Are Guitars Vegan?

As a hobbyist guitar player and fairly new vegan, the question, “are guitars vegan?” came up.

The answer: yes … and no. The correct response is: it depends.

It depends on the material the guitar is made of. The guitar parts most commonly in question are the nut and saddle. Guitar companies source cow bone to create nuts and saddles.

These days, only high-end expensive guitar brands typically make these parts with bone. Let’s take this Martin D-28 pictured below for example.

Find the material a guitar’s nut is made out of by doing a search in the materials section of the guitar’s description.

As stated earlier, higher-end guitar companies make their guitars with cow bone material. Sometimes, however, cheaper model guitars do have bone nuts.

Squier is Fender’s entry-level model guitar brand. Some Squiers have plastic nuts and some have bone nuts. Here are some specs for a Squier 70’s Classic Vibe.

You can see that the Nut Material is specified as a bone.

Finding Vegan Guitars

The trick to finding a vegan guitar is really the same as finding food that’s vegan. Just like you’d search for milk or gelatin in the ingredients list, you’d look for the specifications section on the product listing.

Animal By-Products are Products Sourced from animals’ meat and meat products, poultry products (meat and eggs), fish, shellfish, dairy products (milk and cheese), and non-food products such as fiber (wool, mohair, cashmere, and leather).

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