Nut Height

[davph]

Hi im am building a saga strat kit but am having problems setting the intonation and thing it is because the nut is too high, what is the best way to check what the nut height should be?

[fryovanni]

The tutorials on the main PG page go over this and all your basic setup steps. link

Peace,Rich

[Acousticraft]

I always use Melvyns method of fretting the string at the 3rd fret and making sure it has clearance over the first fret. I find this is good method of getting the lowest action possible. You need less clearance over the high E compared to the low E.

[soapbarstrat]

Make the neck dead straight first, instead of finding out after the fact that there's too much relief, which will then kill the optimum nut height you had set before.

[erikbojerik]

I use the Benedetto trick...after levelling-crowning-buffing, saw a pencil in half lengthwise, sand the flat edge level. Hold the halves together to sharpen, then take one half and lay it flat-side-down over the first 2 frets and draw a thin line on the side of the nut (held in place temporarily). Pull the nut out and slot just shy of the pencil line, install the nut, then tweek the slots to proper depth.

Capo at #3, you should have gaps of ~0.005" (treble strings) to 0.010" (wound strings) between #1 and the strings (use feeler gauges). If your intonation is good, you shouldn't be very sharp at all when you fret #1.

[davph]

Thanks eric, never heard of that one before seems like a great idea