There isn't any finish on the bass, so there's generally no need to use a knife around it. The sharp knife is only to separate any finish from the nut (more applicable to a finished maple neck) so the finish doesn't chip off when the nut comes off. If there is any visible glue residue between the nut and the fretboard, then cut through that to stop the nut from pulling off any wood fibres from the fretboard.
Tapping the ends of the nut with a hammer and something like a decent sized flathead screwdriver normally works. You may have to do it for a while. You can tap the nut very lightly backwards and forwards along the length of the neck, again using a screwdriver blade to focus the effort down low by the board to help free the glue holding it in at the sides. But any force and some of the end of the board is likely to fly off (I've seen a friend do this). SO sideways along the slot is where any decent force should be used.
If that doesn't work, then you can get a fine saw (small hacksaw etc.) and cut along the middle of the nut down the length of the nut, to almost the bottom of the nut. Then with pliers, squeeze the sides of the nut towards the middle and they should free themselves from the sides and come away.
You'll almost certainly need to clean out the old glue from the slot with a needle file.
A smear of PVA or Titebond will be fine to fix it in place. You can use a couple of small drops of CA, but just a couple of drops otherwise you won't get it out. I find it best to stick a new nut in when I can use the strings to hold it in place and push it down in its slot (they always seem to move sideways if I use a clamp), so I'd hold off fitting the new nut until you can do that.
You can use a round needle file to deepen the nut slots for setting up the action. So you won't need to file down the bottom of the nut to reduce the slot height unless you prefer to do that, or the nut is very high.
Last edited by Simon Barden; 23-06-2020 at 03:45 PM.
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