Topic summary
PTFE
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Polytetrafluoroethylene.
Musical instruments
PTFE is also used in the fabrication of guitar and bass nut material. PTFE impregnated plastics are sold as "self-lubricating". This allows for the strings to glide through the nut slot grooves more easily preventing binding, known as "stiction", which causes tuning instability. For example, GraphTech Guitar Labs products include nut, saddle and string trees all made of material that is PTFE impregnated. These are particularly useful for guitars equipped with vibrato systems. As the string is pulled back and forth across the nut and saddle by the vibrato system of such an instrument, the lower friction coefficient that PTFE provides is beneficial, allowing the string to return-to-zero back in tune.