Tattoosleeve Posted February 28, 2013 Report Share Posted February 28, 2013 Hey guys, Sorry if this has already been addressed but I tried searching the forums and the results were either nothing or dozens and dozens of threads that may or may not have had this question answered somewhere in the haystack of other info. I'm currently using the guitar setup tutorials posted on the forums here to fine tune a guitar that my father in law had made by one of his buddies for my son. It had some serious fret buzz on the 1st and 2nd frets across all strings when it arrived but this has since been resolved by taking the concave out of the neck and getting the neck relief set to .010. I've moved onto the nut height measurements and determined them to be E (.008) A (.008) D (.007) G (.011) B (.005) e (.006). The text in the tutorial says "if these measurements are bang on or close" (to .005) without mentioning what close means. I'm assuming the g string should probably come down from .011 but what should I be looking for in terms of +\- in thousandths of an inch to be acceptable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted February 28, 2013 Report Share Posted February 28, 2013 Sorry if this has already been addressed but I tried searching the forums and the results were either nothing or dozens and dozens of threads that may or may not have had this question answered somewhere in the haystack of other info. Perfectly understandable. Nut height depends on fret size...if it is a locking nut or a roller nut(because they are hardened steel and will never wear down) I set it to just a hair's breadth taller than the frets...you can set it to the exact same height,but for some reason I just like to put a hair extra in there,but I literally mean a hair. If the nut is plastic or bone(something that wears away over time) I set it the width of a business card higher than the fret height. After that if you still have fret buzz,then the problem is elsewhere. There is no "standard" nut height,as far as height above the fretboard...I don't go for these ".005" measurements...they mean nothing without a starting point. See the "H" dimension?That is the height I set the bottom of the nut slot(plus a hair) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted February 28, 2013 Report Share Posted February 28, 2013 By the way,there is a very popular builder in the metal community(no names,but not a member here) who has a bad habit of setting nut height before paint,then he removes the nut(locking nut) and paints the guitar...the thickness of the paint is enough to make the guitar unplayable in the first position...that should show you how little it takes to screw the pooch But his guitars are absolutely sickeningly good aside from that and the prices are good,so I just removed the paint under the nut,sealed the wood with CA,and reinstalled the nut.It was an invisible fix,so no harm done.I get the feeling he may not play the guitars himself or something,I don't know. Of course,I only had two of his guitars,so even though both had too much nut height it could just be a fluke I guess? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tattoosleeve Posted March 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2013 Just to clarify you're measuring the thickness of the business card at the first fret while fretting between 2nd and 3rd frets as in the posted tutorial? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted March 1, 2013 Report Share Posted March 1, 2013 No,I take a straight edge and run it across the frets up to the nut,and set the height of the bottom of the slot just that bit higher.I don't do that method in the posted tutorial because I feel like that is too high.Once I am done when I fret at the 3rd fret the string behind my fretting hand is damn near touching the first fret.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tattoosleeve Posted March 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2013 Are you able to temporarily mark the nut to make sure you don't file too low or it it just back and forth with the straight edge until you're at the height you want? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightninMike Posted March 2, 2013 Report Share Posted March 2, 2013 simple version i saw: Take a pencil and cut it in half... run it along the first 3 frets to set a mark on the nut.... you will do this when the neck is still flat from doing the fret leveling.... just above the pencil line is where you cut to for the start... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tattoosleeve Posted March 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2013 crafty, thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HCRoadie Posted March 11, 2013 Report Share Posted March 11, 2013 simple version i saw: Take a pencil and cut it in half... run it along the first 3 frets to set a mark on the nut.... you will do this when the neck is still flat from doing the fret leveling.... just above the pencil line is where you cut to for the start... It took me a few seconds to realize which direction, be it across or down the length of the pencil, you were suggesting to cut it. Good tip. P.S. this is my first post. WOW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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