Nut Radius

[Inisheer]

Sorry this is probably a basic question, but does the radius of the fingerboard have to be the same as the radius of the nut?

I was looking at these fingerboards from stew-mac that have a 12" radius. They have a 1/8" slot for a nut. Then I was looking at this nut (#1866). It looks like it is the right size so it should fit in that slot nicely, but it has a 7-1/4" radius. Can anyone recommend a nut that will fit in without having to do any modifications?

[ryanb]

The Stew-Mac fretboard nut slots are flat bottomed, not radiused like a Fender. That bump in the middle of the bottom edge on the 1866 is there for flat-bottomed slots, and should be removed for Fender radiused slots (according to the Graph Tech site). It should work, I guess, but I would prefer to start with the blank one and not have the gap underneath. You will still have to re-radius the top to match the 12" board or you will have lousy action -- but you will have to work on the slots anyway if you want a good fit for your guitar.

There are some more options of the Graph Tech site (and their online store). You might want to look there or at other dealers.

BTW: There is no such thing as fitting a nut without doing any modifications ... (except maybe for a locking nut)

Edited June 25, 2006 by ryanb

[Inisheer]

Thanks. So if the slot is flat in the stewmac board then would this nut work better? It is flat bottomed so it might be easier to work with.

[Mickguard]

You'll still need to file the nut slots to set the action for your guitar.

Pre-slotted nuts are sold to take the guesswork out of having measure the gaps between strings. But for the most part you can't just drop them in and go. Well, you can, but your action will be pretty high.

Since you'll be filing each slot for each individual string, there's no radius issue--you'll naturally be following the radius of the fingerboard.

After that, if you really like you can radius the top to match the radius of the fingerboard (the strings aren't supposed to be buried in their slots, so you're supposed to reshape the top anyway--but because the Graphtech nuts are slippery, that's less of an issue).

Chances are Stewmac's fretboards are flat bottommed, that's just easier for them. But you can always email them about it, they're very quick to answer.

[marksound]

Sorry this is probably a basic question, but does the radius of the fingerboard have to be the same as the radius of the nut?

I was looking at these fingerboards from stew-mac that have a 12" radius. They have a 1/8" slot for a nut. Then I was looking at this nut (#1866). It looks like it is the right size so it should fit in that slot nicely, but it has a 7-1/4" radius. Can anyone recommend a nut that will fit in without having to do any modifications?

That little tab on the bottom of the nut is for flat-bottom nut routs. For curved-bottom routs you remove the tab. I've used several of those, both GraphTech and Tusq, and they're great. 3 little dots of wood glue to hold it in place, fine tune the slots, and go play someplace. Make some money.