Nut problem

Hi, I bought a tele neck (42mm neck width) which came with a bone nut but which string slots requires some work and I don't have suitable files. The most available replacements like Graphtech are either too wide/suitable thickness: 43mm/3.4mm or the other way around 42mm/3.2mm where the thickness for my neck is too little. Any ideas where I could buy a suitable one like 42mm/3.4mm (and not a cheap plastic one)?
I could use a Graphtech nut, which I have some but the string spacing is wider than with the bone nut that came with the neck.
The total string spacing with the bone nut is 33.5mm compared to the Graphtech 35.5mm - maybe the 33.5mm is too little for a 42mm neck width?

Something I found from ebay maybe the solution:
item number 390020844879

I would buy a set of the Stew-Mac nut files and learn how to work on them yourself. A replacement nut would need work anyway.

www.frets.com has some good info.
- Scott

I'm not going to build so many guitars that I'd invest on every tool needed for guitar building. This neck just happened to have such dimensions that I can't find a suitable part straight away.

Nuts are not a drop-in replacement part, and are not at all conducive to modular components as being ideal. They are something that has to be made or at least properly fitted to the individual instrument to very fine detail.

If you're not going to be doing this enough to justify investing in the tools and taking the great effort to learn to cut nut properly, it's usually best just to take it to a professional who can, assuming you have one available.

The few projects that I've made (concluded), I have built with ready made nuts and I think that for example Graphtech ones are made with pretty good nut slots and all I had to adjust was the thickness and height. I know well enough that the nut is a very critical part.

Get a torch tip cleaner from home depot or lowes, etc. They are a full set of small diameter round files that are well-suited for making guitar-string-size grooves in bone or plastic. You can find a torch tip cleaner (file set) where they keep the butane acetylene torches and such.

They cost around five bucks. Its the only tool I ever used to make my nut string slots. Like I said, it works great. They can be a bit small to handle, but with a bit of diligence and finesse they work just fine (pun intended).

Uh oh, I sense another 4 page nut file thread coming on. :roll:

Fret files also come in handy when you buy a new guitar or do fret work. I agree with David that you should take it to a tech if you're not interested in doing that kind of fine-tuning yourself. I personally enjoy it.

- Scott

Quite simply, torch tip cleaners work. They don't work as well as an expensive set of nut files, but on a precut nut, you can fine tune a nut with torch tip cleaners very easily. Ive even used them to build new nuts, but they hurt my fingers.

I still use torch tip cleaners to fine tume nuts because a nut file will cut through bone like a hot knife through butter, and my hand tremors are not always condusive to precision work like that.