Nut width big problem.

S

SJ318

New member
Hello,
I bought a dirt cheap (129.00) Bullet tele for the light basswood, but after replacing the humbucker pup, and cutting a pickgaurd for a strat neck, fixing the fretwork to my liking, it is a beautiful, great sounding and looking guitar. I mean great. Problem. The nut I used to replace the crummy plastic one was a Tusq XL, a great nut, but the neck is narrower than the nut. The nut is spaced like most, from the middle of the low E string to the slot of the high E string at 35-36 mm.
I can tailor and fit the slots easily by myself, any custom work like that, but I cannot make a blank with narrower slots from scratch. I am NOT good enough to do that properly.
Please help me out. Is there for sale a nut on the market slotted a litlle narrower than that, I measure in mm as that is how I measured things at work (eyeglasses) for 20 years and am not used to inch measurements, although I sm sure I can, I am not sure what is out there.
I would really appreciate some help on this. Thak You in advance.
Steve Buffington p.s. don't want to buy a new neck!
 
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Re: Nut width big problem.

Hi, 35-36 mm E-E for a typical strat/tell of 41-42mm nut width is way too large. It will end up most probably with pull ups falling outside the fret ends on high E and bends on low E as well.
You dont specify what is your neck's nut width. I had this problem with my strat here : http://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/6710/nut-dimensions-strat

A general rule of thumb for me, for metal is :
nut width - E-E spacing ~ 8mm. If it is less than that, its a problem. Also measuring center to center than outer to outer should be also taken into account.
 
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Re: Nut width big problem.

Hi,
The nut is a Tusq XL, 41 mm long and the spacing from low E slot to high E slot is 35 1/2mm on the nose. My spacing BETWEEN strings is about 7 1/2mm. Is that what you meant on E-E spacing? It must be. I called Tusq today and their main guy said they made a nut w/34+ from E to E, and he sent me that and a Tusq blank.
The neck on this cheap but now cool guitar is exactly 41 1/2mm. The problem is, as I looked at all my other guitars I endlessly modify, the frets go much further out to the edge of the fret board, but the frets on this thing start just a tad before the edge of the fingerboard. Way different than all of my others. I am not a real lutherie, just a layman, but even to me it looks wrong. I even thought about sacrificing the low E string and cutting it closer to the A string, then moving the whole nut to the left-"inland"-you might say.
So after your remarks and what I found out today, looks like it is my turn to learn how to cut a custom spaced nut! So my E to E spacing should need to be 34 mm max. I hope this guy from Tusq is right about a 34 or so spacing.
Thank you greekdude for answering.
Steve Buffington
 
Re: Nut width big problem.

33mm E-E might be the correct value, so that 41-8=33, i guess those numbers are pretty standard, and its no big deal really, you may find cheapo pre-cut nuts with 33mm spacing that wiill get you years of fine ringing open notes. of course, a tusq nut, or brass or bone would be better and more durable, but even a cheap plastic nut can have many years of realiable playing!
Smth like this : http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Premium-C...nd_Vision_Amplifier_Parts&hash=item19ed669bff might suit you
 
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Re: Nut width big problem.

Ahhh and smth more. If your guitar has a narrow neck, you might consider narrowing the bridge as well, e.g. convert from a 56mm spacing to 52.5mm.
 
Re: Nut width big problem.

GraphTech/TUSQ products are available in numerous sizes. The details are clearly displayed on the packaging. The solution is either to obtain a pre-slotted nut of the correct width or a blank that you can form to your exact requirements.
 
Re: Nut width big problem.

Thanks All,
I really like Tusq XL, it works exceptionally well keeping my #2 strat in very good stabe tune w/plenty of "reasonable" vibrato: up pull open G to A#. Down push to almost slack, and still very, very good intonation. As good ad a roller nut; the LSR. So my choices are, in TUSQ XL is 34+ or a TUSQ XL blank. The neck with at the nut is 41 I think, I posted it earlier, note frets not wide as all my other guitars.
So, my bet is to probably what greekdude said-33 from E-E and divide by 6 to get spacing. Narrowing the saddles is too much, it is narrow enough, I can't remmber that measurement. But thanks for the suggestion.
Steve Buffington
 
Re: Nut width big problem.

You know that the actual entire length of the premade Tusq nuts are not an important measurement ? Find one that has the right E to E spacing that is too big and just sand it down to fit your guitar, very easy fix.
 
Re: Nut width big problem.

SJ318 said:
Thanks All,
I really like Tusq XL, it works exceptionally well keeping my #2 strat in very good stabe tune w/plenty of "reasonable" vibrato: up pull open G to A#. Down push to almost slack, and still very, very good intonation. As good ad a roller nut; the LSR. So my choices are, in TUSQ XL is 34+ or a TUSQ XL blank. The neck with at the nut is 41 I think, I posted it earlier, note frets not wide as all my other guitars.
So, my bet is to probably what greekdude said-33 from E-E and divide by 6 to get spacing. Narrowing the saddles is too much, it is narrow enough, I can't remmber that measurement. But thanks for the suggestion.
Steve Buffington
Click to expand...

I am afraid, from the search i did, that graphtech do not sell strat/tele nuts with E-E bellow 35mm. 43mm nuts seem like the modern width, while 41/42mm the vintage width. Can't seem to find a graphtech one that seems to fit your strat. Which is wierd since there are tons of necks with 41mm/42mm wide nuts.

I remember on my 42mm strat, the 35.5mm E-E nut felt like strings falling off the frets very easily. I hated that.

I think that an explanation of not finding good quality (graphtech) nuts for this dimensions, maybe comes from the fact that people do not use much tremolo for vintage spaced quitars?

Also you might check this one : http://www.thomann.de/gb/abm_7020c_roller_nut_st_style.htm

Also those are 41.5mm nuts : http://www.thomann.de/gb/search.htm...d1=9575&wgf9575=41,50+mm&wgfid2=9576&wgf9576=
 
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Re: Nut width big problem.

My own approach would be to measure the original nut for width, height and thickness. Then, measure the E-to-E distance. Then use a radius gauge to measure the fingerboard curvature. These figures form the basis on which to select a replacement nut.

String to string spacing is another issue. There are differing theories on how to go about this.

If there is nothing available off the shelf, you will have to start from a blank and work it with the correct tools. Even if there is something ready made that suits, it should not be considered finished. It may be necessary to fettle pre-cut nuts.

[Insert your own Aceman-Meets-Squirrel joke here!]
 
Re: Nut width big problem.

OK, can we cover the basic here first?

How wide is the neck? Narrower than 41mm?
 
Re: Nut width big problem.

uOpt said:
OK, can we cover the basic here first?

How wide is the neck? Narrower than 41mm?
Click to expand...

SJ318 said:
The neck on this cheap but now cool guitar is exactly 41 1/2mm.
Click to expand...

The OP's problem is not finding a tusq Strat nut with the right width and E-E spacing. However the OP noted that maybe graphtech might come up with smth.
All mass production Strat tusq nuts are with E-E>=35mm = problem.
 
Re: Nut width big problem.

To greekdude,
I read that GuitarNutz thread and I can't believe how that 4Real guy was going off on you, I just skimmed it, but even the moderator had to step in. I thought you handled him with a good deal of grace considering what a pompous overeducated twit that guy was. He seemed to get worse with time. Also, Loved the Roy Clark vid. I watched every show he was on back then cause my Dad liked him and I had a little nylon guitar, I watched Clark all the way up to Hee Haw and then I heard Beck,Hendrix, Bloomfield, etc.........
Also, I bookmarked that Ebay neck slot mod, thanks, that looks very useful. I believe as a nut virgin, I have one choice other than buying a new neck. I love TusqXL brand as it keeps my trem in such good tune. It is so slippery and tough. Also I was told by a repairman that you can't get graphite nuts anymore, but it sounds like he must be wrong. What other brand do you folks think is as good as the XL version of their nut? I believe I must cut the nut to NO WIDER than 33 mm E-E spacing slots, or (yikes-32). A new neck is not in the budget for right now.
I wanted to thank all of you- this has been a very informative and FREE lesson on nuts. Valuable. Hope I don't screw it up. I have the right tools to "fettle"(?-think I know what you mean, and would never rob Aceman the chance of a first nut-cut joke) the nut and deal with radius, and the rest, done all that before, but never actually did the spacing part. I guess if I go 33, I just take 33 and divide by 6? =5.5 mm slots (center to center) yes? Allowing for the thicker low strings by keeping the tool centered carefully. Are there other tricks for that or just keep a keen eye on it? I have a blank TusqXL on the way so I will just use that for now. I think the other one he is sending will be so close to 35 that it will be a waste of money but good on a different guitar someday.
Thank You,
Steve Buffington
 
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Re: Nut width big problem.

SJ318 said:
To greekdude,
I read that GuitarNutz thread and I can't believe how that 4Real guy was going off on you, I just skimmed it, but even the moderator had to step in. I thought you handled him with a good deal of grace considering what a pompous overeducated twit that guy was. He seemed to get worse with time. Also, Loved the Roy Clark vid. I watched every show he was on back then cause my Dad liked him and I had a little nylon guitar, I watched Clark all the way up to Hee Haw and then I heard Beck,Hendrix, Bloomfield, etc.........
Also, I bookmarked that Ebay neck slot mod, thanks, that looks very useful. I believe as a nut virgin, I have one choice other than buying a new neck. I love TusqXL brand as it keeps my trem in such good tune. It is so slippery and tough. Also I was told by a repairman that you can't get graphite nuts anymore, but it sounds like he must be wrong. What other brand do you folks think is as good as the XL version of their nut? I believe I must cut the nut to NO WIDER than 33 mm E-E spacing slots, or (yikes-32). A new neck is not in the budget for right now.
I wanted to thank all of you- this has been a very informative and FREE lesson on nuts. Valuable. Hope I don't screw it up. I have the right tools to "fettle"(?-think I know what you mean, and would never rob Aceman the chance of a first nut-cut joke) the nut and deal with radius, and the rest, done all that before, but never actually did the spacing part. I guess if I go 33, I just take 33 and divide by 6? =5.5 mm slots (center to center) yes? Allowing for the thicker low strings by keeping the tool centered carefully. Are there other tricks for that or just keep a keen eye on it? I have a blank TusqXL on the way so I will just use that for now. I think the other one he is sending will be so close to 35 that it will be a waste of money but good on a different guitar someday.
Thank You,
Steve Buffington
Click to expand...

hey man, good to know i helped a little bit!
now about "33 and divide by 6? =5.5 mm slots" you should divide by 5 not by 6, so 33/5=6.6mm so, center to center the slots should be 6.6mm far away from the adjacent one.
However there are some theories about this, that do not use uniform spacing, you might want to check this out.
 
Re: Nut width big problem.

Thanks,
6.6 makes better sense. I'll map it out when it gets here.
Steve B. EDIT-don't mean to drag this on, sorry, butt if you want 33 mm spacing, (not nut length) and want 6 slots, my mind says 6 should be the divider. It is hard to see in my mind. My blank didn't show up yet.
Steve I'll quit after this, thanks for your patience, forum folks. By the way, I found on line "The Manchester Guitar Tech *Nut Calculator*". It does it all, including using string gauge in calculations!
You gotta see it if you have'nt. Thanks Again.
 
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Re: Nut width big problem.

Steve, if you have N strings then the intervals that those strings form are N-1. 6 Strings give 5 intervals. The sum of those intervals are the E-e spacing.
 
Re: Nut width big problem.

Yes, Greekdude!
That is the best way it has been explained. Kudos. In Optical school a lot of people had trouble because we had to think in 3D in space for prismatic eye problems and how much induced prism and where it was needed was up to guys like me (Opticians) at that time-late 80's-to tell the lab what to make, to fix double vision problems.
We soon got computers in the machines that would do that for us in the 90's but till then, it was real front line optics, the docs wrote numbers but if they had double vision problems they would tell us so, but we had to use the formlas to get what the docs were after. I saw plenty of that as I worked for a group of 4 Ophthalmologists and 5 Optometrists. Some of them were huge D**KS and walked on water. So you were not lowed to F-up. A place like LensCrafters had the docs doing those measurements, as well as other Optical chains.
If you could not do that you would fail the school of Optical Science (Com. Coll. 24 months, no breaks) and many flunked out just on geometrics. Probably 50% of them. We were all around 30-50 years of age so some older folks (now younger than me) had been gone from school so long they just gave up. I was always good at it so what you just said I can see clearly in space. Thank you. You gotta check out that Manchester Guitar Tech site and check their calculater that figures in string gauge.
So THANK YOU ALL, over and out, most helpful thread I ever asked about.
Steve Buffington.
 
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