Official Luthiers Forum!

Recently, a friend gave me some black & bone coloured Corian scraps. I used it for the nut & saddle on a recently completed parlour guitar & really like how easy it is to shape & polish.
The long pieces go through the thickness sander nicely & it's easy to start with an edge squared up on the jointer. Makes the job quite a bit faster than working with bone.
Those are the plusses. Are there any minuses I should consider? Any observations on how the tone may differ from bone?
Corian "feels" a little harder (the old tap it on your teeth test) but seems like it might wear more quickly.
TIA... Dan

The black would be nice if you were working on a color coordination of one sort or another.

Corian works fine for nuts and saddles, but is isn't bone, and bone is valued higher on the value scale.

_________________
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

I'd worry a lot more about a saddle in terms of tone since even open form chords only have a string or two that's actually ringing open.

As David says, bone is perceived as better whether there's a perceptible difference or not.

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

I've found that the strings make noticeable dents in Corian. Not sure how important that is.

_________________
David Malicky

I started replacing all my guitars corian or tusq nuts and saddles several years ago with bone. Personal preference for most people as to sound, but I find notes to have more sustain and be more defined than with corian. The first guitar I changed out my fellow band members were all saying "WOW! What kind of strings are those cause your guitar sounds fantastic!" I reinstalled the old string that had about 15 - 20 hours play on them just so I could measure the difference tonally to my ear. I like the sound of bone but not all do. Here's a link to a good discussion on both.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/foru ... one+corian

_________________
Bobby Masten

Corian is softer IMO, and will leave string ruts at the saddle eventually .. I find that tonewise it is warmer, and not as defined as bone. I made an acoustic guitar for a local jazz player, and it originally had corian in it. He wanted me to take the finish off the back of the neck and oil it instead, which I did, and at the same time changed the saddle to bone, as I had jsut begun using it exclusively. He wondered what I had done to the soft tone he was getting before ... so for a while he used the corian, but eventually changed over to bone for hte saddle. He keeps both on hand in case he wants to change back.

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Thanks Guys. I appreciate the input.
For now, I think I'll save the Corian for repairs where cost is a big issue.
Cheers. Dan