Dang it

Just received my hotrod 52. The action was too stiff at the nut so as I was tapping it out for the third time to fine tune it, it broke. So I have two questions. Can I get a factory replacement one from Fender EASILY and will it come with the slots already cut so I can just sand the bottom for the proper clearance? Thanks

No I don't think so. Best to have new one cut from scratch...

...out of bone.

Welcome, always great to see a post from a place like Chalk Creek.

Your string array at the nut on that guitar is 1 + 25/64ths, unless I'm terribly mistaken. That is the precise string array of the Tusq and Graphtech precuts nuts 'for Strat', Stewart MacDonald part number # 4750 in Tusq.
That nut is called a '1 + 11/16ths nut', but I've installed it on many necks quite similar in dimensions to yours, and preserved that 1 + 25/64ths array I like. They're like 7-8 dollars apiece, and you can use 150 sandpaper to remove material off the underside of the nut until it is precisely the right height. It is a precision molded product with a nice sharp backcut, should perform real well on there. Any extra width can be easily removed.

Good Luck,


Bubbanov

Fender makes preslotted nuts, even in bone, I think. I've used them before.

Fender makes preslotted nuts, even in bone, I think. I've used them before.

How much touch-up filing/sanding was required?

Boris, are you familiar with Alpine and StElmo in the Chalk creek gulch?

Boris, are you familiar with Alpine and StElmo in the Chalk creek gulch?

A bit, I've hiked a bit up in there, a little horseback and mountain bike riding, tent camped at all of the USFS campgrounds up along Chalk Creek; hung out at the hot springs resort there, also in the creekbed when the water is up a bit so it mixes with the hot spring pools. I love to whitewater kayak the Numbers, Granite ( I walk around Pine Creek rapid) and Royal Gorge sections of the Ark; or Brown's Canyon early in the morning before the hordes arrive. Too bad there wasn't more snowpack this past year, I tend to make it about 3 of every 5 years but not since Katrina, and not unless the supply of water is real good.
I've stayed out of the mining sites, and I don't climb anything very technical.
If I could find something that paid well in Buena Vista or Salida, but isn't that what everybody says? And I'm too old for construction.
One fantastic place, you're a lucky guy.

Bubbanov

Boris, your post was interesting to me. I live at Alpine. We first bought the place about thirty years ago when Alpine was mostly originals dating back to the the boom town days, or newer but very simple cabins. That is changing but it is a community and the people are very nice. As you know, Alpine didn't boom for long, and they found gold up the gulch and StElmo sprung up. I finally moved here fulltime a little over a year ago. Our cabin wasn't made for year-round living so its doesn't have a forced-air furnace, but we burn wood until hell won't have it to keep warm.

It is a good place because this part of the Arkansas river valley is known for being quite temperate. I am discovering there is quite a nice little underground of music players here in the BV and Salida area, much better than where I was from. It fits me perfect. I came from a small ranching/farming town and back there, most of the "musicians" were punks trying to get going. Up here, lots of middle aged family type folks play for fun with no pressure of becoming a rock/sex star. It fits me about right. But on the other hand, the musical people here are not snobby either.

The Arkansas in this area is being restored from the assault of heavy metals form the mines and the Caddis hatches are coming back on the Arkansas yielding some great springtime fishing. This is a good area. Where I live in Alpine, our primary transportation is a honda XR200r or a Rancher.

You mention what do you do here to survive. You got it about right. You either bring a bag full of money, or you do construction or service, or you work at the correctional facility which is "decent" money. There is a price to living in vacation land before you retire.

This summer, we received about several inches of rain in less than an hour and they actually evacuated us to BV because of a mud slide which was quite ominous.

Your description is so true to everything I've seen there over the last 20 years.
My grandma had grown up in Telluride as a teenager, after my great-grandmother married Orrin C. Thomas, one of the principals at the Tom Boy mine over there. I'd always favored making that place work for me, but there are way too many spoiled folks, way too much money over there, tho I will say my Dad and his sisters visited up there a few years back, got hooked up with the right people and were treated wonderfully.
I've got 35 years invested down here, and it is proving hard to wrap things up; I sure don't mind the pattern of life up your way.


Bubbanov