Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

FT-79 Inspired by Texan Nut Material


Monkey Lord

Recommended Posts

Before I go and do something unnecessary I thought I would ask all of you whether or not the FT-79 Inspired by Texan come with a Bone Nut. If it does then I'll just leave it alone; if not I'm going to replace it with a bone nut. To look at it, it seems like bone but I'm no expert. It could be tusq of something like that. If so I still want to replace it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My guess is it is imitation. The specs on the Epiphone website list the nut for the Limited Edition EJ-160E as bone, so since the specs for the IB'64 Texan are silent on the bone material, I'm thinking it is imitation.

 

Regardless of the material, it is a good idea to take the guitar to a repairman anyway to make sure the nut and saddle are working in harmony, no pun intended....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My luthier filed down the nut of my lefty Inspired by Texan (2014) quite a bit, as it was getting replaced anyway, to find out what material it was made of and why the nut slots were incorrectly carved height-wise. Long story short, when filing the nut down it smelled like bone to him and to me as well. Probably synthetic bone, I wager; same goes for the saddle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Texan I had was made in Indonesia at the beginning of 2014 and I bought it brand new from my local guitar center. I was going to replace the nut, but my luthier (who runs a certified Martin warranty center) told me that the nut that was already on there was high quality bone ("when I sanded it down while doing the setup work, the smell was unmistakably that of bone"). So if it's imitation it must be such a good imitation that it fooled a certified martin warranty luthier and I would say that means that changing it is completely unnecessary unless there's something wrong with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is strictly anecdotal but-I've been told that a way to differentiate between bone and artificial is this: artificial is usually a form of plastic and softer than bone.If you heated a pin or needle and poked it into an out-of-the way portion of the nut or whatever part you wish to test, it will melt into the plastic. It won't in the case of bone.Might do the trick. Anyone else got anything on this theory?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is strictly anecdotal but-I've been told that a way to differentiate between bone and artificial is this: artificial is usually a form of plastic and softer than bone.If you heated a pin or needle and poked it into an out-of-the way portion of the nut or whatever part you wish to test, it will melt into the plastic. It won't in the case of bone.Might do the trick. Anyone else got anything on this theory?

 

Thats a good idea. I think I'll give it a try.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

These guitars have a real bone saddle and a real bone nut

https://youtu.be/Jiwqgd16jLE

And im not just saying there real bone cause this guys saying the same ive checked mine over and like this guy is saying its deff real bone not plastic and not a strong special plastic. But genuine Real bone .so doing any alterrations to your guitar is not needed. Unless you want bone pins but to be honest i dont think you need to i tried it and i couldnt really hear any difference to the plastic pins .but as for nut and saddle 10000000% real bone

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Texan I had was made in Indonesia at the beginning of 2014 and I bought it brand new from my local guitar center. I was going to replace the nut, but my luthier (who runs a certified Martin warranty center) told me that the nut that was already on there was high quality bone ("when I sanded it down while doing the setup work, the smell was unmistakably that of bone"). So if it's imitation it must be such a good imitation that it fooled a certified martin warranty luthier and I would say that means that changing it is completely unnecessary unless there's something wrong with it.

well said .mate
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

My IB 1964 Texan is right in front of me, serial number starts 100617XXXX, which my understanding is June of 2010 made in China.

 

It's the original nut, removed by me, and it is BONE. I don't have a picture host, but if someone would like, I have pictures of the original nut next to tusq, plastic(off an Epi PR-150), bleached bone and unbleached bone. It is clearly bone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...