Deluxe Tele nut replacement?

[Hyk]

Hi all! As a newbie let me say I'm excited to meet you Fender people :)

After almost 20yrs of playing different kinds of superstrats I recently felt increasingly attracted to exploring the Tele world and so I am...

One of the two guitars I decided to acquire was the American Deluxe Ash Telecaster. Beautiful instrument, awesome bridge, good playability, very nice kind of midrange-y full almost aggressive tone... I am just a little under-impressed by the nut and tuning issues associated with it. I do a lot of string bending and this nut does not provide the tuning stability I was imagining looking at its price tag.

Anyway, nothing new.
Now, I am hesitant to go with the roller nut (which I have on my Strat and I'm very pleased) as it would take making a permanent mod to this expensive instrument and not all people will necessarily like it if I ever want to sell it.
So I'm wondering if anyone know what the stock nut material is (it looks plastic) and if making a new one from the Fender bone nut blank material would be an improvement or if I end up having the same issues and may as well get a roller straight away and get down to the sweating job of "will the lacquer chip or not" roller nut replacement?

Thanks a lot!

[old blue]

Maybe you need the existing nut dressed up a bit. Consider taking it to a good luthier 1st, if you don't know how to DIY.

[chuckocaster]

yep, have it "cleaned up" and maybe lubed. should only take about 15 minutes? way better than intensive surgery.

[Hyk]

OK, I'll do my best job of what I imagine "dressing up" means and let you guys know. Thanks!

[BluesDisciple]

I agree with Chuckocaster and Old Blue. Try and work with the LSR nut you already have on the Tele. It is major surgery otherwise, and I don't think aesthetically you would like the results. Just MHO ... I prefer the old bone nuts better.

[Hyk]

Thanks everyone for advice!
I cleaned and lubed the stock nut and tuning did improve a good deal. I'm not there yet though as particularly the B and E strings still occasionally go off a bit. Even though I use 10s, I was wondering if my slots are maybe a little narrow so I ordered a set of nut files 'cos I thought it's a nice thing to have and I can use it for my other guitars too.
By the way, I used mineral oil I normally use to lube my bike chain, is that about what you guys use or am I crazy?
Thanks

[Offshore Angler]

You don't want to use mineral oil. It is parrafin-based and will collect crap and bind after a while. What most of us do is just use graphite from a pencil.

[Gris]

Remove the string tree and see if the E & B issues disappear. If so, it's the culprit (misaligment).

[Hyk]

Thanks to all of you guys. Cleaning up and a bit of pencil graphite seems to have done the trick. I put some on the tree where it touches strings too (or at least I hope so as most of it obviously ended up on the headstock). It will take some time for me to get a really good confidence but as for now I can say it's growing!