Fossilized Mastodon Ivory

[kilphody]

Are there any advantages (timbre or otherwise) to using this for a nut other than the novelty factor? Is Mastodon more "vintage" than Mammoth? Allparts wants 32 bucks for a blank- not exactly justifiable unless it makes a huge difference. Anyone have experience using this material?
Thanks-

[Mark Hammer]

Its advantage is that it isn't against the law to kill mastodons for their ivory these days. They're all pretty much dead. So you may want elephant tusk ivory for your nut, but you can get mastodon ivory.
Its disadvantage is that it's not the kind of stuff you can get in unlimited quantities, hence the price.

[jrfrond]

I have to tell you that anyone who spends more than even TEN dollars on a bone nut blank is out of their friggin' minds! Cow bone is just fine and is readily-available.

[nosaj]

And can you really tell it's mastadon or cow without a DNA test? Everyone knows what PT Barnum used to say.


Are you ONE??


jason

[Jazz P Bass]

Doesn"t "fossilized" imply that it is now a rock.

Where are they getting this stuff, anyway?

[nosaj]

From the Mastadon store where else

Yeah fossilized means rock..anybody using stone nut blanks out there?

jason

[Chuck H]

Most of the nuts I've purchased have been whale bone. I didn't even know they made them from cow bone. Makes no difference to me. I don't see any advantage to using a rock for a nut. In fact I'm pretty sure my tools wouldn't like it at all.

[cminor9]

And can you really tell it's mastadon or cow without a DNA test? Everyone knows what PT Barnum used to say.


Are you ONE??


jason

But but but... It's mastodon! It's... Ivory! It's...old?

[nosaj]

But but but... It's mastodon! It's... Ivory! It's...old?

SOLD!!!!!!!Come right up come all get your mastadon bone!!!

[Plucky]

Is Mastodon more "vintage" than Mammoth?

A mastodon is basically a smaller, hairless mammoth.

And can you really tell it's mastadon or cow without a DNA test?

It's very easy to tell the difference between ivory and cow bone just by looking at it.

Yeah fossilized means rock..anybody using stone nut blanks out there?

The word fossil is from the Latin 'fossus' which, in this context, basically means 'something dug up'. Fossilized ivory is preserved, but not stone.

It's actually quite soft. It reminds me a bit of a harder unbleached bone, but less porous and smoother to work. It's nice, but at that price it's not for everyone.

[Mark Hammer]

As with the craze over brass nuts that occurred all those years ago, one should remember that nut composition plays very little role when the string is fretted, as opposed to open. If you play a lot of open strings, then you may well be partial to this nut material over that and be able to hear real differences. But if 99.99% of the notes you play are fretted, then the precision with which the nut is cut will have far more impact on your playing than the nut material, since it will affect your intonation.

[Chuck H]

Ideally if you wanted all played notes to sound the same you would want a 0 fret and the nut material would be of little consequence. As we know 0 fret construction is most common on lesser instruments. Just sayin.

I use bone on my acoustic guitars and non trem electrics. I use graphite or the provided steel nut on trem equipped electrics.

I doubt anyone can hear a tonal difference between different bone types or between bone and ivory. I used whale bone because someone told me it was smoother and less prone to sticking. Strictly a matter of function.

Aesthetically I can see where ivory would be novel but with new customs laws about rare materials why would anyone take the chance of having their guitar siezed?

[jrfrond]

The zero fret actually makes the most sense, because you typically want your string height at the nut to approximate the fret height. However, if you have a hard player who needs more clearance on the bass side, you might have a problem accomodating them, unless you replace the zero fret with a higher one. Then, then actual nut exists only for alignment.

Brass nuts seem to be making a bit of a comeback. One of the biggest issues with them was that the slots needed to be cut accurately and well-polished, or you ran the risk of sitar-tones and sticking strings. I used to like the Ibanez half-brass nuts, but you just can't get them anymore.

I like bone because of the way it cuts, files and handles, plus it looks nice when polished, but nuts can be made out of certain plastics and other metals, as well as natural materials like shell, etc. My only issue with bone is that it can have soft calcium deposits buried underneath what looks like a nice blank, and you won't know until you cut into it. However, thin CA glue works wonders with this issue, though I'd prefer it au naturel.

[kilphody]

Thanks for all the input. I've always used bone with most of my guitars except for the occasional GraphTech w/ Bigsby's and the locking metals that come with trems. The LSR roller nut mods I've put on a few Strats haven't brought any negative feedback (yet).
I saw on the Seymour Duncan website that the 35th anniversary "TeleGib" touted a 35,000 year old Mastodon nut. PT Duncan?

[jrfrond]

I saw on the Seymour Duncan website that the 35th anniversary "TeleGib" touted a 35,000 year old Mastodon nut. PT Duncan?

I guess it adds to the vintage vibe.