nut slots,

[simon1138]

Hello,

i bought a graphite nut off ebay and fitted it to my guitar. i have included a picture of the strings fitted into the nut. i watched a video of fruda , this guy

he talks about the string going into the nut some distance and a certain shape of nut slot. then i watch dan erlwine and he mentions something else, then someone else says something different. 

i have fitted my cheap strat tremolo instead of the floyd. i tried to measure the distance between the string and first fret. i wont mention the distance as that is apparently and opinion. i do the third fret press technique and that seems to show a very small gap. 

i thought that i should up load a pic of the strings in the nut. i am having some problems with fret buzz. i have set the saddles as best i can to the 16" radius. i would like a low action. i have tried to straighten the neck as much as possible. most frets are fine except for the 6th and another higher up but i think that can be solved by pressing in. 

is the nut ok? should i chuck it and start again? 

thanks, all the best

simon

[Bizman62]

29 minutes ago, simon1138 said:

i would like a low action. i have tried to straighten the neck as much as possible. most frets are fine except for the 6th and another higher up but i think that can be solved by pressing in. 

Unlike you may think, a dead straight neck isn't ideal for the lowest action possible! Some relief is usually needed. To understand this we'll have to figure out how the strings move. You know about harmonics, don't you? Now if you strum a string the basic sound vibrates in a shape like a rugby ball or a skipping rope - an ellipsoid between the nut and the bridge. BUT: It also spins in a similar pattern between every harmonic node! So as the 12th fret is right in the middle, the string has the waist of a sideways 8 pattern right there and the largest points of rotation are on the 5th and 24th fret (which often is actually the neck pickup set a tad lower). We're talking about open strings here, fretting moves the nodes accordingly. Quarter and sixtht of string length rarely vibrate strongly enough to cause buzz but the first harmonic very well can do so. Some luthiers even carve a bow onto the fingerboard for the first harmonic.

So after having made sure that your frets are perfectly leveled on a dead straight neck and set the nut to have the very small gap, lower the bridge until you get the buzz. Then release the truss rod just a tad, a 1/8 of a turn at a time until the buzz goes away. You may need to raise the bridge just a fraction as well as the height of the action is a combination of the two. But basically if the bridge is at the right height and there's buzz around the 5th to 7th fret a slight release is the cure.

[curtisa]

14 hours ago, simon1138 said:

i have included a picture of the strings fitted into the nut.

No picture attached to your post.

 

14 hours ago, simon1138 said:

he talks about the string going into the nut some distance and a certain shape of nut slot. then i watch dan erlwine and he mentions something else, then someone else says something different. 

I think most advice you'll see regarding nut slotting is largely identical - that the slots should be deep enough to keep the string captive, that the slot should be shaped such that it minimises any pinching of the string, and that the slot should have a degree of backwards angle or tapering to minimise any sharp angles as the string changes trajectory from the fret board to the tuners. Erlewine's and Frudua's advice will differ only in their preference for fine tuning.

I would point out that the Frudua video is demonstrating some pretty advanced nut shaping that would likely take years of practice to master. His breakdown of how much the string should be exposed when in the slot will only be valid for one gauge of strings and is unlikely to be accurately executed with any degree of confidence. It's also less about how deep the slot should be, and rather how much excess you should takes off the top of the nut.

 

14 hours ago, simon1138 said:

most frets are fine except for the 6th and another higher up but i think that can be solved by pressing in. 

is the nut ok? should i chuck it and start again? 

It's not clear what the problem is you're having. Is the issue that your nut is too low that the open strings are buzzing in multiple places, or are your fretted notes buzzing in multiple places? Changing the nut won't affect the latter