Nut slot question

[KokoTele]

Gibson lovers have gotten used to crap quality from the factory and have found many different ways to rationalize it

 

[Moldy Oldy]

Sure looks like a homemade nut to me. You could remove some of the excess material from the top and repolish to make it look a little nicer.

 

[Si G X]

Thanks guys. This confirms what I thought. The reason I'm thinking about this is I picked up a used Les Paul and the nut looks poorly cut to me (pic below). So I asked on the Les Paul forum. Of course the comments were all over the place. People generally agreed that (a) it looks like a Gibson factory nut, (b) the slots are way too deep, and (c) I shouldn't replace it. Huh??

As for the slots being too deep, I can say the BOTTOM of the slots are exactly where they should be. The strings just barely clear the first fret, action is great, and it stays in tune fine. My bigger concern was the string spacing seems uneven. It just does not look like a factory nut to me. I have a Tusq nut sitting here all ready to go, but then the Les Paul guys kept telling me not to replace it.

I guess I'll keep playing it as is as make that decision down the road... View attachment 979774

View attachment 979775

It looks 'alright' and if it plays alright then I wouldn't worry, the G and B look a bit 'off'

I think the amount the strings are 'in' the nut is because from the factory they were way too high (that's been my experience with the few Gibsons I've played lately) I expect someone addressed that themselves and didn't do a 'perfect' job (and used not the best tools) and didn't bother taking anything off the top. But unless it's causing issues then I'd leave it and change it at a later date maybe, when the guitar needs a bit of a set up/new strings/clean or whatever.

 

[Boreas]

The slots are cut into a "V" which is good if you want to take the nut height down. No need to replace it that I can see. I like my treble strings flush with the top of the nut, and the wound strings proud of the top. Since I stay mainly in the cowboy chord region, I find it annoying when my index finger knuckle grabs onto the excess nut that sticks out, so I keep the excess material at a minimum and very low profile. No sharp edges or corners. Also, on 3X3 tuners, I tend to route/polish the slots to follow the direction of the string toward its tuner post - down, and to the side - down, and to the side - down, and to the side.

 

[Freeman Keller]

That nut would not be acceptable in my shop, its just sloppy looking. However a lot of thing I see on new Gibsons would not be acceptable in my shop. I do use a proportional rule to space the slots - you can do the math but it is tedious. The idea is that after spacing the outside strings to the edge of the board (a player preference) I want equal spaces between the edges of the strings. The nut in the picture is some kind of synthetic, probably case and then cnc'd.

The bottom line, of course, is how it plays - easy to fret, no buzzes, no popping noise when you tune.

Here is a newish lester with a factory nut, certainly better than yours

What I am showing in that picture is the finishing that was covering the truss rod nut - that tells me they hadn't bothered to adjust the relief at the factory....

 

[crazydave911]

Unfortunately that looks EXACTLY like a Gibson nut

 

[KokoTele]

Among the many things I

That nut would not be acceptable in my shop, its just sloppy looking. However a lot of thing I see on new Gibsons would not be acceptable in my shop. I do use a proportional rule to space the slots - you can do the math but it is tedious. The idea is that after spacing the outside strings to the edge of the board (a player preference) I want equal spaces between the edges of the strings. The nut in the picture is some kind of synthetic, probably case and then cnc'd.

The bottom line, of course, is how it plays - easy to fret, no buzzes, no popping noise when you tune.

Here is a newish lester with a factory nut, certainly better than yours

View attachment 979816

What I am showing in that picture is the finishing that was covering the truss rod nut - that tells me they hadn't bothered to adjust the relief at the factory....

Among the many things I don't get about Gibson.. see how there's a little shelf where the nut meets the headstock overlay? Why on Earth bother doing that? It looks sloppy and takes extra effort. I can't remember when they started doing it, but it's been standard practice on their production line guitars for quite a while now.

 

[Peegoo]

Yeah, that holly veneer on the headstock should run all the way to the end of the fingerboard. Way easier and faster to do. It's not like they need to copy Fender--with the nut mounted into a slot.

 

[Freeman Keller]

Gibson lovers have gotten used to crap quality from the factory and have found many different ways to rationalize it

Here is the QC card from the one in my picture. Just run a line thru all the little check boxes and ship that sucker.

 

[Boreas]

Here is the QC card from the one in my picture. Just run a line thru all the little check boxes and ship that sucker.

View attachment 979922

"Only a Gibson is good enough"...

 

[jman72]

Here is the QC card from the one in my picture. Just run a line thru all the little check boxes and ship that sucker.

View attachment 979922

Wow, what TLC and personal attention to detail!

 

[Freeman Keller]

Among the many things I


Among the many things I don't get about Gibson.. see how there's a little shelf where the nut meets the headstock overlay? Why on Earth bother doing that? It looks sloppy and takes extra effort. I can't remember when they started doing it, but it's been standard practice on their production line guitars for quite a while now.

If you are talking about the channel between the end of the f/b and the head plate, many manufacturers do that. You can either put the nut on the flat of the neck or the angled portion, you can either butt the head plate or put it under the nut. Each has advantages, I've tried several combinations and slightly prefer nut on the flat and head plate butted (making a channel). A lot has to do with whether you are going to bind or not and how that should look. Here is the archtop sans nut, the head binding comes up under the nut to meet the neck binding

Here it is with nut, I guess I would say this is what I think a nut should look like

Thats a bit of stain on the binding, not quite enough scraping. I know, it looks sloppy......

 

[KokoTele]

I'm referring to this little strip of nut left when they file the tuner side of the nut down to the surface of the headstock overlay.

It gives the nut a cross section that looks like this: