The Enut, And Nut File Tool

[Jehle]

A friend of mine emailed this link to me last night.

http://www.monteallums.com/Stretch_Tuning_DW.html

From the looks of it, this guy found that the use of a torch tip cleaner worked great as a set of nut files. It's such a great idea that I've just ordered a few.

Another interesting idea is that he came up with a compensating nut add-on that works with the existing nut on your guitar, called the eNut. Follow the link and there's some good pictures of it. The funny thing is that I had the same idea about a week ago. I was going to experiment with the idea and, lo and behold, it's already out there on the market.

Or, shoot, here's a link to the piccy... eNut picture

I love this kind of lateral thinking.

[Guitarfrenzy]

We discussed this site in the Zero Fret Thread quite a while back. But yeah, it's definitely a neat idea and the nut files your talking about would be worth trying if you didn't have any already.

[Setch]

I've seen the welding tip nut tool before, and had one negative review - apparently the tips are a bit floppy, and it's a bit too easy to cut a slot which curves in directions you didn't intend.

The e-nut looks OK, but it seems a strange thing to buy - you have to tailor the slot height to get optimal action, and tweak the amount of compensation to suit your guitar, at which point you might as well buy a bone nut blank and slice it into a few strips

[soapbarstrat]

The torch tip cleaners are only good for burnishing the slots, and like Setch said, the smallest ones bend almost as easily as a guitar string.

I have them (luckily got them free), so I'm experienced with them.

I hope you didn't pay more than a few bucks for a set of torch tip cleaners, because that's what they are *suppose* to sell for. They don't have any sharpness, just rounded grooves much like a wound guitar string. And so, to get them to actually *cut*, a lot of pressure is needed, which makes them bend that much more.

[Jehle]

Yeah, I got 'em pretty cheap. Y'all should know that I'm Mr. Cheap when it comes to building anyway (like my $15 guitar). It'll be fun to experiment with anywho.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[Nitefly SA]

that nut file tool looks awesome, if i buy that it takes more than 100 dollars off my figured price of my current project

[javacody]

I read somewhere about a guy who uses guitar strings a size larger than his intended gauge to cut his nut. He would use the string as a blade in a mini-hacksaw.

[thegarehanman]

Only problem with that method is it wouldn't work with strings that weren't wound. So you'd still need a nut saw or file for the higher guage strings. Do wound strings really cut that well anyhow?

[Nitefly SA]

it would be like a 35 (?) TPI saw but it would probably cut . slowly no doubt.

[soapbarstrat]

Ok, like a REALLY REALLY REALLY dull 35 TPI saw, made in China, by someone who wants you to feel totally ripped-off by the lousy soft metal "saw" you got from them.

[jer7440]

Soapbar, didn't you used to have something on this site about wrapping sand paper around a feeler gauage and using that to file nuts?

[Setch]

The cheapest tools to cut nut slots are guaged saws - I got mine from rockinger. I usually follow them up with wet or dry paper, and burnish the slot with an appropriately sized string. You can also use automotive cutting compound with the string - it won't cut like a file, but when you're very near the correct depth that can be a good thing!

[Guitarfrenzy]

That's a good suggestion Setch. Also, if your low on money, you could buy three of the Stew Mac nut files, and use them to do all six. For example you can use the .010" nut file to do not only the little E string, but the B string as well, by slotting and turning it at an angle both ways to make the slot wide enough for the B string. Same thing for the G string, and D, you can buy one that will be slightly wider than the G string and slot the D with the same widening method. Of course the A, and big E string will make up the third nut file. This will get you by until you can buy some more. I hope this makes some kind of sense to someone.. lol

[Mickguard]

I was staring at my guitar this morning and thinking about how one could achieve a zero fret retrofit, kind of based on the enut idea....

With a strat-style guitar, it seems pretty straightforward --you could fill in the nut slot to fit the tang of a fret, then add a new slot for the nut a little farther back.

For a 3X3, what I started thinking was...maybe it's possible to take a piece of wood (that would serve double-duty as a truss rod cover) and attach the fret to the end of that, so that the fret straddles the end of the fretboard a bit.

The nut would be fitted into the piece of wood, which would be screwed down where a truss rod cover normally would...

So I sat there thinking about that for a while. Then I picked up the guitar and started playing.

[soapbarstrat]

I was staring at my guitar this morning ...

Man, I can't believe you can keep totally quiet about the part when the guitar began to levitate.

Oh yeah, sandpaper wrapped around feeler-gauges, small round rods, etc...., I certainly still do that, and actually prefer it, because it usually gives a more perfectly round bottomed slot than the files do. But, at a certain size, it get's too hard, and then pretty much impossible, like any gauge under .030" or something like that. My thread about it "went to hell" , but it's not something that needs to be "taught", once you're aware of the idea.

On the subject of nuts (no, not anything about my mental state), anyone see Stew-mac's new nut tool called 'string lifter' ? I can't believe they came out with that, because less than a year ago, I came up with something that works about the same way, and for exactly the same purpose. I guess I'm close enough to Athens Ohio that the "brain waves" travel quite freely.

[Mickguard]

Man, I can't believe you can keep totally quiet about the part when the guitar began to levitate.

Hey, don't laugh...it was already late, I was slumped on the couch in front of the tv, zoning out to some more bad french television, tired out from too much wine at dinner, looking up at my guitar and thinking, man, if it would only just lift itself off of its hanger and float on down to me, I'll practice.

Well, what do you know, it did...that was a couple of hours ago...got to sleep...