low and still have good playability if its done right. If you do have to have them done, have it done by someone who has the right tools and has done alot of them. I let an amature do one of my guitars once many moons ago and he really screwed it up. I wound up redoing it myself at a first refret attempt and did a hundred times better. Since then, every refret tends to be better than the last. Takes me maybe two nights to do an unbound rosewood now. One for the replacement and roughing them in. Another night to install the nut, level, crown and rocking out high spots so I can get low action without buzzing. The tweaking seems to take a bit longer than the actual refretting. You have to install then slack the strings several times in this process to get the frets right with strings tuned to pitch. You also have to play with truss tension. Putting new frets in tehds to change your relief by either increasing or decreasing the relief and all that takes some time to work in and settle.