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The Gretsch 6120 DSW comes with a standard brass nut. Sadly enough the nut on this guitar was 'buggered'. Some DIY selver must have a had a go at with a chainsaw or so judging by the look of the string slots. The effect was that the guitar just did not stay in tune.




Starting with a Pack and Save bit of cow bone, properly 'defatted', I cut out a rough shape that is slightly bigger than the original brass nut.





Second cut with the hacksaw





Now I have a rough blank...





Sanding it down to the right thickness so it fits 'tightly' in the existing nut space...





Filing and sanding it into final shape. Putting a pencil marker on it which follows the curve of the fretboard. This will tell me how much I need to sand off the nut bottom to achieve the action I want.





Cutting the string slots. I don't have a sophisticated set of Stewmac files. I use my own secret weapons





And here a nice new bone nut with my preferred string spacing and action. No more tuning issues. Happy as Larry.

Nice work!

Nice!

Aw man and here I was feeling proud of myself for soldering up a patch cable instead of buying one.

I use my own secret weapons

Go on, tell us.

jvpp wrote:And here a nice new bone nut with my preferred string spacing and action. No more tuning issues. Happy as Larry.

Would you be happier if the strings were sitting a bit prouder instead of so deep in the slots?

When I went from playing pointy locking nut guitars to a les paul I was a bit weirded out at first that the string is just kind of resting on top of the slot, but now I can see the logic that it means there's no real opportunity for the string to bind in the slot.

JHorner wrote:

jvpp wrote:And here a nice new bone nut with my preferred string spacing and action. No more tuning issues. Happy as Larry.

Would you be happier if the strings were sitting a bit prouder instead of so deep in the slots?

When I went from playing pointy locking nut guitars to a les paul I was a bit weirded out at first that the string is just kind of resting on top of the slot, but now I can see the logic that it means there's no real opportunity for the string to bind in the slot.

It is hard to see from that photo. I cut the slots progressively deeper for diminishing string thickness. The E is half 'in' and the e and b are the 'deepest' but still close to the top. That way they won't pop out during bends. But you observed this very well as I took a shortcut to set the nut action by deepening the slot. I still have to sand a bit of the top but haven't got to it yet.

nice work stewmac sell a load of unneeded tools

Thanks for the compliments guys.

I forgot you question mr Horner...

Postby JHorner » Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:55 pm
Aw man and here I was feeling proud of myself for soldering up a patch cable instead of buying one.

I use my own secret weapons
Go on, tell us.

As I said not very sophisticated, but it works really well...so start thinking about serrated knifes...

Somewhere I have a video of dan erlewhine with a popsicle stick and a guitar string glued to it.... Which is a great idea until you get to the unwound strings.

The only trick i know with a popsicle stick is that if you dip it soapy water you can use it to get a perfect finish on your silicon bead. Yes it is better than using your finger.

Well done. The nut on one of my guitars had the strings too low in places. It could probably do with a new nut. I was planning on putting some shims underneath to make it higher. Looking at your work, I feel guilty doing that now!!!

AiRdAd wrote:Well done. The nut on one of my guitars had the strings too low in places. It could probably do with a new nut. I was planning on putting some shims underneath to make it higher. Looking at your work, I feel guilty doing that now!!!

Don't feel guilty, I do that too when I cannot be bothered to cut a whole new nut . Look at the fourth photo. See that thin bit of bone? I always keep those for a 'quick one'! Supergluing bone is sooo easy. I'll dig a pic up of one I recently did.

AiRdAd wrote:Well done. The nut on one of my guitars had the strings too low in places. It could probably do with a new nut. I was planning on putting some shims underneath to make it higher. Looking at your work, I feel guilty doing that now!!!

Don't feel guilty, look at that shim

Probably looks worse cause this phot is huge...