First attempt at making a nut for my Strat.

[DrNomis_44]

Well done Doc.
You are right, nuts can be a bit of a challenge to get right but once you have nailed it, it is a good skill to have.

Cheers mate.

[Andy40]

Doc, Whats the Tusq nut like?

[kimball492]

The last nut I had DB made I didn't have a big enough piece of bone for the GR-1SF it's massive lol. I've tried Tusq Andy there ok diifferent to bone sometimes the standard ones need shimming as not high enough. Tusq are good on a guitar that is a bit on the tinny side as it seems to cut a little of the high frequencies. Be nice to hear Docs thoughts.

[DrNomis_44]

Doc, Whats the Tusq nut like?

It seems to sound similar to bone, I don't know if it had much effect on the tone of my Strat cause I put 46-10s on my Guitar and I reckon that they mellowed the tone and produced more output.

[DrNomis_44]

I just got back home from visiting a mate and helping him out with one of his guitars that needed a replacement toggle switch, anyway, I managed to fix his guitar so that all the pickups were working correctly, while I was out at his place I tried my Strat through his Rock Rig and my Strat sounded really good, so I'm happy with it.


I think that it doesn't matter so much what material the nut is made out of as long as it's hard enough to withstand the amount of downward force exerted by the string on the nut itself, I think what really matters is the way the nut slots are cut, how wide the nut slots are, and the amount of friction between the nut material and the string, you really want some kind of material that's both hard and also offers very little friction, friction is one of the main causes of tuning-instability in a guitar, especially one that has a trem system installed on it, the way the string passes over the nut is important, if it kinks to one side or another then no amount of futzing with the nut-slots is going to cure it, something I've found through experience, a sideways kink is going to create a point of friction that no amount of lubrication is going to cure, so, the string needs to pass over the nut as straight as possible with a downwards break-angle so that the string vibrates cleanly without choking-out, which shortens the sustain, the break-angle ensures enough downwards-force that the string does sustain cleanly.

The nut slots need to be wide enough so that the string doesn't bind in them, but not too wide that the string buzzes against the side of the nut slot, the bottom of the nut slot needs to slope downwards towards the headstock from the front of the nut so that the string rests on the front-most edge closest to the first fret, this ensures that the scale-length starts at the proper zero-point so that the intonation is correct at the 12th fret.

Lastly, there's the string-to-string spacing of the nut-slots, these need to be spaced so that the strings are even and not bunched up.

[wokkaboy]

good stuff Doc, so did you turn up the amp so you could (and the neighbors haha) hear it nice and clear ?

[DrNomis_44]

good stuff Doc, so did you turn up the amp so you could (and the neighbors haha) hear it nice and clear ?

Yeah, we had the amp turned up to a reasonable....hahaha...volume level for rock n roll, I tried playing my strat through my Baja Real Tube Overdrive with my Rangemaster acting as a booster and you should have heard what it sounded like, it sounded really good and smooth.


I was playing through my mate's Mesa/Boogie Studio .22 Valve combo amp, he had it connected up to a speaker cab with two 12 inch speakers in it.


My mate has an Italian made Vox Wah pedal that sounded good with my Strat but he reckons my Dunlop Crybaby Wah sounds better.

[wokkaboy]

sounds like a great setup Doc, was it loud enough for the pickups to feedback ? It's only loud enough if there's feedback haha

[DrNomis_44]

sounds like a great setup Doc, was it loud enough for the pickups to feedback ? It's only loud enough if there's feedback haha

Yep, it was loud enough to get feedback easily, but it wasn't so loud as to be painful to listen to, while the guitar was feeding-back I waggled the trem arm and that caused the feedback note to sustain longer, I even got feedback with open strings too, this with single-coil style pickups, the feedback was very musical-sounding.


I should have recorded it so you guys could hear what it sounded like.

[wokkaboy]

sounds good Doc Hendrix !!!

you must be stoked.

Did you end up finishing the blues track on your build diary ? I can't be bothered reading through 5 or more pages to find it hahha