Thanks Gearjoneser

[STRATDELUXER97]

Did this again to a strat that I recently put a new nut on....This technique is really easy and it does work!

A trick for nut work using no files.

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I thought I'd share a technique I've always used for getting the nut slots to be seated nicely, and it also helps to clean up a nut slot, eliminating ghost notes, and widening the slot enough for a Fender trem to work a lot better.

Take a 1 - 2 inch square piece of fine grit sandpaper. The 600 grit black/gray sandpaper works best. Take the little piece of sandpaper and put it under a string, folding it upwards, so you can grip it above the string. The paper will automatically bend itself around the bottom of your string. Slide it up toward the nut, and draw it through the nut, sliding it toward the tuners. Just like a file, it'll swipe out a little bit of nut material, cleaning up the slot. I do this on all strings, till all the slots are smooth. If you need to lower the nut slot a little, just do it a few times, and you can re-adjust the paper so you're always using fresh paper. If you perfect this technique, you can get the nuts dialed in on your guitars, so that regular trems work better, eliminating strings binding at the nut. It'll also fix strings that don't ring quite right.

[ErikH]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

Yup. I do that to "fine tune" the nut slots at the end of making a new nut and use even finer sandpaper when doing general maintenace so it cleans up the slot without taking any material with it.

[BlueSnMettle]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

Good stuff.

Peace,

Darrin

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

I used 1000 grit cause I didn't want to possibly remove too much slot material...Worked good and probably made the slots smoothe like a baby's a$$! ;o)

[Pierre]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

This works fine for the wound strings, but even on thicker unwound strings the sandpaper just folds instead of wrapping

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

I used 1000 grit cause I didn't want to possibly remove too much slot material...Worked good and probably made the slots smoothe like a baby's a$$! ;o)

Yeah, I can't recall if I used 600 or something finer.

And another trick is using a small 4" piece of wound string, that's one size smaller, folding paper around it, and using it as a file. So, you use a D string to file your A, and A string to file your E. That's if you have to do more extensive nut work, and you don't have any files.

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

This works fine for the wound strings, but even on thicker unwound strings the sandpaper just folds instead of wrapping

You have to hold the paper really taught and slightly slacken the strings...Works great...Use both hands to pull up on the paper and just slide it back and forth through the slots..Once you get the hang of it,works great..

[ErikH]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

I remember when I first got my SG Classic. It played great but was having slight tuning issues. Just seemed off in a few spots. So, remembering this trick, I pulled out the sandpaper and ran it through the slots, got the intonation dialed in and it's perfect now.

Did the same thing when I replaced the nut on my PRS SE. The bridge is a wraparound with no adjustments so getting those slots right was even more critical. This trick came through once again and helped get them dialed in just right.

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

I remember when I first got my SG Classic. It played great but was having slight tuning issues. Just seemed off in a few spots. So, remembering this trick, I pulled out the sandpaper and ran it through the slots, got the intonation dialed in and it's perfect now.

Did the same thing when I replaced the nut on my PRS SE. The bridge is a wraparound with no adjustments so getting those slots right was even more critical. This trick came through once again and helped get them dialed in just right.

Joe is one of my longtime buds here on the forums....Just a nice plug and a thank you...

[bigdaddy]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

600 grit is too fine, you will make the string slot too fine and the
strings will tend to hang up more because of the increased surface area. The rougher surface created by a file will actually make your tremolo work better.

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

600 grit is too fine, you will make the string slot too fine and the
strings will tend to hang up more because of the increased surface area. The rougher surface created by a file will actually make your tremolo work better.

I used 1000 grit and it seemed to improve things at the nut overall on one of my strats...The idea was to polish the slots and not remove too much material. Some guys use waxed dental floss because they want the slots slippery.Maybe I'm missing your point?We use Nut Sauce and products that make the strings glide "smoother"through the slots..

[JordanM82]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

600 grit is too fine, you will make the string slot too fine and the
strings will tend to hang up more because of the increased surface area. The rougher surface created by a file will actually make your tremolo work better.

This has worked for me on more then one occasion so I am not sure if I can agree. I understand what you are saying in principle but an increase in surface area and contact does not always translate to an increase in friction depending on the materials involved...

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

This has worked for me on more then one occasion so I am not sure if I can agree. I understand what you are saying in principle but an increase in surface area and contact does not always translate to an increase in friction depending on the materials involved...

My thoughts....We polish and lube the nut slots so the strings move smoothly through the slots...I wouldn't want anything but smooth in those slots!

[Stratman]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

Heck, just purchase nut files from Stew-Mac...

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Thanks Gearjoneser

Heck, just purchase nut files from Stew-Mac...

Got those also...Been making my own guitar nuts for awhile...