Dear Luthiers—In the acoustic guitar world, nuts are at least in my experience almost exclusively made of bone. (By contrast, bridge saddles on flattop guitars vary from bone to ivory, to fossilized ivory, and synthetics ... but almost never wood.) Whereas in the mandolin world, bridges are wood and mother-of-pearl is sometimes used for nuts, at least in higher-end instruments. Likewise, in some archtops (Monteleone, Gilchrist) one also sees mother-of-pearl nuts. Is there a sonic or tonal reason for mandolins (and archtops) using pearl as a nut? Or is it more a matter of tradition? And is there a clear reason for the mandolin’s divergence between bridge (wood) and nut (pearl), versus flattop guitars where bone is typically used at both nut and saddle? Any light you can throw on these choices is much appreciated! —Richard
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