Bone nut problem

[J.R.303]

I was just about to knock the plastic nut off my gsj-1 and luckily measured it against the bone nut that was supplied with the guitar and it's way too small and the string spacing is out.

[Simon Barden]

Does it look like a Fender one? Someone else had a Fender one supplied. Much thinner and rectangular, as opposed the the quarter-circle shape of the Gibson style.

Regardless, just email Pitbull with a photo and you should get a refund.

You should need a 43mm wide nut (a lot are 42mm). I just buy mine from Amazon. Loads to chose from if you type in "43mm bone nut". Just double check the dimensions of yours The kit nuts are always a bit high, so you can normally go at least 1mm lower than the kit ones if necessary (but see what you think). And the square-edged ones can be rounded off at the back and sides with a file and sanded smooth. The nuts are all very similar in quality.

[fender3x]

You should let Adam know. He can probably send you a new one. The right nut should be slightly too large so that you can sand it down to fit. If you haven't finished the guitar I would wait to get it before finishing, so that you can sand the sides to be flush with the nut in place.

[J.R.303]

It's not a Fender one, and it's not worth quibbling over the cost and waiting for the post from Oz (sh*t can I say that in these ultra pc times?) sorry, just joking.
It does measure 42mm across which is a mm less than the plastic one but the string spacing centre to centre is 33.5 and the kit one is 35.5 which is a mile out.
If I offer it up to my Gibson les Paul and a couple of other guitars with the 43mm nut the strings don't line up at all. Strange.
Amazon it is then armed with my measurements.

[fender3x]

Well, you could cut* your own nut. I am in the US so YMMV, but I got a bunch of blank nuts for very little $$$ on Amazon or eBay. I was surprised that it was not very difficult to cut the nut down to size. I did F nuts and it took about 1-2 hours. G nuts might take less time since they are bigger, so not as much material to sand off. I have been keeping old plastic nuts to use as a model to get the shape and string spacing right.

You'll need to cut slots. I confess that I am about to do my first guitar nut. I have done bass nuts up to this point. I used needle files like these to cut the slots.



This worked great on bass. Very easy and quick to get the slot to the right depth and unlike other files the bottom of the slot is round. Also I think these are pretty much the cheapest option. That said, my success with them may be because I was cutting bass nuts. Bass-sized files have more girth than they would for guitar. I worry a bit that when I do my first guitar nut (sometime this month, probably) the files may be a little too skinny to cut well. Will know soon ;-)

*Funny that the process is referred to as "cutting" the nut. My experience is that the actual process is mostly sanding ;-)

[Andy40]

That's a shame JR. I've had a few bone nuts supplied by Pitbull in the past and have never had a problem with them

That being said I'm converted like Fender3x and just cut my own from blanks.

[Simon Barden]

The G series kits come from a different factory to the non-G series kits, and I have a feeling that a lot of the rest may have 42mm nuts. I generally get 43mm nuts when replacing them on other guitars and normally have to sand the ends down slightly to fit. But Pitbull need to be made aware of the difference. It's not something you think about much until you get feedback. It won't take much to have two widths available and hopefully the right ones will be supplied. Or else PBG add the nut width to the kit details and have the two width options for the bone nut option so you can actively select the right one.

[J.R.303]

Thanks guys, one ordered.
I'll email Adam.

[jugglindan]

I have a similar issue with the bone nut I got, but in a different dimension. The width seems OK, but it's about 1 or 2mm (haven't measured with feeler gauges yet) thinner than the kit plastic nut. Unless they are available in different thicknesses I will have to shim it with something.

[Simon Barden]

It depends as to how specialist a luthier supplier you go to. Some will do a wide variety of nut sizes. Otherwise a get a bone blank and file it to fit.

Or look at Graphtech nuts as they come in a variety of widths, heights and depths.