Neck binding with tape over nut? Or something?

Looks like clear coat to me.

 

Edit: Deleting an ill-informed suggestion that this looked like a nut that had been repaired in two pieces. Yeah, silly. I know.

 

The nut was taped in a diagonal before the clearcoat was applied.

That's on your new Special ? You had me looking for it on mine (Epiphone). Nope clean square cut

 

Edit: Deleted more of me furthering that silly two-part nut repair argument.

 

The headstock side of the nut doesn't 'line up' because the back of the nut was taped off too. There's a buildup of clear finish there too.

 

I acquiesce. Thanks.

It does make a heck of a lot more sense than a two-piece nut repair.

 

The nut was installed and masked off, then finished. That means two things to me - they did the setup before it was finished and its not going to be easy to remove the nut if and when you decide to. Most builders (like me) make the nut after the guitar is finished and any fret work has been done, including the ends, then the nut is very lightly glued in place with just a couple of drops of glue.

If you ever need to remove that its going to take some very careful scoring around the part lines.

 

Looks like they left the tape on there!

 

I repair guitars and make new nuts all the time. If that guitar came to me for a nut job I would send it away. Yes, you can score around and probably remove it without damage. Probably. Too much chance for it to go wrong, someone else can have the problem

 

Take it back, i just saw its a Gibson when i looked at the repair. The high E side looks like the Luthier cut a little of the Black area on the side front of headstock next to the nut also. hope you have some recourse?
Just looked at my new Gibson 2019 Les Paul Tribute Jr and it has a one piece nut with a nice shallow slots cut for of each the strings. The strings are just about flush with the top of nut.
Your slots look really cut low and the strings sit low within the slots for a new guitar., i think.

 

Gotta love Gibson and their weird ideas about nuts. Mine had Corian cemented in so strong it took me a half hour to cut it out. And yes, I cut it down the middle and squeezed.

 

Do you have a Gibson L P Special with P-90s ? Click on this link and look at the headstock photo and zoom in ++ and look at the strings slot and the strings location.
My 2007 Gibson LP Special DC yellow P-90 guitar also has the nut cut this way with nice shallow slots.

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/gibson-les-paul-special-electric-guitar

 

Wallaby, that isn't a deal breaker or anything, it's just one more cost cutting move. I could show you several others.

And I'll add that in my old age I am turning down lots of repairs that simply don't make sense for me. There are enough repair techs out there that are happy to do whatever is necessary, I'm happy to send them work.