TUSQ XL by Graph Tech PQL-5000-00 Nut for Fender Strat/Tele Guitar, Ivory

The hardest part was getting my original nut off since it was lacquered in by Fender. I bought my first Tusq XL at Guitar Center and shaved it down too far on the bottom so that I got a little buzz on the low E and G string, oddly enough. So I bought another here on Amazon. You can have it on in under an hour easily if your other nut is already off. Basically, had to shave a little off the back to fit in the slot and then shaved less this time off the bottom, after sanding down the tab they put on there. Didn't mess with the slots at all. My Tele plays great. I think it has better tone and clarity than the original bone nut, especially the Low E string, which with the bone sounds dull and thuddy. I do like the look of bone better though. Just be careful not to go too low when sanding on the bottom. I got mine to about .025" on the first fret on the Low E, which also is about .010" when pressing the Low E down on the third fret and measuring the first fret to the string. My action is about 4/64 on all the strings on the 12th and about .006" on the Low E 8th fret with a capo on the first and pressing around the 19th fret. Seems good enough.

I had a hard time figuring out if I needed the curved or straight bottom version for my 2009 Highway One Strat. The curved one (this one) was the correct fit. I had some buzzing in my old nut. This one has no buzzing. The slots are cut very nicely (I use 10-46 string size). It has better sustain and a slightly cleaner sound than my old nut. I confirmed nut buzz vs. fret buzz because I could pinch the strings on the tuner side of the nut and make the buzz go away. I bought a set of needle files for shaping. I had to file the little tab off the bottom, and I had to file the thickness slightly. I think they make them a little thick on purpose so you can file to a perfect fit. File a little at a time, and don't force it into the nut slot - just file a little more for a snug fit that you can push in with your thumb. If you don't have the right files to file off the tab, don't forget to order some. It's an extra $5 well spent on a set of diamond needle files. This works without lowering the slot depth, but the action is higher than ideal. Expect to need some fine tuning of slot depth. You're either going to pay for a luthier to do it or buy the proper nut slotting files to do it yourself. Where I am, paying for the adjustment would be cheaper than paying for a luthier to make a whole new nut. I'm buying some nut files to adjust the string height myself. The way I look at it is that for the cost of nut adjustments on two guitars, I can get the files and learn to do it myself. The cost is a wash in the short term, but I always lean toward investing in tools and learning skills vs. paying for one time services. On an acoustic Tusq I bought previously, I thought I'd be clever and sand down the base to set the string height. That was not a good approach. I ended up with a couple of strings too low and a couple too high. I shimmed it and tried to fix the mess with a torch tip cleaner. Overall - I wasted $10 and 3 hours. I'm back to the factory nut on my acoustic now. I really recommend you plan to get the right tools (nut files) if you're going to do this yourself. At a minimum, look into the DIY feeler gauge file. I'll be in business with low string action on both guitars in another week when I get the files!

Made a huge difference. Holds tune better. Sounds better. Feels and plays better. It was very easy to cut and file! Massive value for such awesome quality! SAVED MY SQUIRE STANDARD STRAT FROM THE SLEDGEHAMMER!

Well, I held out on getting one of these, figuring they were a lot of hype. I had a scrap of white Corian that I got for free and had made probably 30 nuts out of and still hadn't made a dent in it. Why pay this kind of price for a nut? I had a Jazzmaster that was giving me tremolo/tuning problems, and I'd chased down every problem except the nut. I decided to give one of these a try, and boy, I tell you! It is something else! The install was easy. It was a little wider and little thicker, but a few strokes of some sandpaper and it was a perfect fit. The height was easy to adjust. The slots were already real close to my fretboard radius, so a few strokes again to the bottom and I had my preferred .019-.017 string height. The slots were already the proper depth and width for my .011 to .049 strings, so I didn't even have to break out the nut files! Now I can crank my wang until I can't wang it no more, and tuning is nearly perfect. Excellent product!

Tusq is my favorite nut that I've ever tried so far and the XL stands for always lubricated so I've always liked these nuts

Update because I bought a second one: I purchased another Graph Tech nut for my new Fender Player Series HSS Stratocaster and am very pleased with it like the previous one I purchased (see below). On the Player Series the new nut required minor sanding to remove the middle nub and also to make it slightly shorter (across the neck) and thinner (to fit in the nut slot). Within 20-30 minutes I had it installed and playing with a nice upgrade over the stock plastic nut. ------------------- A change in tone was immediately noticeable, even without plugging in. The whole guitar rang more than the stock nut on my 2006 MIM Strat and bends feel a little smoother. The ends required some sanding, and I sanded off the nub in the bottom, but it matched the stock nut very quickly and popped right in. The whole swapping and shaping process took maybe 30 minutes. Overall a very nice product. If I end up getting rid of it, it will only be because of slight tone preference.

You could probably do just as well with the flat bottom version for this guitar but I got the either/or one just in case. As it is this one fits just fine and I think the string height is set better than the stock nut (seemed just a little high from the factory). More or less a direct drop-in replacement though there is just a hair of overhang on either side in my case, not a big enough deal that you'd NEED to sand it down. The edges of the nut are more squared off than the stock Squire nut though so if anything I'm going to round those off a bit to keep it smooth but overall the nut fits without any real need for sanding or shaping. Had a bit of material poking off from the manufacturing process that I had to scrape off. Not a huge deal but you'd think they could skim that off in the factory.

This is a great nut. It probably took an hour all told, excluding intonation to put this in my strat. A pro would be quicker. I had to cut the key off the bottom and do a tiny bit of sanding to get the string height comfortable for me. Sounds good, the strings slide nice after a tiny touch with paper in the slots. That improved the tuning issues I've always had using the bar. I like 13's so a lighter set might not need any work in the slots. I had to slightly sand the thickness so it went in snug. Do that with fine sandpaper on a flat surface and take care to put pressure on it evenly so the thickness stays consistent. I only sand the back side. The finer the sandpaper the slower it goes which is actually a good thing. The finer paper makes it less likely that you'll remove to much material. All in all this is probably the best value I've ever gotten on any guitar parts. They were packed well and showed up fast, I'm happy all the way around.

Fini la corde qui accroche au sillet et les désaccordages intempestifs ! Avec ce sillet on retrouve une stabilité d’accordage parfaite et on peut enfin utiliser le vibrato de sa Stratocaster sans craindre le désaccordage (surtout avec des mecas a blocage)

Les sillets graphtech sont excellents, je note ici le fait que j'ai commandé un sillet type stratoide (comme précisé dans la boutique), et j'ai reçu un sillet type gibson (modèle pour epiphone)... Ce Modèle n'est évidemment pas du tout compatible avec un manche de type Fender. Il m'est donc absolument inutile.

Buena calidad. Facil de adaptar lijando hasta conseguir la medida. Blando. Para Squier Stratocaster es perfecta. Solo lijar un poco la longitud y el terón inferior para q baje a su sitio. Hacerlo poco a poco y probando para no pasaros y q quede hueco

Habe den Sattel in einer Affinity Tele verbaut. Da diese Tele weder eine gekrümmte Nut für den Sattel noch den typischen Zapfen hat war ich etwas überrascht. Habe den Zapfen abgefeilt und den Sattel, der auch etwas schmaler war dann in die Nut geklebt. Ach ja die Länge musste für die Tele etwas gekürzt werden. War in wenigen Minuten mit der Feile erledigt. Das Resulat war für Preis und Aufwand richtig gut. Kein Festhängen mehr beim Stimmen und ich musste weder bez. Saitenlage und Bundreinheit etwas anpassen. Das Entfernen des Altsattels hat ca 30 Minuten und das Anpassen bzw. kleben des Neuen ca. 10 Minuten gedauert. Das war mein erster Sattel aus diesem Material, einen Unterschied zum Knochen konnte ich vom Ergebnis her nicht ausmachen. Klare Kaufempfehlung.

Just what I was looking for. Very little adjustment needed and no problems so far. Great product, fast delivery.