Hello there, back again with another article for you! This time we will be looking at a very popular lubricant for your guitars by Big Bends Nut Sauce. Big Bends LLC is an American company located in Plainwell, Michigan and only focuses on manufacturing guitar cleaning and maintenance products.
Table of Contents
Their most popular product is Nut Sauce which is a lubricant for guitar nuts, bridge saddles and hinges. However, they also feature a fretboard conditioner, guitar polish, a set of string sleeves and cleaning wipes. But in this article, I will be releasing a brief Big Bends Nut Sauce review for my visitors 🙂 Thomann's 70th Anniversary Offers
What is Nut Sauce?
Nut Sauce is basically a lubricant that you can use on your guitar nut and guitar bridge saddles. It promises to solve tuning stability issues usually caused by guitar nuts.
Even for well-known brands, such as Fender American Standard Stratocaster, nuts may cause problems with tuning. This was exactly the reason I bought Big Bends Nut Sauce in the first place!
Unfortunately, there’s no information about what’s inside of it. According to their official website, it’s a cutting-edge lubricant for the nut, bridge, string trees and any pivot points of the bridge.
It’s very clean and safe to use lubricant products that won’t drip and leave no stain behind. They also mention that Nut Sauce is a fully synthetic product and does not contain any petroleum products.
Their claim also goes beyond the basic “less friction, better-tuning stability” principle. They also claim Nut Sauce will help increase sustain and harmonics!
Does Nut Sauce Really Work?
On my Fender American Standard Stratocaster, I have had this annoying problem with the nut. I even spent a lot of time preparing an article on “String Trees Demystified“, and thought it was the string tree causing an annoying tickling noise when I used the tremolo bar.
I tried to detect where this sound came from and thought it was the Fender’s default string tree that caused this. Changing the string tree solved the issue temporarily, however, later on, I noticed it was the nut, particularly the high E string slot that was making that noise.
In that experiment, I exclusively used Big Bends Nut Sauce. But I must say I’m not really impressed. :/
I used to use pencils and would grind some of the graphite and apply this graphite dust to the nut. Since graphite layers can slide over each other due to weak forces between them, graphite can be used as a dry lubricant. The only drawback is that it looks a bit messy on the nut. Check out the best guitar pickup company, Seymour Duncan here!
Is it really worth buying Nut Sauce?
My first impression was that I just bought a drop of vaseline-looking product in a syringe! They come in three different-sized syringes with an applicator.
Basically, you would have to pay €12,40 for 0.5ml, €24,90 for 1.5ml and €54 for 6ml.
Out of three options of Nut Sauces, 0.5ml is the best seller with over 470 user reviews, scoring 4.6/5. Followed by a 1.5ml version which has almost 100 user reviews, scoring 4.7/5. Very few people preferred the 6ml version which has 10 user reviews, scoring 5/5!
As you may guess, when you buy the bigger options, you pay less. By getting the best seller, 0.5ml, you pay €12400 per litre! Incredible prices, right? 🙂
By getting the 6ml pack, you pay €9000 per litre, so it’s way better to go for bigger packs while buying such instrument care products.
Big Bends Nut Sauce Review
In my opinion, the company’s claims about Nut Sauce are a bit too over the top. It’s definitely a well-prepared and presented product, it doesn’t leave any stains behind, and it doesn’t drop.
And I believe it helps with reducing friction and it’s very easy to use. However, helping with sustain, overtones are a bit too much of a claim. It’s just a lubricant that will help reduce friction and that’s that! 🙂 Music Plugin Deals at Pluginboutique.com
At this price point, I would probably not buy this again and will probably return to using good old-fashioned pencils.
I think it’s still a great product if you are a luthier and service people with high-end guitars. In this case, you should always be able to provide options to your customers and deliver their instruments back without graphite stains on the nut. (Yes, some people are that picky!)
After applying it to my Strat, I haven’t had any positive effects regarding sustain and overtones. In my case, it didn’t really solve that tickling noise caused by the nut. I also never hesitated to use it on any guitars that I own. For instance, I even used it on my Ibanez SRC6 bass guitar as well as my Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid PT-7 and Epiphone SG Custom Ebony.
Ibanez SR6 Restringing & Instrument Care
Epiphone SG Custom Ebony Restringing & Instrument Care
As guitar players, we go mental with mojo and magic tricks. We always want to feel like we should justify our purchase and be a step ahead. Martinic Plugins - Precisely Modeled Vintage Instruments and FX Plugins
However, at the end of the day, basic tuning issues are usually caused by the nut and particular headstock designs. Since we can not change these on our traditional Strats, Les Pauls, and SGs, we should just apply what is available at the moment and learn to live with it.
Nut Sauce is not going to kill the bank to try. So I encourage you to try one and see it for yourself. It will definitely help with some of the tuning issues. But don’t expect miracles!
Update: I enjoy giving my visitors the most honest, transparent and long-term reviews of any products I feature here. So here’s an update for you! I first published this article in November 2021 and started using Big Bends Nut Sauce since then regularly on all my guitars. Currently, I have 7 guitars (one being bass and one being acoustic, the rest are electric guitars).
Whenever I had a restraining and instrument care session for my instruments, I used the Big Bends Nut Sauce. While updating this article in the last days of December 2023, I ran out of my Nut Sauce so it took me around two years to use a 0.5ml pack of Nut Sauce with multiple guitars! Basically, if you have a couple of guitars, you can easily double the life span of this product.
In the meantime, I got MusicNomad Lubricant MN 106 which is possibly an identical product from my favourite brand and I have been testing it. Stay tuned for a separate review article on this and also a brief comparison!
I hope this has been an article that you find some value and insights for your purchases. Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!
Osman Cenan Çiğil – cigilovic.com
Post your comments and feedback here
By submitting a comment, you accept that you will be automatically included in the newsletter. You can always opt out in case you are not interested in the content updates.Check out the best used gear website!
