New nut dilemma

StanleyAccrington

I've bought a new nut to put on my 'Telecaster type' guitar. Everything seemed to check out ok when I was perusing the nut dimensions...length..width..height.....even string spacing slots. Whipped off old nut.....new one went in but most strings buzz on first fret!!!!  Is there anything I can use to shim up the new nut a gnats doodah that wont affect the timbre/sound quality?
I've heard that glueing sheets of paper to the bottom of the nut to the required height can be a fix......but won't paper deaden the soud of a Tusq nut?  Or do I need to buy a new ( and slightly higher ) nut and learn from the experience?

ICBM

Gluing paper on thoroughly with superglue - soaking the paper with it - is very effective and doesn't deaden the tone. The paper/glue composite is actually very hard.

robgilmo

Is the Tusq nut a flat bottomed? or the one with the tab?

StanleyAccrington

Thanks for the reply ICBM......I'll give it a go. The nut is flat bottomed robgilmo.

thermionic

Flat bottomed nuts make the rocking world go round.

lysander

Paper and super glue is a very good idea, I normally use veneer but it’s a bit more faff.

StanleyAccrington

New nut has just gone in. And I'm  delighted with the result. Rather than use the paper /superglue or veneer approach to hoiking up a nut by  a 'smidgeon'....I tried a wood pva glue and water mix and used a modelling brush to apply it to the nut slot in an attempt to add a little height to the base of the nut slot.
It took around 20 hours to dry completely before I put the nut back in.  And it's worked!! Nut is currently held in place by string pressure only. I'll wait a few days to see how things fettle in. I've put a pic of the new nut as my avatar thingy...until I work out how to post pics on here. 

gary_mac

Not sure that pva will be hard enough. I would recommend a super glue in the slot and then some bicarbonate of soda dusted over it. Allow to dry and then file as required.

StanleyAccrington

gary_mac said:

Not sure that pva will be hard enough. I would recommend a super glue in the slot and then some bicarbonate of soda dusted over it. Allow to dry and then file as required.

Just to clarify....I put the glue/water mix into the recess that takes the nut so as to shim up the nut when it's fitted. Not the superglue/bicarb trick to fill a string slot that is too low.

gary_mac

StanleyAccrington said:

gary_mac said:

Not sure that pva will be hard enough. I would recommend a super glue in the slot and then some bicarbonate of soda dusted over it. Allow to dry and then file as required.

Just to clarify....I put the glue/water mix into the recess that takes the nut so as to shim up the nut when it's fitted. Not the superglue/bicarb trick to fill a string slot that is too low.

Sorry, didn't read your post properly.