61-62 original nut material

[your idol]

for the LPSGs, what was the original nut material? mine is a 2001 historic and well used and as the guitar has aged and faded well and looks very true that bright white nut sticks out like a sore thumb. im trying to take it to as original spec as possible.

also if any of you owners of an original would be so kind as to take ANY closeups of things such as nut, pickups, bridge , knobs, tuners or already have some please feel free to add here. i'd love the reference. the gnarlier the better

[Geetarpicker]

The original nut material is the same stuff that was used on 50s Gibsons including bursts, basically a type of nylon plastic. I just played a couple of original SG Les Pauls yesterday and they all had the same nylon nuts. I think this material was used up into the mid 60s at least. The material is slightly see through appearance (kind of milky) and is both very hard but when slotted has quite low natural friction. My '03 historic LP for example has the newer hard white nut material and likes to snag strings and needs graphite often. I've also seen these newer nuts crack and chip. My original '59 almost never sticks and simply works better. I picked up a couple NOS nylon nut blanks from RS guitar works a couple years back when they ran across some of the material. That said, it's hard to find however I think the most recent historics have a nut material that looks better than what they used prior. I'll eventually make a new nut for my historic out of the NOS nylon material, not for looks mind you but to more easily tune the guitar and keep in in tune. Hope that helps!

[your idol]

Originally Posted by Geetarpicker

The original nut material is the same stuff that was used on 50s Gibsons including bursts, basically a type of nylon plastic. I just played a couple of original SG Les Pauls yesterday and they all had the same nylon nuts. I think this material was used up into the mid 60s at least. The material is slightly see through appearance (kind of milky) and is both very hard but when slotted has quite low natural friction. My '03 historic LP for example has the newer hard white nut material and likes to snag strings and needs graphite often. I've also seen these newer nuts crack and chip. My original '59 almost never sticks and simply works better. I picked up a couple NOS nylon nut blanks from RS guitar works a couple years back when they ran across some of the material. That said, it's hard to find however I think the most recent historics have a nut material that looks better than what they used prior. I'll eventually make a new nut for my historic out of the NOS nylon material, not for looks mind you but to more easily tune the guitar and keep in in tune. Hope that helps!

totally! thanks a million. ive heard the nylon is basically the stuff they make the nylong doggie chey toys out of. well the guitar may be leaving me that i was inquiring about but if it dosent it probably getting a Pelham Refin or just freshened up and now that i know RS has them a new nylon nut. i dont get why gibson goes to that bright white nut on historic and reissued instruments. i dont particularly like the white nuts myself and i know that they bind a bit...just makes no sense for the cash we pay we cant have something as simple as a nice nut. Thanks a lot GP!

[motowntom]

Corian same stuff they make counter tops for kitchens nowadays.

Cheers

[beakos]

It was a material called Delrin. It's a nylon-type of material.

[Kevin James]

Originally Posted by motowntom

Corian same stuff they make counter tops for kitchens nowadays.

Cheers

I have a very late 60/early 61 SG standard (basketcase player) that has the original Nylon nut and a mostly original 65 and the original nut on it is corian.

In the last couple days I asked on the other LP forum as to what was used in the years between my two guitars and was told they used the Nylon all the way up to the switch to corian in mid 65.