TL- electronic or pickup upgrades

[RocknRolf]

@Fender3x Yes you may play the devils advocate. Totally dig that solution, way better than a prominent cream or black ring.

Having a second set of hardware is not a bad thing... all you need is another body and neck. This is also a solution to the problem of whether to do a traditional tele or a non-traditional. You've got the hardware to do both ;-)

As if you're going to stop at building only one guitar! ah ha ha. So much to learn.

You/We are all just a bunch of hopeless enablers.

I just keep telling myself that my playing skills do not need another guitar, let's see how long that statement will stand, haha.

[fender3x]

I just keep telling myself that my playing skills do not need another guitar, let's see how long that statement will stand, haha.

I know exactly what you mean! Someone wise once told me that anything that makes the guitar more fun will lead to playing more, and in turn that will make you s better player. See?!? You need another guitar to get better so that you feel you deserve more guitars.

What was that about enablers?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[RocknRolf]

I know exactly what you mean! Someone wise once told me that anything that makes the guitar more fun will lead to playing more, and in turn that will make you s better player.

I can support that claim.
Just bought a NuX Duotime dual delay with looper, that thing is just amazing! Not only does it sound like a time machine, you could say it is one: without noticing it, I spend an hour making funky loops and backing tracks :-).

[RocknRolf]

Slowly some postal packages manage to find this part of the world.
Latest is this graphtech nut.

Now I looked everywhere for a flat black lefty nut but was out of luck and ended up ordering this one.
Can anyone tell me if the radius of this nut will suit the Kits neck? It is a bit more curved than the kits nut.

I sincerely hope it will as it will be the third nut I ordered for this guitar

[Simon Barden]

I don’t think that nut will work at all. Unless something has changed a lot, the Pit Bull necks have a flat bottom to the nut slot.

You have a nut that is:
a) radiused at the bottom to fit a Fender ‘veneer’ board where the basic neck is radiused on top (as opposed to a ‘slab’ board like the kits have where the top of the main neck and the bottom of the board are flat) and the bottom of the fretboard also radiused to match it, and the nut slot follows that curve.
b) for a variation on that curved slot bottom where the truss rod channel is exposed and the tab on the bottom of the nut sits in that exposed channel hole.

I’ve worked on Fender necks with flat, curved and curved + notch bottomed nuts.

Try fitting that nut on a flat bottomed slot and it will only touch at the two tips and you’ll never get it glued on firmly.

I really think you’ll need to get a set of good nut files and either make your own from blanks or use them to change the slot angles so you can use a reversed R/H Fender-style nut. You’ll also find it a lot easier to get a low slot height and good action on all your guitars.

[McCreed]

Actually those nuts are intended to be used for either a flat bottom nut slot or a curved bottom. It's not optimal IMO, but that's what Graphtec does.
For a flat bottom slot, you have 3 points of contact. They generally still need a bit of sanding on the bottom so you do gain a bit more contact area on the ends. For a curved bottom, the middle "tab" gets filed away.

Screenshot from the Graph Tech product page:


As for the radius (on top) once you get you string slots cut to the right depth, you should reprofile the top of the nut anyway.
You don't want the strings full diameter below the top of the slot except for the B and treble E.

[RocknRolf]

Thanks guys, as McCreed says this is how graph tech sells them for flat bottom necks as well as curved. I too not find it ideal, but it was the only lefty I could find for this neck.
I am going to dive into the world of nut filing and shaping, something that I somehow thought to be able to avoid.

Anyway, I am sure the upgrades are going to be worth my time and learning.

Other than the nut, the push pull pot is in, now waiting for the pickups and pickguard...

[Simon Barden]

I do think that's rather poor and a definite bodge. As the nut is one of the main contact points between the strings and the guitar, I'd want it sitting properly if it was mine. Definitely a drop of CA rather than wood glue on all the points if you do use it like that.

[Simon Barden]

You don't want the strings full diameter below the top of the slot except for the B and treble E.

You definitely don't want the top of the nut too high above the strings, but exactly how much string is showing (if any) above the top, is really a matter of personal preference e.g. I file down so the nut is level with the top of all the strings.

The nut slot needs to be deep enough so that the mid point of the strings can touch the sides. Depending on how and how much you bend the strings, you may need the slots a little higher than this minimum depth to stop them popping out when bending (especially if you've used a V-profile fret file rather than a straight-sided one).

After that, any extra height to the slot doesn't have any effect on the strings.

The real point of cutting the nut height down so the fret depth is minimal are the two end 'teeth' on the nut. With deep nut slots, the end teeth are tall, and they are only half the width of the other 'teeth' on the nut. Being on the ends, they are also very vulnerable to being knocked or caught on clothing. If they are level with, or slightly lower than the string, they are unlikely to snag or catch. If you leave them say a couple of mm taller, then a) the teeth are far more likely to catch on something and b) if caught or knocked, the leverage on the base of the tooth if tall is far greater than if it's short, so far more likely to snap off. I've seen that happen a couple of times.

Rounding over the ends of the nut and on the headstock side also helps prevent any snagging (and also the risk of you hurting a finger on a sharp edge. The only edge you need to leave at right-angles is the fretboard edge of the nut. You can very gently round over the top front edge, but if you have very shallow nut slots there's always a risk that you move the front of the nut slot back a bit and throw out the intonation.

[RocknRolf]

Thanks for the extra explanations and concerns Simon. I am of the same opinion, but after three nuts I temporarily give in. Most likely I will buy a blank at some point and enjoy some shaping :-)