NUT REPLACEMENT 219

Nut replacement

basic My first fix for a nut slot that was too low and causing the
About nut replacement 219 string to buzz on the 1st fret was putting a small, folded,
piece of foil from a gum wrapper under the string. I was
�
17 or 18, and in my first band The Spiders.The guitar was
d.i.y.
a 1956 Danelectro U-2, and I still have it.
12 steps for replacing a nut 220
Tools 220 Later, when our band was playing at a fraternity party,
Removing the old nut 221 it started buzzing again. I didn't have any gum, so I tore
Roughing in the blank 222
Cutting slots, finishing up 222 off a piece of matchbook cover, peeled it apart to thin it,
String spacing 223 and put that under the strings. It was a little muted, but
not much because I was careful not let any paper hang
i--
deep
off the front edge ofthe nut-that would have dead­
ened the strings. It wasn't long before I realized that I
could remove the nut and put a shim under it; I was
becoming a do-it-yourselfer.
The point is, anything's better than nothing, and don't
be afraid to mess with your first guitar, or otherwise you'll
never learn. Now let's look at some better nut repairs. ..

Nut replacement
The nut is one of the guitar's most important parts,
affecting action, sound and playability. It's worth your
while to learn to make perfectly-fitting nuts, but you
mightnot achieve it on yourfirsttry. Don'tquit: with
patience and practice you'll be making beautiful look­
ing, perfect-fitting nuts.You'll need a few specialized
tools, but not many.And like always: practice on some­
body else's guitar first - No, wait: I meant "Practice on
yard sale specials first!" (Son't wreck a good one while
you learn.)
You might avoid a nut
Rough up the bottoms
_of the slots, then use
replacement with this trick:
bone dust as a fill if a slot's too deep, fill it
with bone dust (created
by sanding) and harden it
with water-thin superglue.
This is much like new bone,
ready for refiling the slot.
220 GUITAR PLAYER REPAIR GUIDE
Nuts need to be replaced for a variety of reasons: the
string slots are too low and cause buzzing at the 1st fret,
the string spacing is irregular, or too wide, or too narrow
to suit your taste, or the guitar just isn't producing a
strong, clean sound (this is most often caused by plastic
nuts). Maybe you've found a used guitar with a chipped­
out slot on the nut. If your guitar plays well on fretted
strings but annoys you on the open ones, the nut's prob­
ably worn out. If you were happy with the nut's general
shape, you can remake it, copying the old nut's string
width and spacing as closely as possible-simply leave
the strings higher than before to eliminate buzz.
12 steps for replacing a nut
1 Remove the old nut.
2 Clean nut slot of glue and residue, and square it up.
3 Choose new nut material and rough-in the blank to
fit the cleaned slot.
4 Lay out string spacing.
5 Rough-in the string slots, without going too deep.
6 Trim off excess nut material from the top as the
slots get deeper.
7 Lower and shape the string slots, moving strings
side to side, if needed.
8 Trim off excess material, rough edges and overhang.
9 Final-sand and contour the nut's shape.
10 Polish with a soft rag and rubbing compounds
(especially the bottoms of string slots).
12 Final-check the string height and shape, then
string the guitar to pitch.
13 Glue in the nut, with strings on for clamp pressure.
Tools
The right tools help make the job easier. You can make
many of them yourself, and specialized items can be
found at the luthier supply stores listed in the back of the
book. Other items are available from hardware stores or
woodworking suppliers.
A sharp chisel is great for shaving and scraping glue
off the fingerboard's end; I like a 3/8" or 1/2" bench chisel
for this job.A 1/8" chisel that's ground slightly thinner in
width is also good, especially for getting into a Fender­
style nut slot. You'll find a smooth mill file handy for
shaping the nut, cleaning away old glue and helping
with squaring-up. A small (6") mill file is also quite handy,
since it's thin enough (.115") to file inside a Fender slot for
squaring up, and the file's tang becomes a great scrap­
er, chisel, etc. when sharpened on a grindstone (note
the tang-sharpened file in the drawing). Specialized
nut-seating files are also available in sizes to fit Fender,
Gibson and Martin slots.
A set of feeler gauges is a help when measuring action
height from the string's bottom to the top of the 1st fret.
If possible, buy the kind that you can take apart by loos­
ening a screw. In fact, feeler gauges are a must around
any guitar shop, for all sorts of uses.
Small razor saws are often used to start nut slots,
and in some cases to do the actual nut slotting. X-Acto
makes a great razor saw set with three interchangeable
saw blades of.012", .013" .014" thickness. Gauged saws
are also available in sizes from .015" to .040". They take
over where the X-Acto saws leave off. Saws are great for
roughing in a slot depth in a hurry, but I prefer to finish
up with rounded nut files.
Specialized nut-shaping files are available from Stew­
art -MacDonald, Luthier's Mercantile, and the C.F. Martin
company. Custom-made for getting into nut slots, these
rounded files have smooth sides that allow you to cut
the nut slot bottom, without cutting the slot's sidewalls.

These precision nutfiles have accurate, well-shaped,
round cutting edges, and cover sizes from .010" to .058".
Full sets offiles aren't cheap, but they're worth the
money if you get serious about nut-making. You can also
buy them one at a time; these three sizes make a good
starter set: .016", .025" and .035".
A diamond nut file is one whose edges are coated in
industrial diamond abrasive. Having no teeth, it doesn't
run off the intended line as toothedfiles will.
An X-Acto knife with #11 blades is also a must. It's used
to score the finish around the nut during removal.
6" stainless-steel rule that will read in 64ths of an
inch is essential. The hardware-store variety made by
Generalfills the bill; everyone should have one. Also
check out the string action gauge from StewMac: it has a
variety of scales. Having fractions converted to decimal
equivalents on the back side is handy for string spacing.
A dial caliper is always nice to have, but certainly not a
must. Even the inexpensive plastic kind is plenty good
enough for our needs. Nut spacing templates, with the
string spacing already laid out are also available, and de­
scribed below.
Whenever you're making or adjusting a nut, remem­
ber that string height at the nut is directly affected by
the height at the bridge. You may need to work back
and forth a bit from the nut to the bridge, by either rais­
ing or lowering an electric guitar's adjustable inserts
or byfiling, shimming or replacing an acoustic guitar's
saddle. You should be basically satisfied with the action
and playability of the guitar as it is (with the exception of
buzzing from nut slots that are too low) before making a
new nut, so that you don't discover at the job's end that
the bridge was too high or low to begin with.
NUT REPLACEMENT 221
Removing the old nut
Before removal, score completely around the old nut
with a sharp X-Acto knife or razor blade. This way, if the
finish starts to chip upon removal, the chip will stop
at the scored line. Most often the nut comes unglued
after being tapped with a block of wood and a hammer.
Firmly but gently tap from the front (fingerboard side)
of the nut, and then tap from the rear. Do this back and
forth until the nut rocks out of the slot. Once loose, grip
it with your fingers and pull it out carefully. I can't over­
emphasize the need to watch out for chipping the
finish! It's a risk you'll have to take. Many imported gui­
tars with thick polyester finishes are hard to score, but
not impossible.Wear safety glasses while scoring the
lacquer or polyester and while knocking the nut loose.
With Fender-style guitars, you'll have to grip the nut with
some end nippers or pliers after gently loosening it by
tapping, and then pull it out like a tooth!
Here's a nut-removal
method from Flip Van
Domburg Scipio, head
of the Mandolin Brothers
repair shop in Staten Island:
"When removing a nut
from a guitar with a bound
peghead, or one with a
- deep nut slot or heavy lac­
quer, I occasionally need to 'collapse' the nut instead of
trying to knock it or pry it out. Saw through the nut with
a fret saw until close to the bottom and then you can
squeeze it together-pulling it away from delicate bind­
ing, finish or wood."
I took a pair of my flush ground fret nippers and
ground the sharp jaws flat and dull. This works great as a
"crusher" for removing the collapsed nut, and as a grip­
per for pulling saddles too. Once the nut's out, clean
222 GUITAR PLAYER REPAIR GUIDE
any glue or residue from the nut slot (the groove that
held it in the neck). Even on cheap guitars, the nut slot is
generally uniformly shaped at the factory, but it needs
to be scraped clean of residue for a good-fitting blank.
Common nut thicknesses range from 1/4" to 3/16" (for
Martin, Gibson, Guild and their acoustic clones) down
to 1/8" (for Fender-style electrics). A variety offiles and
tools will fit in the slots for cleaning. I use a sharp chisel to
remove any glue from thefingerboard's end grain and to
trim any sticky stuff from the front edge of the headstock
overlay Held vertically and used with short strokes as a
scraper, a chisel can be great for cleaning the bottom of
the nut slot, too. The nut-seating files described earlier
work the best. If you file the bottom of the slot, be sure
to lightlyfile the lacquer's edge first, so that it won't chip
as you begin tofile the wood. To avoid pushing a chip of
lacquer off the neck, always file in from each side toward
the center.
Roughing in the blank
I prefer bone as a nut material, and no longer use com­
mercial ivory, which necessitates the slaughter of ele­
phants and other mammals with tusks. Don't even mess
with sellers of "legal" ivory-they're lying. Bone makes
an excellent nut, and synthetic Micarta is also good (Mi­
carta's good to learn on because it's cheaper than bone).
Start with a blank that's bigger than the actual slot
height, length and thickness, and slowly bring it down
to size. Use the saddle-making techniques described
in chapter 9 as a guide for squaring up the stock and
getting it tofit the slot. (Quick repeat: Flatten one side
against a smooth file, mark out the desired thickness and
then sand, file or belt-sand the opposing side to uniform
thickness.) Be sure the bottom is shaped exactly like the
slot; Martin nuts, for example, have an angled bottom.
Leave a 1/8" overhang on both treble and bass ends to
allow the nut to be shifted from side to side as you're
laying out andfiling the string slots. That way, if you
happen to get a bit off on your string spacing, you can
tap the whole nut towards treble or bass and relocate
the string slots.
The nut should press into the slot andfit snugly.
Viewed from the side or end, the blank should be gradu­
ally rounded toward the front edge (note the dotted line
in drawing below). If it pleased you, copy the shape of
the old nut. When the blankfits, trace the fingerboard's
radius onto it from the front side by running a pencil over
thefingerboard surface. Remove the blank and finish
laying out the nut in pencil by adding the thickness of
the frets (say .035"), the height of the strings from the
fret top, the thickness of the string itself and a little extra
for good measure. Most players prefer an action that's
higher on the bass side than on the treble. (This treble­
to-bass rise is illustrated in the previous two chapters.)
Use care when taking the blank in and out, so you don't
chip the lacquer or wood as a result of the tight fit.
Cutting string slots and finishing up
Before proceeding any further, lay some masking tape
over the headstock face and on the fingerboard between
the nut and lst fret to protect the wood andfinish from
an accidental slip of the file. Use as many layers as possible
without getting in the way of your work. On older guitars
with brittle finishes, it's best to use low-tack draftsman's
tape, which won't pull off
thefinish as aggressively.
Install the two outside
E strings as far in from the
fingerboard's edge as

the outer edge of the E strings to be about .055" in from
where the fret top meets the fret-end bevel). Do this by
looking down from directly overhead. Mark the outsides
of the strings on each side of the nut with a pencil and file
starter notches to hold the strings.The best tool for this
is a thin X-Acto razor saw; it's also perfect for the actual
filing/shaping of the slots for the high E, Band sometimes
G strings. In general I use a specialized set of nut files that
cut only on the thin edge and leave a round-bottomed
slot. If a full set is too pricey, start with three files: .016",
.025" and .035". These can cut most nut slots if you roll the
file for extra width as you cut. This "roll-filing" action is the
way to file slots. By using a file slightly smaller than the in­
tended notch width and rolling on the forward stroke to
widen the outside walls, you have more control and the
file won't stick in its own notch.
A traditonal way to lay out string spacing on a nut is
this: Once the outer strings are set in position, mea-
sure between their centers with the 6" rule or a dial cali­
per. Divide the distance by five to get an approximate
equal spacing between all six strings. Use a calculator,
because you'll be dealing in decimals-it's rare to find
a nut width that's divisible by fractions. For example, if
the outer E strings measure 1-3/8" center to center, the
decimal conversion is 1.375 divided by 5, which equals
.275 from string to string. I refer to this measurement as
approximate because the lower wound strings, being
fatter, would actually be closer to each other than the
unwound treble strings when spaced exactly evenly.
Use the exact measurement only for the initial layout, file
very light starter slots, and then put on the remaining
four strings. Now adjust the final between-string spac­
ing by eye, as you file and lower the strings into the nut
blank. Note that dividing by five gives equally spaced
string-to-string centers, which is only a starting point.
NUT REPLACEMENT 223
String spacing ;i .._y.
The string spacing rule (below, left) is a new devel­
opment that I think makes the traditional method a
waste of time. The string spacing rule was designed by
guitarmaker Kevin Ryan. It lays out the spacing dead­
on, adapts to any nut width (saddles too)and positions
strings proportionally so the fatter strings get the extra
room they need.
When the string slots have all been started, just deep
enough to hold the strings so that you can check them
by eye, switch to your nut files, X-Acto saw blades and/or
a fine-toothed hacksaw blade that's been ground down
to cut a tiny slit. File at a angle sloping back from the nut's
front edge, allowing the strings a good downward angle
toward the string post.To play in tune, the string's actual
contact point should be at the very front of the nut. On
guitars with angled-back headstocks, which are the
most common, you follow the angle of the headstock
itself. With slab-neck Fender-style guitars, you won't file
as steep a back angle, so just file the appropriate angle
needed for each string-post.
File the slots one at a time, starting with the high E.
Loosen the string and lift it out of the slot as you file.
Then replace the string, tune itto pitch and check your
work. Expect to go back and forth from treble to bass
several times before the slots get close to their final
depth and shape. You'll need to keep filing the nut's top
down as your strings get lower into the blank. In general,
you want the strings to sit in round-bottomed slots, filed
to the shape (diameter)of each string, and no deeper
224 GUITAR PLAYER REPAIR GUIDE
than one-half the string's diameter.
Here's a method for knowing when the strings are
dropped enough in depth-using the feeler gauges de­
scribed in the tool list given in the roughing-in section.
You need to remove the protective masking tape from
the fingerboard to do this:
1 Measure the height of the first two frets, from the fret's
top to the fingerboard, by laying a straightedge across
the two frets and sliding different combinations of feeler
gauge blades under it until they just touch the straight­
edge. Record this measurement (let's say .035" for an av­
erage, somewhat worn fret height).
2 Add to this from .005" to .010" or any figure you come
up with after experimenting. New total: .040" (.035" frets,
plus .005").
3 Stack up a number of feeler gauges that equal the
total measurement (.040"), and hold them against the
front edge of the nut while you file at a normal backward
angle down to the metal. When your razor saw, nut file,
or homemade hacksaw blade file contacts the hardened
steel-you'll feel it instantly-it's time to stop.
The nice thing about this method is that you can con­
trol the drop of the string and avoid accidentally going
too low. Also, when you find a good measurement for
high E and B strings that is low and comes close to your
final action, you can increase this amount by .002" or so
for each string as you go across the radius of the board
toward the bass side, slightly raising these strings more
than their treble-string counterparts. When you find
good average measurements, record them as a guide to
use some other time.
When the string slots are well spaced and deep
enough, do the final shaping and finishing. Using a very
sharp pencil, mark the excess nut blank overhang and
trim it off with your razor saw (file or sand if you prefer),
leaving a slight bit of the pencil line showing so that you
can file and smoothly sand it away without chips. For the
final time, sand down the top to eliminate any too-deep
slots, finish rounding and shaping the nut to look like
your original or the picture in your mind's eye, and sand
off any scratches using 320-,400- and 600-grit wet-or­
dry sandpaper, in that order.
If you have any really deep scratches, you may find it
easiest to remove them with your smooth mill file. Then
buff the nut on a soft rag smeared with a buffing com­
pound (I use ColorTone's #2 Medium). I like to high-polish
the slot bottoms with 1200-grit Micro finishing sandpa­
per wrapped around my nut files or razor saw. Finally,
dry-buff the nut surfaces on a clean dry rag. Care should
be taken when sanding, smoothing and polishing the
nut. Stay on the exposed surfaces and lay off the bone
that actually fits into the nut slot-too much buffing
here can create a loose fit when it comes to the gluing-in.
To be sure you have the action the way you like it,
string the guitar to pitch before gluing the nut in. Re­
check your string height and the relationship between
nut and bridge. Don't be surprised if you have to take
the nut in and out of the slot (stringing to pitch, as well)
as many as a dozen times while you're learning. Expect
some string breakage, too, from the constant tuning
down and up to pitch. Most pros usually have a nut in
and out of an instrument at least four times before com­
pletion, so don't feel bad.
If the final fitting meets your approval, glue the nut
into place using a couple of light dabs of hide glue or
white glue. I don't use super glue here, because its in­
stant setting time won't allow you to move the nut from
side to side when lining it up. Apply the glue lightly to
the front wall and underside of the nut, set it in place,
and quickly snug up the strings to hold it. After the glue
has set (one hour for a white/yellow glue such as Tite­
bond, and three or four hours for hide glue), you can
tune to pitch and you're back in the business of making
music.