Nut Slotting

Devil#20

Had a couple of low frets on one of my acoustics so I fret levelled them and recrowned the frets. Because of the nature of the low frets I've had to remove off all of them. Restrung and adjusted the truss road and now no buzzing frets. However....now when I barre at the first fret I need a grip like a tyre-fitter to get the B and G strings fretted which tells me the nut slots are too high. I can barre OK from 2nd fret upwards. How do I go about setting the slot heights. Would I be better filing the slots or removing material off the bottom of the nut. It's only held on under string pressure so would be easy to do. 

DavidR

I think I would measure each string height first with a string height guage.

MusicNomad MN601 Precision Nut Height Slotting Gauge Tool : Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments & DJ

If all strings are high, sand off the bottom of the nut. It's good it comes out and slots back in easily, often they don't. If there's a differential height problem across the strings you will need to adjust each one separately by filing the slots and you will need specialist nut files (not cheap) to do that. I have these on below link and they're brilliant, but there are others. Do this slowly. I just do 5 file sweeps of the slot and then refit the string, remeasure and trial play, then repeat until I get correct height.

MusicNomad 6 Piece Acoustic Guitar Diamond Coated Nut File Set With Case - Guitar.co.uk

Interesting to see what others say. Especially proper luthiers rather than keen amateurs like me!

TheMadMick

I'd only reduce the slot heights if you're really sure what you're doing. Given the cost of nut files, it's probably cheaper to get a luthier to do it right.

Mellish

If it turns out that you need to remove from the bottom, be careful to keep it level and square.

If there's an old nut lying around to practice on, that would be great  

Devil#20

I've only got cheapo nut slot files and I've never used them so removing from the bottom of the nut would be preferable. Is either method equally acceptable?

Winny_Pooh

Start off by reducing from the bottom until one string has the lowest acceptable height. Then look at reducing the slots. If you go too far tape up all around the slot then add baking soda and superglue to build back up. Best way to learn is make mistakes

Whistler

Devil#20 said:

I've only got cheapo nut slot files and I've never used them ...

In which case I would say buy a few cheap plastic nuts and practice with them. Once you have got the hang of it get yourself the nut of your choice, whether bone, Tusq or something esle, and do it for real.

As for keeping the (final) nut in place, two drops of superglue will be sufficient and allow you to remove the nut at a later date should you need to.

Mellish

It depends mate. You can see it,
we can't.

As Mick there says, filing the slots isn't easy to get right, especially if you've never done it before. 

On the other hand, removing from the bottom might not be ideal if the string heights are different enough to cause an issue.

Honestly? I'd go to a tech. You could save the cost of a new nut  

Devil#20

Thanks for the advice. It's a bone nut so I might buy a cheaper one and see if I can get that right and then use that as an indication to see if I can get the existing nut right. What height should I aim for between first fret and string and do I need to clamp a capo to the neck and if so where on the neck? The action is a bit high now so I'm hoping sorting the nut out will sort that and I don't have to start buggering about at the bridge end. I'm going to see how good I can get this guitar to give me confidence in setting up my better acoustics. I've dealt with high frets before which, by comparison are much easier to deal with than low frets because you end up with removal on more frets and more work. I've done about 3 hours work on this one so far. If I can sort the action out it's going to be great when I've put a new set of strings on it. At the moment I'm keeping the old one's on just for setting up. They ideally need replacing. 

Tannin

Mellish said:

If there's an old nut lying around

That would be me.

Mellish

 

bertie

use an (thumb over top)  F barre not an E barre  

there,  no need to thank me   

Mellish

Bass E 0.023", high E 0.013" at first fret?   

Mellish

Just measured mine.

Bass E 0.018", high E 0.014" at first fret  

bertie

Devil#20 said:

Nut Slotting

is that some new fangled kind of Tea Bagging ? 

Devil#20

Mellish said:

Just measured mine.

Bass E 0.018", high E 0.014" at first fret  

Is that unfretted? ie. measured as is because that would be affected by neck relief. I'd have thought you would need to fret the guitar on the neck and measure ht at 1st fret from there.

Devil#20

bertie said:

Devil#20 said:

Nut Slotting

is that some new fangled kind of Tea Bagging ? 

I worry about you sometimes. I like you, you do seem OK, but I do worry about you. 

Mellish

Just a feeler gauge under strings at first fret, 
 mate, no fretting, no capo  

Mellish

@Devil#20 ; - but you should start with relief. Relief, nut, saddle.

My relief is 0.05" at the 7th if it helps (capo first fret,  fretted at 14th  

roberty

I actually lowered a couple of slots on my Harley Benton today (ie not a big deal if I mess it up). I took an A string and folded a piece of fine grit sandpaper around it and used that to lower the E string slot, and I used a D string for the A string slot. I just took them down a fraction of a mm each. It worked. In fact it took surprisingly little to get them down to the height I wanted. Would be very easy to overdo this

Keefy

I use the technique set out in Dan Erlewine’s ‘Guitar Player Repair Guide:

Measure the fret height by stacking up feeler gauges under a string or straight edge between the first and second frets. Add 5-10 thousands of an inch to the stack and place it under the strings next to the nut. File the slot at a slight angle down towards the headstock and when you feel the file bite on the metal feeler gauges, stop.

Check out the book for the full description.