Nut lubicant - what do you use?

[ido1957]

 

Big Bends Nut Sauce $17.50

Cork Grease - $1.50

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

Not quite. If the nut is made of a material that's too soft, there's still the possibility of the string windings digging into it. You can solve the problem with lubricant, different strings, or a harder nut, but simply cutting the slots properly won't necessarily eliminate the problem by itself.

 

It shouldn't be made with a material that's "too soft", and if you do lubricate a cutting edge on a material that too soft you'll accelerate the cutting process, it's what all machine tools rely on to cut.

 

The nut should be the right material, cut correctly

[WRGKMC]

Plug in a tuner, tune a string to pitch, then press the string down between the nut and tuners. If it returns back to pitch instantly, you're in good shape and the nut isn't grabbing the string. If you push the string down and the string either comes back to pitch slowly or fails to return to pitch the nut is not allowing the string to return to pitch. It can happen on any guitar and any kind of nut material. They all eventually get some grooves in them and need polishing.

 

Usually you can just take your old strings and draw then through the nut and smooth them out. even with a perfectly cut nut you can still have some grabbing depending on how much surface area the bottom of the string rests on, the angle of the cut vs the string break away angle and the downward pressure of the string. A slight breakaway angle has little pressure on the nut and the string is unlikely to grip on the nut. Other strings like the low E on a Strat has a sharper breakaway angle so its going to have allot more downward pressure. Since the low E also has more tension its more likely to return to pitch so it may not have issues even if it has wear.

 

The test with the meter is the proof you need. If you put on a new set and the strings are properly stretched, and you do the test and they come back in tune, then there's no sense in lubing the nut. Excess lube deadens the string so why use it if you're OK. In other cases, like I said with a whammy bar, the strings are constantly moving over the nut. Lube will help to get rid of tuning issues and minimize wear.

[DeepEnd]

It shouldn't be made with a material that's "too soft". . .

 

. . . The nut should be the right material, cut correctly

But we don't live in the world of "should be," now do we? Plastic nuts are indeed "too soft." The nut on my 12-string acoustic has always had that problem from day one. The "Ivorex II" nut on my "good" Ibanez acoustic is also too soft. As I mentioned previously, I solved the problem there by changing from phosphor bronze strings to 80/20's. If a too-soft nut is lubricated, yes, it will eventually--over a period of years--wear out. But in the meantime, the strings don't bind.

[Thundarr]

I find that I lubrication isn't necessary if you widen the string slots a bit.

[Ancient Mariner]

Pencil lead on everything, whether it needs it or not.

[GAS Man]

Big Bends Nut Sauce. ....

 

Me too. It's a bit over priced, but you use so little of it, and it's such a convenient application device that I think it's worth the price of admission and it stores nicely in my guitar tune-up case.

 

Which by the way, I'm now using one of these for my guitar work station/tool storage.

 

http://www.zzounds.com/item--GNDGMT003B

 

 

I used to use one of those foam rubber mats with the neck support, but after some years, the foam rubber was crumbling leaving behind black residue whenever I use it. This Grundorf system is slightly more precarious to use, but I do like that I can store all of my tune up tool in the compartments.

 

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

I've got a tube of liquid PTFE (Teflon) that I purchased years ago at Radio Shack. That's what I use... but I think it's discontinued now. That's too bad - it works great! Fortunately a little goes a long way, and there's tons of it left in the tube... but once it's gone, I'm not sure what I'll replace it with.

[humbuckerstrat]

 

Me too. It's a bit over priced, but you use so little of it, and it's such a convenient application device that I think it's worth the price of admission and it stores nicely in my guitar tune-up case.

 

Which by the way, I'm now using one of these for my guitar work station/tool storage.

 

http://www.zzounds.com/item--GNDGMT003B

 

 

I used to use one of those foam rubber mats with the neck support, but after some years, the foam rubber was crumbling leaving behind black residue whenever I use it. This Grundorf system is slightly more precarious to use, but I do like that I can store all of my tune up tool in the compartments.

 

Yeah, I have a "syringe" of BBNS that I bought years ago. I wanted to put their sticker on another one of my guitars, so I bought another syringe of BBNS just for the sticker.

 

I'm still using the first BBNS I bought

 

[DeepEnd]

I've got a tube of liquid PTFE (Teflon) that I purchased years ago at Radio Shack. That's what I use...

I have a tube of what I'm pretty sure is powdered Teflon that I bought from a local hardware store. Unfortunately, I never had much luck with it. I couldn't keep it in the nut slot where it was needed.

[gdsmithtx]

A needle oiler from my toolbox.