Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mortimer Snerd on December 3, 2009 at 4:22pm

Nut files are almost a must if you ever want to venture up to the next level of guitar building, but for CBG's, anything close will do.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bluesdog on December 3, 2009 at 5:08pm

@Tres
Your welcome! It was taught to me by a Luthier in a finetuning-a-guitar course :)

@ Travis
What do you want pic's of? The 1st and 2nd fret thing?
I can make a pic, no problem. If you say what you want pic's of i'l see what i can do for you.

The zero fret gives you enough action to slide on if that's what your aiming for depending on what your fretboard to string height is at 12th fret, normal guitar set-up's are usualy high enough to slide on (with medium string's) and still play good for fretting.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Travis "SlackJack" Woodall on December 4, 2009 at 12:06am

Bluesdog-
Would the zero fret act as a nut basically? In other words if my scale is 25" would I take my measurements from the zero fret to the bridge or still from the actual nut sitting behind it?? I think I have a pretty good idea of what I could use for the zerofret to raise the action up just enough. I only keep one size of fret wire around so I don't think using fretwire would work. I don't quite understand the first fret--second fret thing but I will re-read your post and try to make sense of it. Thanks for the help!

Travis

Bluesdog said:

@Tres
Your welcome! It was taught to me by a Luthier in a finetuning-a-guitar course :)

@ Travis
What do you want pic's of? The 1st and 2nd fret thing?
I can make a pic, no problem. If you say what you want pic's of i'l see what i can do for you.

The zero fret gives you enough action to slide on if that's what your aiming for depending on what your fretboard to string height is at 12th fret, normal guitar set-up's are usualy high enough to slide on (with medium string's) and still play good for fretting.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Roger Martin on December 4, 2009 at 12:29am

If your not sure if its the nut or bridge , try a dab of quick glue on the string at the nut and see if it stops, if it does then you know thats where your problem is. Same with the bridge. Worth a try, its worked for me several times.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on December 4, 2009 at 2:16am

Bluesdog, where were you four months ago?!?! I had the exact issue on a std 6 string electric and found that the original nut was way to high -- thus the notes closer to the nut were sharp. What you instruct here fixed my problem to a great degree (I still have some to go but I'm debating having to adjust the truss rod). Also I've been angling the slots back towards the head (tuners) to keep the strings from jumping out. My slots are slightly shallow(er) as I understand its best to try to have the slots ~1/2 the depth of the strings (in as much as possible).

Great info!

-WY

Bluesdog said:

If you incist on having a regular nut your in for a whole lot of delicate work.
You take the nut and file very shallow notches in the places you want according to your string spacing. So shallow the string's bearley hold into place and the action is waaaaaaaay to high.
Than you angle the slot downwards at the headstock side so it leaves an allmost sharpe edge at the fingerboard end of the slot.
Put the string in and tune it a little (not to pitch but two or three steps lower), push down on the second fret and hit the note, than while still pushing down at 2nd you push down on the first fret. If the pitch of the note at 2nd goes up the nut is to high and you need to file deeper untill pushing down on the 1st fret doesnt effect the pitch of the note on the 2nd fret. Then tune the string to pitch and check again if 1st doesnt effect 2nd (should be good) correct any pitch problems like you did before and your good to go.
But do remember to keep the correct angle when filing the slot deeper and that its better to file 5-10 times to get to the correct hight than it is to file twice and go to deep.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Travis "SlackJack" Woodall on December 4, 2009 at 3:18am

This has been a great discussion!! Thanks to everyone for all the great input and advice. Experience is the best teacher. That is one reason I try not to let these things stop me from doing what I want to do. May slow me down but it won't stop me. CBNation Rocks!!

Wes Yates said:

Bluesdog, where were you four months ago?!?! I had the exact issue on a std 6 string electric and found that the original nut was way to high -- thus the notes closer to the nut were sharp. What you instruct here fixed my problem to a great degree (I still have some to go but I'm debating having to adjust the truss rod). Also I've been angling the slots back towards the head (tuners) to keep the strings from jumping out. My slots are slightly shallow(er) as I understand its best to try to have the slots ~1/2 the depth of the strings (in as much as possible).

Great info!

-WY

Bluesdog said:

If you incist on having a regular nut your in for a whole lot of delicate work.
You take the nut and file very shallow notches in the places you want according to your string spacing. So shallow the string's bearley hold into place and the action is waaaaaaaay to high.
Than you angle the slot downwards at the headstock side so it leaves an allmost sharpe edge at the fingerboard end of the slot.
Put the string in and tune it a little (not to pitch but two or three steps lower), push down on the second fret and hit the note, than while still pushing down at 2nd you push down on the first fret. If the pitch of the note at 2nd goes up the nut is to high and you need to file deeper untill pushing down on the 1st fret doesnt effect the pitch of the note on the 2nd fret. Then tune the string to pitch and check again if 1st doesnt effect 2nd (should be good) correct any pitch problems like you did before and your good to go.
But do remember to keep the correct angle when filing the slot deeper and that its better to file 5-10 times to get to the correct hight than it is to file twice and go to deep.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bluesdog on December 5, 2009 at 12:58am

@ Travis

Yes exactley, the zero fret acts as the new nut and you can take your further mesurements from there. For the 1st fret i suggest going to a musicshop and getting one.

If you raise the fretboard a little higher than the rest you might as wel use a normal nut. Raising 1 part of the fretboard means you have to take the fret out if its to high to make that spot on the fretboard lower. If you go to low the fretboard is ruinned


I'd go and buy one ,they shouldnt cost to much (maybe a dollar or 2?) and its just waaaay easier.

@Wes
Uhm..... here i think :P hehehe
On a regular nut yes, than its best for the string's to be halfway in the nut slot (as long as you dont go to low on the fingerboard end of the slot), just be carefull with the sides of the slot if you file the nut slots to wide the string will have room to move from side to side in the nut causing a horrible buzz.

On the thrussrod part, push down on fret one and fret 12 and view the frets and stringheight from the side. Inthe middle you'l see a slight arch or bend in the fretboard. That arch or bend has to be barely deep enough for the slimmest string (the high e) to pas trough under. If there's more room than that you need to adjust the rod.

Just remember to never apply more pressur on the rod than you can with 2 fingers when turning the rod or its possible you'll break it, and take your time doing this! If it takes 2 or three day's to get where you want so be it, repairing a broken trusrod will take you a whole lot longer.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Travis "SlackJack" Woodall on December 5, 2009 at 2:39am

Okay, thanks! I will try that on the next build I work on. My current one has a separate fretboard and I just glued it up to the neck yesterday. That first fret/second fret thing you told me about is brilliant by the way.

Bluesdog said:

@ Travis

Yes exactley, the zero fret acts as the new nut and you can take your further mesurements from there. For the 1st fret i suggest going to a musicshop and getting one.

If you raise the fretboard a little higher than the rest you might as wel use a normal nut. Raising 1 part of the fretboard means you have to take the fret out if its to high to make that spot on the fretboard lower. If you go to low the fretboard is ruinned


I'd go and buy one ,they shouldnt cost to much (maybe a dollar or 2?) and its just waaaay easier.

@Wes
Uhm..... here i think :P hehehe
On a regular nut yes, than its best for the string's to be halfway in the nut slot (as long as you dont go to low on the fingerboard end of the slot), just be carefull with the sides of the slot if you file the nut slots to wide the string will have room to move from side to side in the nut causing a horrible buzz.

On the thrussrod part, push down on fret one and fret 12 and view the frets and stringheight from the side. Inthe middle you'l see a slight arch or bend in the fretboard. That arch or bend has to be barely deep enough for the slimmest string (the high e) to pas trough under. If there's more room than that you need to adjust the rod.

Just remember to never apply more pressur on the rod than you can with 2 fingers when turning the rod or its possible you'll break it, and take your time doing this! If it takes 2 or three day's to get where you want so be it, repairing a broken trusrod will take you a whole lot longer.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by LuckyFishEye on December 5, 2009 at 3:02am

It took me a while to figure this one out too. For one, I did not have the bridge in the correct place/position and the string height was to tall. I figured it out working against my regular acoustic guitar...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Braxton Nagle on December 9, 2009 at 6:40am

A good tip from Ted Crocker is get a set of welder tip cleaners they cost like 3 bucks they"re perfect for making & fixing string slots

Tim said:

what are you using to slot your nut. if the nut slot is too wide it will allow the string to vibrate in the slot itself and cause a buzz. a good set of nut files are expensive but will help greatly in this area.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Travis "SlackJack" Woodall on December 9, 2009 at 10:42am

Cool advice, where can I find something like that?? Local hardware store maybe??

Braxton Nagle said:

A good tip from Ted Crocker is get a set of welder tip cleaners they cost like 3 bucks they"re perfect for making & fixing string slots

Tim said:

what are you using to slot your nut. if the nut slot is too wide it will allow the string to vibrate in the slot itself and cause a buzz. a good set of nut files are expensive but will help greatly in this area.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tres Seaver on December 9, 2009 at 12:40pm

Travis "SlackJack" Woodall said:

Cool advice, where can I find something like that?? Local hardware store maybe??

Harbor Freight carries welding stuff -- check there.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page