Nut job...

[Brad1]

Hi all. I have a friend whose Strat copy went floating down a creek in a flood a few years back. He wondered if it could be saved, and I looked at it and said I'd try. Figured it would be good practice to do on a cheezoid guitar.

After completely disassembling it, and cleaning all the dried mud out...it didn't look TOO bad. I disassembled and washed all the pickups and pots, etc., and DeOxited the pots, and all that works. The lacquer on the neck was flaking, so I carefully stripped and sanded all that. The headstock was cracked on the low E side right through the low E tuning hole, so I broke it apart, carefully cleaned it, and glued it back together. I then countersunk a 1/4" hole, installed a screw down into it, then capped the hole...figuring that should hold it well. I then applied about 6 coats of Nitrocelluose lacquer to the entire neck, lightly sanding with .0000 steel wool between coats. I then carefully cleaned and polished the frets.

The neck is straight (has no twist) and a straightedge along the frets slides smoothly up and down the neck, so they are all fairly level.

The plastic nut was deteriorated, and broke upon removal, so I bought a bone nut. It was excessively tall after lightly gluing in, so I carefully sanded it down to where it's still a bit too tall, but will be closer. Once I get the slot depths set, I figure I can then sand it down further. (I used the StewMac neck-radius gauge to match it to the neck radius). I have the string spacings lightly scored with an exacto, and they look pretty good.

Now's where I'm stumped, even with trying to find stuff on the net, or in the Dan Erlewine book. It's a 'chicken and egg' thing. (I just went ahead and blocked the vibrato block since he's not likely to use it, anyway).

Do I start filing the frets down first, and how far. Obviously, the neck and saddles are not set properly at this point, but I really can't set them until the strings are lower in the nut end, can I? (I'll use the StewMac gauge to help set the saddles as I go).

Do I just file a bit out of each slot, adjust a little, file a bit more, adjust a bit more, and keep doing that? Kind of like a see-saw thing? "This end...that end".

Any good articles that someone knows about for just this type of thing? This is my first nut job. Like I said, figured it would be good practice to try it on a cheap Strat copy.

Thanks,

Brad1

[Jag]

Put a capo on at the first fret and do a basic setup of the action, relief, etc. Once that's done start working on the string slots. Go slow and check often.

[Dave Kerr]

Check out Frank Ford's tutorial - the flattened pencil trick works great to establish a rough guideline

[the great waldo]

Hi Brad

If your looking for the ultimate low nut action you can overtighten the truss rod to put a slight back bow in the neck, if you file one of the slots a touch to deep by mistake when you loosen the truss rod the neck should come up and the string will be clear. Replacing a nut is one of the most difficult things to get right, the problem being if you go to deep you have to start again, if your to high tuning and playability at the nut suffers. Go slow with the files and have a spare nut blank at hand. In worst case you can refill a slot with bone dust and super glue (cyanoacrylate) and refile, it`ll get you out of trouble. The trick with the capo will help set up the action before you start.

Good luck

Andrew

[the great waldo]

Hi Brad

Just an addon any fretwork is better done without the nut on, I use a spirit level with abrasive paper attached and run it along the neck, you have to first make sure that the neck is straight, also make sure that you can still put some backbow into the neck with the trussrod, sometimes the neck is straight without the strings but the truss rod is at the end of itīs range and it wonīt pull back far enough with heavier strings. Filing the frets without the nut allows you to be able to run the file whatever over the first fret without bumping into the nut as you go from one end of the neck to the other.

Cheers

Andrew

[Brad1]

Thanks guys,

I guess the capo on the first fret, with all strings tuned to pitch to apply the normal pressure, makes sense to set up the neck and saddles. Then start carefully filing the slots, checking things as I go.

I believe the frets, themselves, are fine.

Time to give it a try.

Thanks,

Brad1

[David Schwab]

The usual way to do the action at the nut, is to fret a string at the 3rd fret, and then look at the clearance at the 1st. You want to cut the nut until you just see a little light under the string.

[Jag]

Good point Dave.

I usually leave the nut a little high (not lots, just a little) for a day or two of playing and then do a final tweak after it "settles in". This is probably not necessary but I used to have a habit of going too low. I found that, after a day or two of playing it a little high, the final tweak would get it in the right spot without going too low.

How did it work out Brad?

[Brad1]

Still working on it sporadically. A bit at a time. (Had to do some vehicle repair work for my mom that turned into a one-thing-after-another nightmare that took a week).

Started by adjusting it to play pretty well all the way up with a capo on the first fret.

Since the new nut was WAY too high, and I was going to have to file the slots down so far, I've sanded it down to be a bit too high (with a capo on the 3rd fret to guess) to start there.

I have them nicely spaced and am starting to do the scary work of working them down. Using a fine sharp-edge file to start, then using some torch-tip cleaners to round out and slowly go down. Have the low-E looking pretty good so far. Looks like I'll have to some more across-the-nut sanding towards the end of it all to lower the top of it.

Kind of tedious, but figure I'd better take my time and be careful. It's a good learning experience, but if one of my favorite Tele's ever needs it soon...I'm figuring it's worth the money to have an experienced person do it!

Thanks guys.

Brad1