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My son just bought an exa-7 7 string kit. Today, we test fitted the neck and ran both the low e and high e strings.
One thing I noticed is that the slots on the nut go about half to three quarters of the was across the nut, but it's not cut all of the way through. So the grooves exist on the fretboard side, but they pretty much disappear on the headstock side.
Am I suppose to buy nut files and extend the groove all the way across the nut?
Hi Patrick.
You should not have to buy nut files - they are great though. A good set of nut files is over $100. A set of needle files are a lot cheaper and could work.
I have not had this trouble with any of my builds so far.
Can you post a photo of the nut?
It may be worth mentioning this to Pitbull.
Here is the image.
http://i.imgur.com/92y2byG.jpg
As you can hopefully see that groove for the high E string only goes about 50% of the way across the nut. Every guitar we have the nut is usually cut all of the way across.
Right, but shouldn't the shallow little groove go all the way across the top surface of the nut? It fits in the slot in the front, but since there is no groove on the headstock side, it's just sorta siting on top of the last portion of the nut.
Seems like the shallow groove would go all of the way across the nut. But as you can see, none of mine go all the way across and the higher the notes go, the shorter and shorter that groove becomes.
You should probably at least cut the slot the full width of the nut. You may also need to deepen other slots in setup.
The experienced builders are largely in consensus that the best way to cut a slot is with purpose made nut files. I don't dispute this. I have not used them, but I'm guessing they're really great, and much faster than the way I do it.
I use the cheap tip cleaner "files" on a bass nut, but I don't really find the thin ones stiff enough to use on a guitar nut.
So I use to this method:
https://youtu.be/ZQitFeJCHB4
I made mine like the ones in the video, the one difference is that I used a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel to make my notches in the feeler gauges. Much faster!
If I thought I were going to be doing a lot of nuts, I would definitely invest in the files. This approach with the feeler gauges works, but it takes forever. That's not good, but it's not all bad either. I am sure that I would have cut a slot too deep by now with the files. I haven't yet had that problem with feeler gauges, partly because they cut so slow.
Maybe not a ringing endorsement, but this approach has worked for me. Offered here FWIW.
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@Fender3x,
Thanks for your suggestion. i did exactly what you did, I took a set of feeler gauges that I had, and a notched them with a dremel tool. I then used those, as a makeshift knife and was able to extend the grooves across the entire face of the nut. I'm pretty happy with my results, and if we screwed it up, we will just get a new nut.
https://i.imgur.com/jaf3gou.jpg
My son also has some friends that have built with this kit and they had to do the same thing on there's. the low E would not stay put and kept popping out of the nut since half of it wasn't in a groove.
I'm glad you were able to make the DIY nut files, however I hope you haven't gone too deep with the slots.
IMO you should have waited until nearer the end of the build to cut the slots that much. I agree the factory ones were likely too shallow for playing, but should have been adequate to just hold the E strings in place for the purposes of neck alignment (maybe the treble E could have used a few strokes).
You might still be OK, but I thought I'd mention it so you're aware before you do the final set up and set the nut action.
I tried to not make them a whole lot deeper, but rather just extend the groove all of the way across the nut itself. If I screwed it up, will just have replace that nut.
I'd be tempted to replace the nut with a bone or Tusq one anyway. The kit ones are hollow plastic and relatively soft, not the best material for a nut.
I agree with Simon,, and this one is super easy to swap out too
@Simon. Agree completely. This is the reason we didn't mind just filing it down a bit. We weren't out much other than a small amount of time.
Bone for tone, as the saying goes. It doesn't look like PB stocks seven string nuts...but it shouldn't be too hard to get. If you're in AUS you might ask Adam if he can send you a bone nut for a seven string. I don't know if he can do that anymore, but at one time they had a guy making them in-house.
They are also not hard to make, if you don't mind doing a lot of sanding. For $10 you can get six or more blanks.
You can cut a bone or tusq nut with the feeler gauge "saw" ...but you will definitely notice how much longer it takes on the harder material ;-)
I'm not in AUS, I'm in the US. Was looking at the PB nuts, but also noticed that they didn't stock the 7 string nuts or offer them for sale. Guess I'll just have to measure the one that I have.
There are some cheap bone nuts on eBay, around $7. Even a tusq nut is only around $15. You may be able to find an unslotted blank the right size.
Last option, you could just make one from a blank. I see you can get blanks 6/$10 on Amazon. If you live near Miami, I'll give you one from my "lifetime supply." (I bought 6 once. I have 5 left). They aren't hard to shape. Just time consuming. Not too bad on a G style nut, like yours though. If you do decide to shape your own nut, you may want to keep the plastic nut for marking where the slots go. There are other ways to know where to mark the slots, but I think using a nut that came of the same guitar is the easiest.
I'm pretty sure if I have to replace the nut, this is the one that I need. I believe the original nut from the exa7 kit is a 48mm x 6mm.
https://graphtech.com/products/black...str-nut-48-x-6
The one in the link should be fine. Usually a replacement nut would be slightly oversized so that you can sand it to be flush on the sides. Probably best to wait to finish the neck until you get the nut so that you can make everything flush before applying finish.Quote:
Originally Posted by patrickparks1
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Yeah, i'm not planning on geting a new nut unless I find out that i truly mangled the other one. If the original one works, I'll use it until i have a problem.
I appreciate all of the input.
The only difference I can think of between replacing now and replacing later, is that if you replace now, you can do the final sanding of the sides of the nut flush with the wood with the nut in place without damaging the finish. It's not a big deal either way, but FWIW ;-)