The Electra Forums

I have a friend that runs the coolest guitar store in the Indianapolis area (shameless plug for my bud Dave at Six Strings Down in Plainfield, IN). He recommended some Big Bends Nut Sauce. I know what you guys are thinking (No, I didn't name it!). We are talking about guitar nuts, not a part of the male anatomy. I have used graphite, chapstick, and other similar things on guitar nuts to aid in tuning. but this stuff really works better. It cures a ton of tuning problems. Its a lot better than pencil lead! He found out about it by meeting the guy that developed it at guitar shows. He tried it and really liked it. I tend to listen to my buddy Dave because he knows his stuff and never steers me wrong.

This stuff is perfect for those brass nuts on the MPCs, or the bridge and nut on my Phoenix with a bendmaster (or anyone with a Strat style bridge!). It is expensive, but you only use a little bit each time you change the strings so it lasts pretty well. Now there is no more "ching" sound at the nut when you tune or use a trem bar. I used it on all of my guitars. I guess it costs about a $1 each time you use it. I will be using it on all my setups from now on.

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Thorny

That sounds interesting, I'd give it a try sometime.

I've found that a grease pencil, sometimes called a china marker, also works well. Since they are also used for editing analog tape (remember that?) you could most always find them sitting around the studio, so it's quite handy and inexpensive. They can be found at art supply stores.

Just pull the string up out of the nut slot, scrape the side of the china marker on the sting to leave some residue, then let it lay back down. Works really well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grease_pencil

I've been using the nut sauce for a couple years and I like it a lot. It was immediately noticeable, as you said when tuning up you don't hear the ping on the G and B strings anymore. I'm going to take the plunge and buy the 'bench' size (6 ccm) next time as the stuff is like more expensive than gold in the tiny syringe at $10 for .5 ccm, it should last me until the next millennium... Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Any graphite should do the trick, quick dirty fix that works well is rubbing a #2 pencil so the shavings of the tip get in those slots and gets nice and smooth.. as for the saddles, probably a graphite gel of some sort would be what the doctor ordered

That works fairly well, and it is good because it is cheap and widely available too. Real graphite is messy as can be and won't stay put. I would think a paste would likely perform well - but it could be messy as well (graphite tends to be). I have used graphite nuts and stringsaver graphite saddles and generally like them. I have used those saddles on strats and they do stop string breakage at the saddle.

But this does work better. It IS fairly expensive though. I avoided it for that reason for a while. But after trying it I won't be going back. It works that well. There is another brand that is a copycat product, maybe by planet waves or some brand like that. I have recently seen it but have not tried that.

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Thorny

I'll third the Nut Sauce. Fantastic stuff.

I even bought a Big Bends t-shirt with some ebay bucks that I had to use before they expired (that day) and had no idea what I was going to buy.....don't ask what I was searching for when I ran across the Nut Sauce shirt... J/k

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magemusiconline.com

I did buy the big 'syringe', and this is great stuff. The X290 I just bought was kinking like crazy when I got it, after the big bends treatment it's silent and holding tune great.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch