Fender Roller Nut LSR

The incontestable winner in the harsh nut game (vibrato category).
Expensive but its excellent quality justifies it.
Useful fitting accessories.
Contrary to some user's advices, the installation of this technological marvel
is rather easy (if you are cautious and skilled enough) because you don't have to worry about the notches. I customized one Stratocaster and one Les Paul (w-Bigsby) with this nut.
The result is bluffing: perfect alignment, frictionless action, discrete but great look.
This roller nut permits you to engage safely in the most aggressive post-Hendrixian vibrato playing.

Before you trust someone with your nice instrument, please make sure they know what they are doing.
I have bought many extremely cheap guitars to donate to my local charity programs.
I would always at least change the strings or try to make the instrument more playable so the kids who eventually get it would want to play it.

Fender rolling nut is one of the rare times Fender admits they actually could have done something better, but presented as an option.
It is like a circumcision for your guitar, almost impossible to roll back.
You need to CUT INTO THE NECK and remove a few millimeters of the actual fretboard to make it work.
Needless to say, a botched job can ruin your instrument and make it impossible to intonate, or otherwise sound completely different.

However, if you have a luthier you trust, as I do, speak to them about installing this nut (permanently) into your instrument, the advantages and any fears they might have.
Any alder body strats or teles are a no brainer...
Fender should just install this by default, but it would cost a few hundred more....
Obvious benefits are tuning stability but sustain is even more pronounced.
The tone is finally the same on all strings, forever.

My test guitar for this was one of my favorite guitars, Shiva, a 1999 fender stratocaster with an ash body and rosewood neck. It has been with me for 25 years so I was sure I wanted to take it further with a VERY trusted luthier.
He has worked on Shiva before and knew what I was looking for.
It is outstanding.
I am planning to install this in my two remaining strats (both are ash and maple necks).
This is not to mention that, should I ever want to change the string gauge, I´d have no issue whatsoever. Great, great upgrade, just have a great professional install it!

Installing it requires some permanent modification of the fretboard BUT the versatility that this nut brings to a guitar (ability of using different string gauges without having to change the nut) along with the fact that it is a similar material to the frets and the saddles makes it worth the effort.

The fact that you have to enlarge the nut channel towards the bridge end makes this mod quite permanent.

Pros:
- Changing string gauges without requiring a new nut job
- Frets, nut, and bridge saddles all made of the same material, less tone difference between open notes and fretted notes

Cons:
- Requires modification of the nut slot in a very hard to undo way