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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I had a really bad issue with notes at the first few frets on D, G and B being noticeably sharp because of how high they were sitting. I corrected it in pretty much the method described above and now it seems fine, but the strings are sitting below the top of the nut and now in slots that look too wide if I'm honest because I had to lower them so much.
The only difference it makes is that you can catch your hand on it if it's too tall.
Personally I like the whole of the string to be in the groove, or even a bit deeper than that on the thin strings, so they definitely can't jump out even when playing and bending hard.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It just annoys me that they still have it on the bottom on guitars made today.
Dad? Is that you?
On most guitars, its purely an aesthetic choice.
But yeah, totally irrelevant and can actually cause issues on some guitars. Looking at the wall of guitars in front of me, i still aim for it on most of mine
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I found that putting a business card on the headstock side of the nut not only protected the wood the other side of the nut from the file, but also gave me an angle to follow.
Thanks for the tips gents.
I'm starting to consider getting another set of files and having another go at learning the skill. It's expensive and not something I'll be able to use many times in life (though maybe I could start doing friends guitars if I get good) but I'm just losing patience with not being able to get my guitar set up properly during lockdown.
What do you think?
Proper files are essential though.
You are probably going to try and go as low as possible at some point and have that decision to make.
I was cutting nuts from bone blanks the other day, and i screwed up one by making the first one left handed... but it only takes me about 15 minutes to go a rough sawn lump of bone to a nut that is 95% there and ready for gluing. Probably spend twice as long as that on the final nut slotting and tweaking
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If I erred on the side of caution then it's putting all the money and effort in and still ending up with a poorer result than if I put it in to a shop.
Going a bit off topic, I think part of the reason I'm struggling to find a shop is because the few people I trust are busy due to the pandemic and I'm very cautious to try somewhere new because I once put a guitar in to a shop with a good reputation and they didn't even seem to touch the nut much, if any, and left it still too high.
You might not have messed up the first, but most will find they mess up at least one of the first 5 There is also a learning curve with the files and materials. What is one sweep on tusq might be 5 sweeps on bone.
It is an easy job with the right tools, but there is still some skill in it. Its all good learning experience.
There is skill in the repair too. Works best with tightly packed powder and a spot of thin super glue.
taking thin CA glue anywhere near a guitar is risky in itself, its thinner than water and flows in unexpected ways
Done well, you wouldn't know about it
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Superglue defo is dangerous near guitars! I had a big mishap with it. Well, more of the glue remover than I stupidly tried to use in panic to get the glue off not stopping to realise that the remover itself is a harsh chemical. That was a humbling and expensive moment!
Re: the "might not mess up the first one" - I didn't either, I did a few guitars that worked out very well then got to the bad one.
What put me off doing any more myself, despite some successful tries, was that I couldn't see any way to know when you're at the point where one more swipe with the file will be one too many.
I have heard of a method using feeler gauges to measure the height of the fret and then use the gauges themselves next to the nut as a barrier to stop at. Might try that method.