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I'm wondering if anyone can give me info on buying a small quantity of generic acoustic guitar nuts fashioned from bone. Is some of the stuff from China okay quality?

I just can't see paying Stew-Mac prices for this kind of thing. I always feel like I'm buying Budweiser but paying Dom Perignon prices with those folks. I know their stuff is top quality, and I have no axe to grind with them; I just don't need top quality for what I'm doing. These are not going into Martins and Gibsons, but Yamahas and Epiphones. I'm slowing learning how to do setups and will no doubt make some mistakes, so decent quality at fair prices is what I'm after.

Thanks!

I bought a couple on EBay, bone seems the same from that side of the world.

Thanks, yeah, I'm looking at a 10-pack from China $17 with thousands of very high ratings.

Thanks Again!

My problem is buying from China, and perhaps the prices might change thanks to Customs...

Also, never buy from VietNam sources... you cannot trust them. I bought what was advertised as buffalo horn, and it was colored epoxy.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Someone said buy from AllParts, which looks pretty good. I want to make sure they are degreased, and I imagine the cheaper ones aren't.

Thanks.

I've also had good luck buying bone nut and saddle blanks from China (ebay). The seller was quite negotiable for bulk buys. I think I paid about $1-2 per item including some very nice rosettes.

YMMV

Glenn

Tamarkin Co.
Mc

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Mike Collins

Seller on ebay named bezdez sells regular and oversized nuts and saddles at good prices. He is in SW Ontario.

Bob

I have had pretty good luck getting them from china you should probably expect a few rejects.

However, I find material from grass fed cows produces a bit more sustain.

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Pat

Bought a few from them. Very happy dealing with them.

Christie Song has great bone products. - Chrislin Trading, http://www.violinandbow.com/
They will make saddles, nuts and all kinds of stuff to your specifications. Nice products. From China, yes, but I've done business with her and she's very reliable and the product is good.
email: song@violinandbow.com

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Ditto for Christie Song. I have bought decent quantities of reasonably priced nut & bone blanks from her and could not be happier. Very dense, degreased and non-porous.

Mike Franks
www.mjfranksguitars.com
www.facebook.com/mjfranksguitars

I've gotten bone saddles and nuts on Ebay from a China seller, and I have no complaints. Did buy some binding material from a China source, but will not do that again.

Wood or ABS binding? Please share your experience. I almost ordered some from China last week (haven't gotten around to it yet).

Glenn, my response was not too informative, sorry.

I ordered a relatively large supply of binding of Rosewood binding with purfling attached. I must have gotten 50 pieces for a very good price. I will say the bindings were well packed and got here in a reasonable amount of time.

In the pictures below the binding from China is on the far right. The one next to it was from a state side supplier. Although I continue to use the ones I got from China, here are my concerns: 1) I like a little beefer binding, although difficult to tell from shot one, the Chinese binding isn't quite as tall (couldn't find my calipers) and as I think you can see in the second shot is considerably thinner. I prefer to use a cabinet scraper to get the binding down flush with the sides and like to have the bindings proud of the sides; 2) The bindings that I ordered had purfling attached and there were two issue with that, a) glue does not hold as well when bending as the state side binding so there is some separation from the rosewood and b) purfling fuzzies more when scraped than that I got from the state side supplier.

Also in order to cut costs and to get a variety of binding, I've also taken to cutting my own bindings from my side pieces (the three bindings pictured to the left of the rosewood bindings), although I have yet to add purfling to any of these.

mkellyvrod,

Thanks for the info. The bindings look very nice. It's a shame they didn't use glue that would withstand the heat of bending. That would be my greatest concern. You saved me some $$. Thanks!



BTW, I find it easier to add purfling before ripping into strips.
Glenn


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