I’ve hacked up my nut seating slot. Ugh….

[hopdybob]

What prompted the installation of this? How was the slot filled? Any pix of the installation?

it was standard on this guitar and works really great.
you just need to measure the point where the string leaves the nut and that has to be the same point where the top of the round rod has to be where the strings leaves the rod.
this could be a second option when filling the nutslot with new wood and make a new nutslot would fail

 

[takauya]

Time to Floyd Rose the Tele? JK.

 

[Boreas]

it was standard on this guitar and works really great.
you just need to measure the point where the string leaves the nut and that has to be the same point where the top of the round rod has to be where the strings leaves the rod.
this could be a second option when filling the nutslot with new wood and make a new nutslot would fail

That makes sense. I am wondering if there would be enough room on a Fender fretboard to mount it in the proper place.

 

[Old Deaf Roadie]

I have used veneer to fill, then recut/reshape with great success in the past, but have only done so to fix neck pocket alignment issues and oversized pickup routs. I suppose it would work on nut slots, as well. If it were me, I would build up the slot & recut it.

 

[Sea Devil]

pipthepilot's lavishly illustrated post is definitely the best possible approach, but it's not the only one.

The easiest repair would be to fill the existing slot with wood epoxy and file a new slot. It would work, but would leave a visible line. Mohawk makes tinted epoxy putty that might make the repair nearly invisible.

If you want to use wood but think you don't have any of the equipment needed to hold the neck in place and make a pefectly perpendicular cut, you may be wrong. You can bind a piece of material (marble would be great!) with a known perfect edge to the fretboard side of the neck. Then you can hold a craft saw to that perfect edge to make a perpendicular cut.

 

[RedPillBlues]

pipthepilot's lavishly illustrated post is definitely the best possible approach, but it's not the only one.

The easiest repair would be to fill the existing slot with wood epoxy and file a new slot. It would work, but would leave a visible line. Mohawk makes tinted epoxy putty that might make the repair nearly invisible.

If you want to use wood but think you don't have any of the equipment needed to hold the neck in place and make a pefectly perpendicular cut, you may be wrong. You can bind a piece of material (marble would be great!) with a known perfect edge to the fretboard side of the neck. Then you can hold a craft saw to that perfect edge to make a perpendicular cut.

I do have a leveling beam and straight edge. Most craft saws cut on the pull stroke?

 

[BryMelvin]

A pro would fill the mess with a wood blank and re-cut the slot properly. All-in-all, it would likely be the easier and quickest repair.

Either that or take the situation to install a roller nut, which will need a different and larger slot than a original style fender nut.

 

[Sea Devil]

RedPillBlues, my X-Acto saws are bi-directional.

 

[Ted Keane]

I would start with an 12" circular saw,or a sawzall.Cut the head right off,probally at the 1st fret.Now you get a clean start.The truss rod is just in the way,so see if you can get rid of that too.Now get a 2x8 from Home Depot.I say HD,because you'll want it warped so you can cut it.Big screws into the neck.Then start shaping the neck.A sawzall works great,rough wood blade.You'll want to clamp the body and neck so they won't bother you with your new creation.Then,take a break,drink or relaxation material of choice.I will let you know how to proceed after you relax some.I have to call the muse for advise.

 

[stratisfied]

Never attempt to file a nut slot deeper to lower the first fret action. You have t take the nut out anyway, so you sand the back of the nut down.
Glue residue scrapes easily with an Exacto Knife and a chisel style blade without removing wood.

Measurements get complicated so us simple folk take a fine sharpie, scribe both sides of the nut long the fretboard and sand the nut on a piece of sandpaper over a flat surface until half the sharpie line is removed evenly, slip the nut back in and check, rinse and repeat until the desired action is attained.

You only option now that won't look like a hack is having a pro install an oversize nut from a blank after squaring up the slot. If you have altered the distance between the front of the nut slot and first fret, a pro can install a small piece of wood veneer or other material to slip between the slot and the nut to space it properly or angle approach to the nut in he slots slightly to ove the point of contact back.

 

[Brent Hutto]

Never attempt to file a nut slot deeper to lower the first fret action. You have t take the nut out anyway, so you sand the back of the nut down.
Glue residue scrapes easily with an Exacto Knife and a chisel style blade without removing wood.

Measurements get complicated so us simple folk take a fine sharpie, scribe both sides of the nut long the fretboard and sand the nut on a piece of sandpaper over a flat surface until half the sharpie line is removed evenly, slip the nut back in and check, rinse and repeat until the desired action is attained.

You only option now that won't look like a hack is having a pro install an oversize nut from a blank after squaring up the slot. If you have altered the distance between the front of the nut slot and first fret, a pro can install a small piece of wood veneer or other material to slip between the slot and the nut to space it properly or angle approach to the nut in he slots slightly to ove the point of contact back.

Sorry, I don’t agree.

Breaking the nut loose and chiseling out the (usually excessive) glue, just because a couple slots are a few thousandths too shallow is asking for trouble for no good reason.

just about every factory guitar ships with one or more slots being slightly too high (sometimes more than slightly). A good dealer will adjust this before and/or after the purchase. I’ve never seen them do that by removing the nut and sanding the back edge. They just lower each slot specifically as needed to get the height perfect.

 

[Freeman Keller]

If that guitar was on my bench I would route the end of the fretboard off just as tho I was going to install a locking nut (Dan Erlewine's book on repairs showns how to jig that up). I would remove maybe 1/2 inch of the end of the f/b. Glue in a little maple filler block and clamp another block of wood to act as a fence at exactly the nut location (measure from the 12th fret not the bridge. Use a razor saw to cut the new nut slot, chisel it out with a very sharp chisel and make a new nut. I would probably nix the little wall on the headstock end of the f/b and make a Gibson style nut.

FWiW I clean out nut channels all the time with a sharp chisel.

 

[Jim85IROC]

Plenty of great advice in here. At the risk of being an armchair quarterback, one suggestion that I might make for next time is don't replace your nut just because you changed string gauge. If you went up from 10s to 11s, widening the slots a tad is all that's necessary (if at all). If you're coming down to 11s from something larger, unless they were WAY larger, you shouldn't need to do anything.

 

[philosofriend]

Check the intonation on each string between the open string and the note at the first fret. If the first fret notes are not flat, you don't have to worry about adding wood at the fingerboard end of the nut to move the nut closer to the tuning machines.

Then get a sliver of a thin veneer and scrape it to a wedge so it fits behind the bridge. You will need a flat wood edge to lay the veneer on, get a piece of scrap wood, don't use a nice table, you will scratch it. Get a sharp knife, like a new razor blade, and scrape the wood in long smooth strokes. When you see dust or flakes coming off the wood you know you are holding the knife an effective way. You can also shape the wood with an emery board. Shape the ends of your wedge real nice before you glue it, for a better final appearance.

I would glue the wood sliver behind the nut with "school glue" because later if I or someone else wants to put in a new nut the glue is weak and can easily be cut away or dissolved with water.

This is not a big deal repair if the guitar already plays great.

 

[Tele-Mania]

You need to get a set of nut files then you could have just filed your original nut slots to suite the larger gauge string set. The right tool for the job.

 

[tubedude]

The effort and expertise that went into just creating that post leaves me thinking you know what you're doing, wow

And looking at the damage done I'd say the OP doesn't have the skills to pull this off, even with the tools. Take it to a luthier. This job is likely too delicate for a noob to start learning on, not to mention risky.
Experimenting on nuts, shaping, slot finishing etc. is fine to start. Any mistakes only cost you a new nut blank. He should try cleaning the slot with alcohol or a Q-tip dipped in acetone. Not too wet, as any finish is also at risk.

 

[effzee]

And looking at the damage done I'd say the OP doesn't have the skills to pull this off, even with the tools. Take it to a luthier. This job is likely too delicate for a noob to start learning on, not to mention risky.
Experimenting on nuts, shaping, slot finishing etc. is fine to start. Any mistakes only cost you a new nut blank. He should try cleaning the slot with alcohol or a Q-tip dipped in acetone. Not too wet, as any finish is also at risk.

It's just a guitar. You can always get another one

 

[tubedude]

It's just a guitar. You can always get another one

 

[Wheelhouse]

This thread is relevant to me. The Chinese neck I got has the nut slot just slightly too far away from the first fret so that it's noticeably out of tune when chording. I was thinking about taking the nut out cutting the nut slot, but this thread has given me some hesitation.

 

[Boreas]

This thread is relevant to me. The Chinese neck I got has the nut slot just slightly too far away from the first fret so that it's noticeably out of tune when chording. I was thinking about taking the nut out cutting the nut slot, but this thread has given me some hesitation.

That is probably a good thing. It isn't terribly difficult - it just has to be done perfectly!! Just remember, your nut will no longer fit the slot unless you shim it from behind. The slot will no longer be standard size - if it ever was.