DGT tuning issue

[JasonE]

Interesting I used to use graphite and I found it very difficult to deal with. The big Ben’s nut sauce I found does not collect dirt. It’s not to be confused with D’addarios version that’s awful and other inferior copies of it out there.

What did you find difficult to deal with when using graphite?

 

[Rider1260]

Once I discovered Tusk and or Synthetic nuts for guitars I NEVER went back, Bone like any natural material is inconsistent some are very hard and perfect most have soft spots that can cause strings to bind or sound dead ( IMHO )
Most recently the bone nut on my Fiore contributed to tuning issues on the guitar and to my ear a kinda flat sound in general , when I changed the nut to a PRS synthetic nut the guitar stayed in tune and to my ear sustained better and had better clarity.
Just try dropping a PRS nut it rings like a piece of metal and I have never needed to use any lube on them.

 

[JasonE]

As I have been participating in this thread I kept thinking I don't remember my DGT having a bone nut on it. I pulled it out and low and behold, it has the standard black PRS nut. I am now thinking that was part of the spec for this particular guitar. It was a special run that Wildwood did in a non-standard color. It looks like it was also built with the standard nut instead of bone. I don't know if there were years of the DGT that didn't have the bone nut. Mine is a decent number of years old.

 

[Bogner]

As I have been participating in this thread I kept thinking I don't remember my DGT having a bone nut on it. I pulled it out and low and behold, it has the standard black PRS nut. I am now thinking that was part of the spec for this particular guitar. It was a special run that Wildwood did in a non-standard color. It looks like it was also built with the standard nut instead of bone. I don't know if there were years of the DGT that didn't have the bone nut. Mine is a decent number of years old.

My DGT Nut Is The Traditional Black Nut As Well. My Guitar Is A Willcutt Guitars Limited Run.

 

[Rod/]

What did you find difficult to deal with when using graphite?

It was really messy…. It was graphite powder

 

[JasonE]

It was really messy…. It was graphite powder

That is what I use. I put some on a piece of paper and use an x-acto (hobby) knife to pick some up and then put it in the slot of the nut. The thin knife blade works well for getting a thin line of it and then I just drop it in the slot. I then put the string in the slot and tune it up. Once I do that I can brush away any extra that may have missed the slot or fell out. If any of it gets smeared on anything I use a pencil eraser to remove it. The graphite stays in the slot well so it is rare to have to add more to them. That is another plus for using it to me.

 

[Bogner]

It was really messy…. It was graphite powder

It Unlocks Frozen Door Locks And The Toanz!

 

[Markcarl]

@Markcarl .. Do you find a lot of difference in tone and playability between the SE & Core DGT’s you own?

Yes. The SE sounds a little brighter than the cores. Having said that, it’s a very subtle difference. The sound is very close.

 

[JasonE]

Yes. The SE sounds a little brighter than the cores. Having said that, it’s a very subtle difference. The sound is very close.

Different years of cores sounds different. I have two friends that bought DGTs after they played mine. One is around the same year as mine and sound very similar to mine, but a little different. The other friend bought his on eBay and it needed some attention when he got it. Someone had put foam padding in every cavity on the guitar. My guess is that they were using it with high gain and were trying to tame the unwanted feedback. He brought it to me to straighten it all out and put it back to stock. I removed all of the foam and did a full setup on it. It was pretty far out. That guitar rings like a bell but is a lot darker in tone than mine. His is older than mine.

 

[Rod/]

Yes. The SE sounds a little brighter than the cores. Having said that, it’s a very subtle difference. The sound is very close.

That would make sense because the trem bridge on the SE is steel and on the core DGT’s they are brass

 

[Markcarl]

That would make sense because the trem bridge on the SE is steel and on the core DGT’s they are brass

I must say I think the SE sounds amazing! It doesn’t play, sound, or look like a “budget” guitar.

 

[frankencat]

I am not a fan of any sort of lubricant that is a liquid or gel. They collect dirt and create a mess. I have been using graphite in bone nuts for years and it works very well and stays in place for a long time…

Same here and I am a huge proponent of getting the nut and bridge setup correctly to cure all tuning problems. However….I finally ran into one that I just could not get to stay in tune, and it was on MY own personal guitar. My S2 Standard 24 would always have the g string doing what the OP is experiencing, which is a very common malady with a common fix, tweak the nut and adjust the bridge, done it 1000 times. Anyway, I reset the bridge 10x, recut the nut 10x, replaced the nut a few times, replaced the S2 locking tuners with the core locking tuners, nada. Finally one day I said f-it and bought a tube of the Nut Sauce, against everything I believed, and guess what? The guitar stays in tune and I haven’t had an issue since. Crazy right? Also I will add that new trems, especially PRS trems, need some break-in time. The knife edges on the screws and also the springs need to be worked a bit until they settle. And of course the 6 screws have to be setup perfectly and the bridge should be level with the plane of the strings. Now go getcha some sauce!

 

[John Price]

Has anybody experienced better tuning with the bone nut after using the trem for an extensive amount of time? I've owned 5 DGT guitars since 2020 and each guitar had the Bone nut and every guitar had tuning issues. Multiple strings would ping like a symphony and just go out of tune. One guitar went back to the factory twice, and it still wouldn't stay in tune after they installed 2 new bone nuts. I changed the nut on a few of the guitars to the traditional black nut and it fixed the problem. I've never had that problem using the black traditional nut on my previous PRS guitars.

 

[Markcarl]

Has anybody experienced better tuning with the bone nut after using the trem for an extensive amount of time? I've owned 5 DGT guitars since 2020 and each guitar had the Bone nut and every guitar had tuning issues. Multiple strings would ping like a symphony and just go out of tune. One guitar went back to the factory twice, and it still wouldn't stay in tune after they installed 2 new bone nuts. I changed the nut on a few of the guitars to the traditional black nut and it fixed the problem. I've never had that problem using the black traditional nut on my previous PRS guitars.

Yes. I have 2 core DGTs and an SE DGT. I noticed my SE DGT stayed in tune better than my core DGTs. I attribute that to the synthetic nut used on the SE. I used nut sauce on the core DGTs with bone nut and this helped but the SE DGT still had better tuning stability, I recently had the bone nut replaced with a synthetic nut on one of the cores. The tuning stability definitely improved.

I’m probably going to have my other core DGT updated with a synthetic nut. I’m waiting to do this so I have time to compare the tuning stability and tone between the two core DGT’s. So far, here are my observations:

Both of my DGTs with synthetic nut stay in tune better than the DGT with bone nut.

I haven’t noticed a difference in tone after switching to the synthetic nut. There may be people who could notice a tonal difference but I haven’t noticed it.

The tuning stability on my core DGT with bone nut has improved the longer I use it. I recently visited my son for a week and brought that guitar with me. He played it a lot and was pretty aggressive with the tremolo bar. That guitar stays in tune better now! The tuning stability is still not as good as my other DGTs with synthetic nut but 1) it has improved and 2) I would describe it as pretty good now.

 

[Rod/]

Has anybody experienced better tuning with the bone nut after using the trem for an extensive amount of time? I've owned 5 DGT guitars since 2020 and each guitar had the Bone nut and every guitar had tuning issues. Multiple strings would ping like a symphony and just go out of tune. One guitar went back to the factory twice, and it still wouldn't stay in tune after they installed 2 new bone nuts. I changed the nut on a few of the guitars to the traditional black nut and it fixed the problem. I've never had that problem using the black traditional nut on my previous PRS guitars.

My ‘22 Wood Library DGT had tuning issues till I used my trusty Big Bends Nut Sauce. Accept no substitutions. Use it on all my guitars, trem bridge or not…..They all stay in perfect tune