Graph Tech Black TUSQ XL PU-6520-00 Nut

I got by for years using an old Jackson Dinky with a locking tremolo that I had no interest in using, so I just left off the nut locking pieces, did a half ass job of blocking the tremolo with some wood, and just used it, but man it sucked in terms of staying in tune! I liked a lot of things about the guitar but that was driving me mad to the point of being ready to abandon it.

I realised how much I liked it though so decided to have one more go at sorting it out- learned how to set up the bridge properly, and did a proper (better anyway) job blocking it with some metal brackets. Still though the metal nut sucked. I thought I'd have to go to a luthier to get something to replace it made up, but then stumbled across this piece of wizardry.

It's amazing. It's like a new guitar, wish Id done this years ago! Can now take a beating and stay in tune. The way it forms a funnel for the string, wide towards headstock and narrow towards the neck works great to tame strings to sit properly on a guitar with a silly headstock like the reversed hockey stick on mine. And it resonates like crazy too. They advertise that it does that but I was still surprised by how much. I had to tape the tremolo springs to stop them buzzing which had never happened before.

If you are using with a reverse hocky stick headstock I recommend drilling through and using screws to fix it like you would a metal locking nut. You can drill through this material no problem and the strength of glue you would need to stop the e string pulling the nut upwards on a reverse hockey guitar is probably not advisable for a nut - you might want to take it off again at some point.