Nut Help

[darwinphilosophy]

I am working on the tele bass and the neck I have needs the nut to be replaced...Whats the best glue to glue it to the neck? Also is there a specific depth or height that I should notch it at, such as how high above the fretboard. I know Stewmac sells these measurement things but I dont know how high it is supposed to be.

[darwinphilosophy]

I don't mean to up this but I would think someone would know this. And I have tried searching.... But "nut" is only three letters so it won't let me...Thanks...

[Dean]

I am working on the tele bass and the neck I have needs the nut to be replaced...Whats the best glue to glue it to the neck? Also is there a specific depth or height that I should notch it at, such as how high above the fretboard. I know Stewmac sells these measurement things but I dont know how high it is supposed to be.

Whats the best glue to glue it to the neck?

I use Titebond Original wood glue....you will only need a drop, as the strings hold it in place

Also is there a specific depth or height?

The radius of the frets set height......take a number 2 pencil and cut or sand it in half so it covers three frets,put your nut blank in place and mark it by sliding the pencil back and forth across the frets..leaving a line on the nut.That is your radius and close highth.mark the sides ,too.Then go from there roughing and cutting the nut.

[darwinphilosophy]

Thank you very much!!

[jmrentis]

I know I have seen another thread going over some similar question, but I have no idea if you could find it by searching. I believe a few people from that particular thread mentioned the preference of superglue for holding the nuts in. All suggested just a tiny amount, so in the future if you need to remove it, all it requires is a quick tap. Some people mentioned using one small drop and others liked two tiny drops one at each end. I believe in Dan Erlewines book he mentions using a water-soluable glue like titebond, but he thins it to 3 parts water to one part glue so its not so strong, you don't want to ruin your neck when trying to remove the thing in the future. I think thats why many people like just a tiny amount of CA because you can just bust it loose with a quick hit, I would imagine more cleanly than you could with titebond. I haven't tried testing the difference yet, so I don't have a personal opinion, though I go with just a tiny amount of CA(superglue).

As for shaping there are a few places to look, I know stewmac has a page on this which is of help and so does this sites(PG) main page. Stewmac Nut info. That'll get you started, though getting a book is very helpful and will give you a lot of great info on stuff like this. Also, something that you should remember is that the slot shouldn't be deep at all, certain people have suggested different stuff, many like half the string to be sitting above the nut when you are done and others like about 1/3 of the string above the nut when your done. Just make sure your strings are sitting in a deep slot, you'll have many problems. Best of luck.

Edited October 30, 2007 by jmrentis

[Hector]

I use just 2 little drops of CA glue. that's enough.

[madhattr88]

I use just 2 little drops of CA glue. that's enough.

a couple drops of superglue for me....the wood glue did NOT hold and i had to reattach it.

as for the nut slotting. not to get too technical, but the top of the fret plane should by .007" below the bottom of the nut slots.

i have a gauge to help me.

[Jon]

Two small drops of CA glue on each side of the fingerboard, which glues the end-grain of the fingerboard to the nut. This holds it in place and wont tear out important wood (or any wood) when removed in the future. It requires very little strength to keep the nut in place. For getting the nut to the correct heigth, I slot the nut accordingly and then use a radius block on the nut to get it to the right level.

[fryovanni]

You can make a handy tool by taking a small piece of glass (say from an old picture frame), and super glue a .3mm lead to the glass (just takes a couple drops along the length). Then use that to mark your nut by placing it on top of the frets and striking a clean line. You want to trim the nut down close (about 1/16th above the line) to ruff the nut. Then mark and file your slots to the top of the line. This will get you close, and you can bring it down the tiny bit more with strings in place and a feeler gauge (nut polished and glue in place of course, before fine tuning the depth). If at any point your clean line is smudged,erase it and re-mark it.

Peace,Rich