Good questions!!! I’m not sure, bit you could have a point!!!
Some more nut adventures on one of my one-off custom builds - a 24.50" scale, twin humbucker Tele-style, set neck made from maple/mahogany/maple construction, that I built back in 2017 as a Mother’s Day Gift for my 80 year old, former pro recording artist and musician Mom.
This one (serial # 0016 of 27 built) is fitted with my hand-made, stainless steel saddles and a hand-fabbed brass nut.
I despise locking tuners and string trees, but they are frequently requested, and I have plenty on hand, so I used them.
Rockabilly guitar wizard Marty Stuart has serial number 0012 in his collection.
Hope you enjoy these photos. The nut slots on this hardtail are cut the same way I cut them on my tremolo equipped Stratocasters.
It is Mom’s decision to present this guitar to one of her favorite players, Joe B, so I’m setting it up .011" x .052" based on how Mike Hickey sets up his 24.75" scale guitars.
More on that as we move along…
From the studio,
- Rob
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Mighty fine work there Von!
What’s a good starter set of gear to change and cut your own nuts? My lentz has the D string fretting out open, fine if fretted. Also my YJM with it’s brass nut doen’t stay in tune as well as it once did, I don’t must the trem as much or play as much either come to think of it, I should lube if more often to start with I guess.
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On your YJM, as with most brass nut guitars, the wounds strings tend to produce a ‘corrugated’ effect in the nut slot floor over time. What I do is tape off the nut and apply valve grinding compound paste to the slots. You can work the old strings (still installed) back and forth by pushing down behind the nut, then finish up with an old string and pass it through the nut until the cutting action has stopped.
Be sure to clean the slots well after this process. I use a food-grade synthetic lubricant called ‘Super Lube’ on brass nuts. It available just about everywhere. It’s a silver tube with what looks like a rainbow flag on the label.
For nut making, I use the files from Stewie-Mac.
Also, this safe-edged file is perfect for cleaning out accumulated glue from the fretboard nut slot:
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Thanks Von, I shall try this, as you said I suspected the grooves may have formed on the wound strings.
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Any Recent Updates???
I did a few thing to my YJM, last week in fact, just been so busy with work…
Checked the nut, put my D string in the G slot on the nut, and found it was stick to slide it, so I added some lube and cleaned it with a slight pressure, not enough to cut but maybe using the windings as a file, though not sure if nickel or brass is harder, it fixed the G string from catching. Did this for for the rest as well, though just a clean mostly.
At the bridge the Screw under the high was was tight, kept the bridge plate from being totally flat, readjusted the whole bridge seating so that it’s flush with out opposite warble, restrung it and now it stays in tune like it used to very well. The Gstring slides over the nut and returns too.
Also changed the 3 way to a 5 way CRL, was surprised with the cheaper 3 way that came with the guitar.
Guitar is playing beautifully now, really missed 2/4 position. The other thing is I rewired it up and also disconnected the neck pickup from the tone knob, the bridge tone knob has a dent and no load, need one for the middle tone knob if I’m to use the tone knob, but it’s very low priority. The no tone pot/cap on the neck pickup makes a huge difference on the SD Furies.
Thanks Von.
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