Model 5000-00 Nut Slotted Flat or Curved Bottom R9.5 L42.85mm - TUSQ

This was great. Firstly, I got what I ordered. It was packaged, not loose from a bulk shipment. I opted for the regular Tusq not the XL (which does NOT stand for extra large, just sayin')Secondly, I'm not a pro. Or even close. I did this in about an hour in my kitchen!These Tusq nuts come with that tab on the bottom because sometimes the slot in the neck is flat. Only the top of the nut has the arc. If that's the case you leave the tab on and the nut is supported across the flat bottom. I had my old one so I knew I needed to sand off the tab. Sanding this nut was easy. Oh, and don't be fooled by the difference in length. My old one broke off at the sixth string slot so, yeah, its shorter than the replacement.I then sanded the back side a little to make it a tad thinner. I wanted it to fit snug but it was just a little too wide right out of the package. (I just laid the sand paper on the table and rubbed the nut around on it.)Then to lower it a little I laid the sandpaper on the neck of the guitar and went back and forth with the nut to match the arc of the neck. (I think its a 9.5" radius which is pretty much standard these days) The old one looked like it was tapered a little. Thinner on the high end, so I just over did the sanding ever so slightly on that half.I didn't sand it for length. It is a hair wider than the neck. I made the high "E" side flush with the guitar and it was fine for me.I also did not use any glue. The fit was nice and tight. It doesn't fall out when unstrung. I also thought it would be easier to shim if I discovered I had over sanded somewhere.I strung the guitar, played it for a while and am very pleased with the result. Again this was not an "upgrade" this was a necessary replacement of a broken piece. Any difference in sound could be from the new strings, I don't know, but I have no issues with the nut or the process of installing it. A little common sense- make sure you put the wide slots on the low end and the narrow ones on the high!- and being just a bit handy and this is really simple.Had the arc of the new one not matched the old (7.25 vs 9.5) then I would have returned it. I had a hard time finding out what my particular guitar's neck radius might be. Finally I just went for it and it turned out fine.

LONG story kinda shortend... All Graphtech nut and saddles are a high-pressure laminate material that have excellent sonic transfer and are easy to install and cut. The more expensive Graphtech TUSQ products are impregnated with PTFE (Teflon) to make them extra slippery, more so than Graphtech's XL line, even though both work excellent on any non-locking and no trem guitars. Like the tone woods your guitar is made from, all Graphtech material is tuned- if dropped on a hard surface, the nut or saddle rings a musical note, instead of a thud, like bone or plastic. This add an extra element of musical tone which is unlike bone nut and saddles found on vintage and high-end guitars. Both bone and plastic (plastic on inexpensive guitars) are opaque to the sonic transfer, meaning they can mostly add sustain qualities, but they don't help to color the sound at all. Many high-end guitars need no help in this way, but inexpensive to medium-priced guitars certainly do. That's where Graphtech shines the most... on virtually all Strats and Teles and every Epiphone ever made. Many guitars come from the factory with Graphtech, too. It's GREAT stuff and worth switching to.

I had a guitar that came from the factory with a plastic nut. The the fit of it was beyond questionable as there was a gap across the entire thing along the back side. Strings g, b, and e had a super annoying ringing. Changed the original nut to this one and the problem is gone. It fit perfectly on a Telecaster without any additional modification. This is a cheap and easy upgrade that will really make a difference.

I did have one gripe with the nut that I received but I am still going to give it 5 stars. The nut was to short and I had to shim it with a tiny piece of walnut to get it to work. Not going to really fault them for that though as there are a billion different strat and tele models and everyone of them slightly different. I was very surprised to see that after shimming, this nut required no slot filing of any kind. First nut I've ever bought that didn't need even a little touch-up done. I have graphtech nuts on my Les Paul and I had to file the nut slots slightly on that one but this one was perfect. It was just a tad too thick to fit in the slot but a few passes on some 220 grit took care of that. Then the ends hang off a tiny bit which I'll have to sand slightly but again, not going to fault them for that. I would highly recommend this nut. One awesome feature that I found though was the radius that they put on it. My fretboard has a 14" Radius and it looks like this nut has a 10" Radius on it. My previous nut that came standard on my guitar was very flat and because of this I had to radius my saddles more than I would like. I was able to back down the radius on my saddles with this nut allowing for easier bending with a lower action. Awesome! Great Product and would highly recommend for even the novice guitar player. Thanks for the great product!

Tusq nuts are my go to replacement nuts. Assuming you purchase the nut for the correct model of guitar, as everyon should, I find that they are properly slotted and their radius is correct. The strings do not bind. Definitely recommend

I've used Graph Tech nust before on my Epi's (a 339 and a Les Paul Special) with excellent results and easy installation. This one I installed on a Squier Bullet Strat SSS. The Squier come with a flat bottom nut that was a bit taller and thicker that the Graph Tech replacement, so I ended up filling the nut groove in the neck with a shim and then laminating the new nut with white plastic sheeting to make it thicker. Since I needed to remove all the strings to do this, I replaced the stock strings with some nickle wounds. The result was a much, much brighter tone (I suspect the strings played a part in this as well as the nut). The tuning was much easier to accomplish with no nut binding. If you own any guitar with a factory plastic nut, this is a must do upgrade.