[BSTheTech]

I always thought the nut should be made from the same material as the frets so they both sound/resonate the same whether a string is fretted or open. I guess that might be the idea behind the zero fret? Once again tradition is just blindly followed.

 

[BSTheTech]

A friend of mine made a nut for a Les Paul out of Vanadium--he bought a screwdriver with a square shaft, and ruined some files trying to make it--but he did it.
He loves it--but I don't think he'll ever make a second one.

I think a decent piece of Stainless Steel would be adequate. I like where we're going with this. My father-in-law is a gunsmith. I think I just figured out my Christmas present.

 

[BSTheTech]

I was looking forward to trying out a Tusq nut on my new LP copy. I dropped it off to my tech requesting a set-up. Got it back with a new bone nut installed. His response was "it's a nice guitar so I took that Tusq piece of crap off and installed a bone nut." Ya it was probably just an upsell but the bone does look and play beautiful (no LP tuning issues). Maybe I'll try a Tusq in another guitar.