Pre-ban elephant ivory.

[telepbrman]

Would a preban Elephant irovy nut and saddle be a more resonant tone, longer sustain, deeper tone on my Flatiron 2MC? I am thiniking of making a switch to ivory. Thanks for your time and help....dy.

[Burner]

Fossilised Walrus ivory might be better and avoids the possibility of a tranquiliser dart from the game warden during a gig http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[Lane Pryce]

Kurt Gisclair's walrus ivory products are the way to go. He has a site on the www, Husky Acoustics. I have used his stuff and had positive results each time. Lp

[Bill Halsey]

Would a preban Elephant irovy nut and saddle be a more resonant tone, longer sustain, deeper tone on my Flatiron 2MC? I am thiniking of making a switch to ivory. Thanks for your time and help....dy.
Probably not, but consider the use of free-range Mastodon http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif... Go to: http://www.ivorybuyer.com/sales/orderfaq.htm
Corian ain't bad either, if you don't mind trashing your files...

[mandomick]

No experience with elephant ivory but I'll vouch for the bridge saddles from Kurt's Husky acoustics. I have one of them on a Bluett F5 and had one on a Weber w/Brekke and in both cases it was an immediate noticeable improvement. To my ears the fossilized walrus ivory added a nice ringing hollow pop to the tone. Clear and full sounding.

[evanreilly]

Fossil Ivory is the best sounding saddle material I have found. I've tried saddles made with 100% FI, laminates to ebony and carbon fiber.

[ShaneJ]

I really like fossil ivory as well. Got mine from Kurt Gisclair. He used to post here by the name of Thunderplucker, but havn't "seen" him in a while.

[telepbrman]

Thanks for the info, I'll keep you posted, dy.

[Paul Hostetter]

I find the quality of fossil ivory to be extremely variable. Some is nice, but much of it is like blackboard chalk. I generally avoid it and often find myself removing it from people's instruments because it's simply a fashion flop. I love it for bridgepins, just because it looks so nice. Tonal qualities? You pays yer money and you takes yer chances.

Even regular elephant ivory is, for me, too soft for nuts. Strings bind in their slots, it wears out too fast. I greatly prefer unbleached bone for any application that might otherwise employ ivory, with the exception of a repro Martin pyramid bridge.

Many people, after investing in such stuff, tend to hear amazing new dimensions in tonal response that I suspect are often directly tied to a fervent hope that the ransom they just put out is really giving them results. If you have money to spare, try it out. You can always switch back later.