Nut Blank Supplier??

[ChitownGuitarGuy]

I have been using Allparts for years to get the bone blanks for my repair shop. We switched from using white bone to the "vintage" bone because it was unbleached, did not smell absolutely atrocious when working with it, and even seems to lend a slightly smoother tone than the regular white. I am absolutely fed up with Allparts being constantly out of stock of the bone I want and would like to find a supplier that specializes in blanks of all sorts that you can buy in bulk and is not Stewmac.

I remember hearing of some place in Indiana a few years back, but my initial search has turned up nada. Anyone out there got some sweet reference?

[Bob Webster]

And LMII doesn't have what you want in the quantities that you need? I've been buying unbleached bone from them for a long time.

Bob

[ChitownGuitarGuy]

Sure, I'm aware of LMI and all that... I guess I am looking more for like a small specialty place that might supply all sorts of materials other than just bone. Like ivory, or horn, or other varieties of bone other than cow bone.

[BanjoNeil]

You might try this guy, I've bought some inlay stock off of him but he has bone, horn etc too.

http://www.luthiersupply.com/nutsandsaddles.html

[Donald A. Fortune]

Hey Guy-- I go to e/BAY and there is a dealer there called "DEZBEZ" and I have baught bone nuts and saddle material from them at outstanding prices.. if yo dont see them on e/BAY then let me know and I will see what I can do to send you a link.
Cheers,
Donald

[Ry Charters]

DePaul is a great supplier. I've never bought bone from him though....
Used to get bulk amounts from this place

http://www.chrislintrading.com/parts.htm

Consistancy wasn't exactly top notch, (some of them were very pitted) but a few bad apples didn't ruin the good deal. Very good prices. You'll need to tell them the dimensions and quantity to get prices. If you want to buy a couple of hundred nuts cut to your dimension.....I'd give this place a shot. You're dealing with China, so it might take a little while for a large order.

And yeah, all parts is really frustrating me lately too. On my last order, they were out of tunomatics, didn't include three items that I was charged for, and shipped the wrong tailpieces.

[Mike Kolb]

I've had good luck dealing with this fellow out of Colorado on eBay.... http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Pennington-Luthier-Supply__W0QQ_armrsZ1 He's prompt, polite and willing to work with you for goofy sizes. The fact that he ships from the States is a bonus.

And put me down for another disgruntled Allparts customer. They're always out of what I need and make too many mistakes in filling what they DO send. The icing on the cake (for me, anyway) is their catalog.... it's too difficult to find a part number with their poorly laid-out price list. The pictures in the catalog don't correlate well with the price list, and the whole procedure is usually just too cumbersome to deal with.

Anyway, check-out the guy above.

[Charlie Hoffman]

I have had very good luck with Christie Song (Chrislin Trading - see above). the sizing is perfect - right on the numbers I gave her. She lives in Santa Rosa and generally throws a wonderful party during the Healdsburg show - handmade pot stickers. I got her name from Frank's list of suppliers.

[Byron Merritt]

Yep - I use Stype Brothers out of Florida. They provide me with several different bone blanks and they've never been out of stock. Panther brand , I think is the brand of the blanks. Website is www.tylermountain.com, phone is 954.984.1801. The website is mostly for the Tyler Mountain instruments they wholesale, not for the other things such as nut blanks and guitar parts. Call the phone and ask for Dave or Paul. They're easy to work with. Here's an email addy for them: [e-mail] .
Take Care
Byron Merritt
The Guitar Lab
Wetumpka AL
[e-mail]

[Magnus Hultin]

If You are prepared to go overseas, I have bought plenty of bone from this guy:

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Bruceweiart-Musical-Instrument-Shop__W0...

Quick deliveries and nice to do business with.

/Magnus

[ChitownGuitarGuy]

Thanks for the help guys!

[Paul Hostetter]

I haven't had good luck with Chrislin bone (which is a supplier for Stew-Mac) - the guitar saddle blanks are warped and badly machined. Different thicknesses. I bought a gross of them in a couple of separate orders and ended up tossing most of them out. Saga's saddle blanks are much more consistent.

The worst I have seen is from the Vietnamese eBay suppliers like Bruce Wei and Antonio Tsai. Like their pearl supplies, simply dreadful.

Pretty much all the bone is processed in China and no one can be sure of what animal it came from, but I know it can be all manner of bovines (including water buffalo), camel, elephant, horse, pig, sheep, etc. Horn isn't worth bothering with, but if you're curious, you're probably best off making that yourself.

The above-mentioned eBay seller DEZBEZ is actually BEZDEZ.

[Joe Sanders]

Some guy on e-bay was selling camel bone blanks a while back which supposedly came from the middle east. The claim was that camels have denser bones than other animals. Once I ordered a vintage bone saddle from Bob Colosi which had a really nice tone, but it was kinda soft and the strings grooved it pretty quick. Btw, I think the vintage look comes from soaking the bone in tea or coffee.

I buffed the grooves out and kept using it until it got too short. I was thinking bison bone should be really dense since they have so much weight to carry around. I e-mailed a local bison farmer (here in Oklahoma) about this, but he wasn't interested in sending me any samples. Some of the saddle bone I've seen in guitar stores here is very poor quality and looks like it was overbleached. If you hold it up to the light, you can actually see tiny cracks in it. I've also noticed that the good bone has a kind of waxy feel to it, like it might still have a smidgen of animal fat left inside.