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So we're back under covid house arrest again up here in the great white north. I get why it's necessary and all other things but it's still aggravating... anyways.
So with two young kids at home and the wife the wife in clinical practice and me working remotely, the wife has the inlays here to help with the kids. After they're in bed there's need to be sociable and show gratitude for them helping out with home schooling and the zookeeping of young kids. So when socialising I'd like to be playing/practicing/recording but that's on pause a bit. However, I can do the fine detailing on small parts as I'm being social and all are watching TV and etc...
For Christmas I got the kids to give me a digital nut slotting gauge. It turns out that I really suck with feeler gauges - a lot. I have a lot of guitars where I naturally junk the corona/miacarta nut and create a new bone nut to spec as they do sound far better. I also just barely use super glue to hold them in place. So after filing the nuts to the proper depth the slots are still pretty rough. At this point I remove them and put them in the little vice I got at the hobby store and use the abrasive cord. That helps for the best part. Now I've got a bunch of nuts that are right to spec and help only by string force when the in laws arrive.
A nut where you've filed it well and used the abrasive cord could be considered as sanded to ~300 grit. In thinking about it that still seems pretty rough. Rough enough to at least slightly hang a string returning to pitch and not leaving a completely smooth surface across the nut slot for complete contact everywhere. So, off I go to the tool cupboard - in the dremel kit I have polishing rouge. I heat it a little and apply it to the edge of a business card. For the wound strings I double it over. Looking at there results the whole interior surface is a now a beautiful gloss with no pitting that I can see. So, because the wife says I have to be more social I move up to the non-cutting blue polish... It turns out you can get bone to a jewellery finish. So after doing a few of these and installing them I didn't even remove 1/10,000th of an inch so I'm still dead on spec. The effect has been absolutely stunning though. The definition in open notes has zing like I've never heard. Coupled with Graph Tech locking tuners with no string slack the stability is just amazing.
Yes I know it's a ton of work to go to that level of detail and it certainly wouldn't be profitable for a manufacturer or tech to do such work on such a small part but - seriously this was an impressive result.
Happy new year all.
So with two young kids at home and the wife the wife in clinical practice and me working remotely, the wife has the inlays here to help with the kids. After they're in bed there's need to be sociable and show gratitude for them helping out with home schooling and the zookeeping of young kids. So when socialising I'd like to be playing/practicing/recording but that's on pause a bit. However, I can do the fine detailing on small parts as I'm being social and all are watching TV and etc...
For Christmas I got the kids to give me a digital nut slotting gauge. It turns out that I really suck with feeler gauges - a lot. I have a lot of guitars where I naturally junk the corona/miacarta nut and create a new bone nut to spec as they do sound far better. I also just barely use super glue to hold them in place. So after filing the nuts to the proper depth the slots are still pretty rough. At this point I remove them and put them in the little vice I got at the hobby store and use the abrasive cord. That helps for the best part. Now I've got a bunch of nuts that are right to spec and help only by string force when the in laws arrive.
A nut where you've filed it well and used the abrasive cord could be considered as sanded to ~300 grit. In thinking about it that still seems pretty rough. Rough enough to at least slightly hang a string returning to pitch and not leaving a completely smooth surface across the nut slot for complete contact everywhere. So, off I go to the tool cupboard - in the dremel kit I have polishing rouge. I heat it a little and apply it to the edge of a business card. For the wound strings I double it over. Looking at there results the whole interior surface is a now a beautiful gloss with no pitting that I can see. So, because the wife says I have to be more social I move up to the non-cutting blue polish... It turns out you can get bone to a jewellery finish. So after doing a few of these and installing them I didn't even remove 1/10,000th of an inch so I'm still dead on spec. The effect has been absolutely stunning though. The definition in open notes has zing like I've never heard. Coupled with Graph Tech locking tuners with no string slack the stability is just amazing.
Yes I know it's a ton of work to go to that level of detail and it certainly wouldn't be profitable for a manufacturer or tech to do such work on such a small part but - seriously this was an impressive result.
Happy new year all.
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