Some more stuff from Stewmac just got delivered.

[DrNomis_44]

Hey Everyone,

Some more stuff from Stewmac just got delivered today, a new set of nut-slotting files in 42-10 gauge, and four spare un-slotted and bleached white bone nut blanks, I bought them so I could finish the job of installing a new bone nut on my Fender USA Strat,I've already got a pre-slotted bone nut glued in with some PVA glue and the four spare bone nut blanks I ordered are just in case I stuff-it-up, that gives me four more chances to get it right or stuff-it-up....whichever comes first.

Here's a pic of the glued in pre-slotted bone nut:




And here's all the stuff I ordered from Stewmac:



Just in case things do go a bit pear-shaped while filing the slots in the pre-slotted bone nut, I'll first use it as a guide to mark the slot positions on all four of the other bone nut blanks....before I go filing the slots to the correct depth, that is, I made myself a special half-round pencil so I can mark how deep the slots need to be filed, all you need to do is lay it on top of the fretboard with the flat side down and the point of the pencil touching the front-face of the nut blank, then draw a line to indicate the depth, I got this tip from a local Darwin Luthier.


Note to self: Must buy a tool from Stewmac so I can accurately mark the positions of the slots on the bone nut blanks.

[emuflats]

Gotta love new tools woohoo!
I had a bit of practice with a new bone nut on an el cheapo acoustic. The nut slot was flat at the bottom so i just stuck a few different grades of sandpaper to a flat board. Used the cheapo files (similar to whats in the PB shop. The bone material comes away quite easily so slow n steady & you'll be right

[DrNomis_44]

Gotta love new tools woohoo!
I had a bit of practice with a new bone nut on an el cheapo acoustic. The nut slot was flat at the bottom so i just stuck a few different grades of sandpaper to a flat board. Used the cheapo files (similar to whats in the PB shop. The bone material comes away quite easily so slow n steady & you'll be right

Cheers, my biggest problem is trying to keep the file at 90 degrees to the fret board and also 90 degrees to the front of the nut, so that the string will ring cleanly without sitar-buzzing, I've tried filing nut-slots before, hopefully this time round I'll have better success, thinking of installing a bone nut on my Mexican Tele (I think it has a synthetic plastic one, at least that's what it looks like anyway) if all goes well, eventually I hope to graduate to fret-leveling and re-crowning at some stage, would love to learn how to do that properly.

[emuflats]

Practice practice practice.
I'm also really enjoying learning these new skills too. Picked up a cheap throwaway Peavey on FB marketplace to practice fretwork on. Ordered some nice files from Crimson. Peeled off the decals on the body & its a Jack Daniels guitar lol.
Good Luck man!

[DrNomis_44]

Well....it took me a couple of tries, not to mention some not-so-nice verbally spoken words, but I finally managed to get a new bone nut installed on my Fender USA Strat, only had to tweak the nut-slot depths for three of the nut slots and the 1st fret action is all good and on spec according to what my Stewmac guitar repair handbook says, .020 inch (sorry about the imperial measurement).




I used the .020 inch feeler gauge from my set of automotive feeler gauges to check the 1st fret action for all the strings, each one was just touching the .020 feeler gauge, so I'm happy with it, I sanded and filed-down the top of the bone nut so that it was more or less level with the strings, each string seems to ring-out cleanly when played open, no dreaded sitar-buzzing, so I think I got lucky, the nut-slotting file for the A-string seemed a bit under-sized for it, but I managed to get the A-string to fit properly without binding.


Update:

Thought I'd got it right but turns out I'll have to start from scratch again.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Well....I tried four times in a row to cut a good bone nut and mucked-it-up four times in a row, got one bone nut blank left, besides the .032 nut-slotting file is a little bit too thin for the A-string, consequently the A-string won't slide through the slot properly, so I'm abandoning the bone nut and going to try something else that hopefully works better.

[vh2580]

Hi doc, graphtec preslotted usually go well. Is the issue your having to do with string binding?

[vh2580]

When your using the trem?

[DrNomis_44]

Yep, it seems like the strings are binding in the nut slot, well the one for the A-string is a big offender, the low E-string is binding too, I've tried using permanently lubricated Tusq XL nuts with limited results, and even a graphite nut too with limited results, you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to accurately cut nut slots in a bone nut blank, it doesn't take much to muck it up.

I've always had trouble getting the Fender USA Strat to stay in tune while using the trem, even when brand new, some strings would always come back sharp, the low E-string was the worst offender.

[vh2580]

Doc can you do a little experiment. When in tune play and use the trem, when it goes sharp with trem at normal return position, lift the string slightly at the saddle and drop. See if it’s still sharp or back in tune. The string moves on both the nut and the trem saddles, sometimes the saddles “grab” along the string due to being a bit rough on the surface and when returning from depressed can pull the string sharp.