Keira WitherKay wrote
hey this is a question for all the technical whizz's but afraid it's a classical question.......
i was reading a post on classical guitar forum .where someone mentioned if one changed the plastic nuts to bone and the bridge too that the guitar would be improved........ is this true??? or we again talking a minute difference or would it be audible??/ by that a marked improvement...... we only talking classical nylon string guitar here........
"improved" is a subjective term in this context.
I had a quick dekko in the ever useful "Acoustic Guitar Owners Manual". There's a section in there about saddle materials and the guy who wrote this article spoke to some guitar techs and luthiers.
Here's some of the comments. The first pertains to a comparison of Tusq *, Cleartone * and bone saddles.
"Tusq showed lots of power, especially on the lower strings but with some blending of individual string tones and a bit of edginess on the top end. The Cleartone saddle showed good separation and clarity but wasn't as rich tonewise. Bone didn't have the highs of Tusq or Cleartone and lacked string separation at the bottom and top, but it was the richest and most 'natural' sounding."
A comparison between bone and ivory: "A fingerstyle player would likely appreciate the sparkling tone of bone. A bluegrass flatpicker probably would prefer the warmth of mammoth ivory."
No one material does it all. Another luthier made the observation that hardness is the key factor - if it ain't hard it don't make for good saddles and nuts.
The specialised materials such as Tusq are a big step up from the various plastics that were used not so long ago (and are still used on bottom end instruments). Switching to that may make a big difference.
But see above - all the various materials have their strengths and weaknesses, and we would all weigh those various qualities differently. It turns out that bone and ivory sound different, and ivory and bone from different beasts are reported to look and sound different.
Local materials that I have heard of are Hippo tooth and Warthog tusk. I am told that there are companies from which you can order fossilised mammoth ivory that is recovered legally from excavation sites.
* Tusq is a very hard, artificial material used for saddles, nuts and bridge pins. Larrivee, Taylor and Breedlove all use Tusq for their saddles (my Morgan has a Tusq saddle). Cleartone is a special saddle made by Fishman and manufactured from another artificial material called "Fishbone".
