As you may or may not know, I recently aquired a Epiphone Les Paul. It is a beautiful guitar and was perfect except the nut was a little high. The first fret intonation was pretty sharp. I do a lot of my own guitar setup and repairs but have never cut or deepened a nut slot. I read up on it, purchased the wrong tools :lol: (nut slot files go for $140) but got what was recomended to work by numerous internet resources. I bought a set of hobby files at Lowes. Jewelers files would have been better but this is what I could find. There are a lot of needle files you can buy online cheap, but I wanted it now. Ibought a little hack saw with a very fine blade, an Exacto from a craft store. I used that on strings 1 - 4 and used the smallest hobby file on 5 and 6. I protected the guitar, did one string at a time removing very little material between tune ups and 1st fret intonation checks. By the time I got done the strings were tunneled through the nut, thats how high it was. My 1st fret intonation was dead on for all 6 strings though. Next I took a mechanical pencil and drew marks where the middle of the wound strings were and the tops of the plain strings. I loosened and moved all strings aside and connected the dots making a line. I took the wide flat hobby file and proceded to remove all the excess material from the top and smoothed and rounded the sharp edges on the sides. I was amazed at how well it turned out. With most other things on my guitars I have confidence because I have done them so many times but this made me a little nervous. Here are a couple of pics.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
I'm glad you didn't get "steered" wrong! :lol:
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
:lol: Really ... and thats no bull. :P
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
Glad it worked out well! :D
The nut is such an important part of any guitar, yet more and more guitars come with poorly filed nuts these days, even the expensive brands. Proper quality control seems to be a thing of the past..... :evil:
I hope I never have a problem with my nuts. I can handle replacing parts that bolt, screw or solder their way into our lives, but I am HORRIBLE with anything the requires the least amount of grace. I'm a linebacker type for sure. :oops: :evil: :x :roll:
I'm confident that a new nut (or nut repair) would do the trick as you and others have suggested time and time again. I just know deep in my heart that I'd mess it up. Same with doing whatever it would take to lower action on an accoustic bridge/saddle.
What's really strange, is that I can do about anything I want to in the kitchen.....which requires a feel for things. Odd. I digress.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Well done- and it looks great in the picture- not too high, not too low. Not cut in deep.
When I bought my second hand stratocopy, it had a cheap plastic nut, with the strings tunelling through it; naturally, it buzzed like a bumble bee. couldn't find a strat style nut in town, though- so I picked up bone nut off a trashed acoustic, and cut it to strat dimensions- took about 3 weeks, and most of the original nut became dust. It works now, though!
Congrats!
Ande
I've replaced nuts, but have yet to cut them. Seems like it might be useful on some of my cheaper guitars. I like tweaking my lesser expensive guitars, but I have not done more than adjust the truss rod and raise or lower the bridge, replace pick-ups, pots, and such. I have an old neck with extremely low fret wire I am thinking of experimenting with replacing the wire.
It is a small world for metal fanatics. I welcome you fellow musicians, especially the metalheads!
i need a new nut for my SG Bass copy. it's a short scale Japanese made by Matsumoto under the name "Lyle" back in the late 70's. the nut that needs to be replaced was plastic and so brittle it fell apart when i was trying to take it off to size it.
any ideas about how to go about making one from scratch?
#4491....
I'd try to get a blank the right size or at least close enough you could cut or file it down to fit. I know there is stuff on line with tutorials on cutting one from scratch. You don't evenly space the strings like you might think. They are different diameters so what you really want is not evenly spaced at the centers but evenly spaced gaps between the strings. Has to be easier with a bass though, only 4 strings to space out. I'm no expert, I probably just got lucky with my Epiphone. :roll: I'm convinced these guitars have the nuts already cut before they are even put on the instrument, probably by a machine. They are all plastic and perfect looking. I have 3 guitars with bone nuts and it is obvious that human hands were involved in their manufacture. They are far from perfect looking with some scratches and a little asymetry but ....... the slots are done correctly to the right depth. Hey, now my Epi nut looks just like that. 8)
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
Nice guitar. I just bought the same model yesterday. Yup the nuts high on mine too. Oh and the nut files are $12 ech at stewmac and you really only need 3 or 4 of them. I bought a set, they're nice.
Now that you have practice you want to do mine :lol:
Sure, stop on by. :lol: Not a bad price, I didn't realize you could buy one at a time, I saw the set for $140. I got about $28 in what I bought but it worked. Get a feeler guage, make sure it is at least the height of the 1st fret. Fret the string at the 1st fret and slide the guage under the strings just in front of the 1st fret and adjust until it just hits the bottom of the string. Now you can place your guage against the nut for when you cut it. If you hit the guage, you've gone too deep. Kind of a safety stop. I checked intonation along the way though cause I wanted the first fret to intonate perfectly. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I wish I had bought the right tools but money was an issue and this did work. Let us know how you make out. I'm still loving my Epiphone Les Paul. Probably just the honeymoon period cause I got Gibson Les Pauls but I really like the feel of this guitar. It's too bad they have that small flaw cause what about folks that can't do the nut themselves or don't want to pay to have it done? I had no trouble with the playability prior to the fix, it just bugged me it was not intonating on the top 4 frets. It does play better now though. 8)
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
I'm adventurous, but I ain't cuttin' my nut - :lol: - at least not yet. Very inspiring story though; now that I have a solid body rather than semi-hollow, I may try my own pup replacement.
"...I don't know - but whasomever I do, its gots ta be FUNKY!"
I'm adventurous, but I ain't cuttin' my nut - :lol: - at least not yet. Very inspiring story though; now that I have a solid body rather than semi-hollow, I may try my own pup replacement.
Ok, so maybe I WILL cut my nut - if I have to.
I did the pickup replacement and feel pretty bold now. I'd like to replace the plastic nut on my Firebird as tuning has to be checked daily and I get "pings" while tuning. Looked on Graphtech's site and looked over the nut and Supercharger kit instructions. Is it really that easy? I was under the impression the nut was glued in and you had to chisel, scrape and pray through the whole job.
"...I don't know - but whasomever I do, its gots ta be FUNKY!"
Thanks, TR.
If I ever do surgery on any of my nuts, I'll give you a PM to get more detailed info.
But even thinking of putting a saw to my nuts kinda gives me the heeby jeebies.
And I'm afraid it might lower the action (which isn't as much as it used to be).
(very protective of his nuts)
KR2
Oh, and correct me if I'm wrong but I thought doing this increased one's "intonation" like an octave or so.
(PS, if you are not familiar with American slang, please disregard this post)
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
I'm much to scared abotu such things to try it myself, but if you ever want to have a go at my nut you're welcome TR. Cool guitar btw. 8)
