The nut on my MIM strat needs to be replaced and I was thinking of one of those teflon types like this http://www.guitarcenter.com/Graph-Tech-Trem-Nut-Blank-for-Stratocaster-360454-i1129704.gc would be good.

I do all my own setups and upgrades so I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, but I have never changed a nut before. I've been looking for something that is already preslotted too. I think that would be the hardest part.... how do you cut the slots especially for the thin strings?

Has any of you done this? If so, any tips you would like to share would be great! On the other hand maybe I should let a tech do this.

Thanks all!
Keith

This is one of those things where if you are only doing it once, then have a tech do it, since the tools to do it right cost more than a one time nut replacement.

I have had good results with Harbor Freights jewelers files, but you do not get the advantage of having string guage specific files to work with. This means that your files taper, and you cannot cut a deep slot without also cutting a wider slot. It is possible to do if you also remove the excess material above the slots as you go. It helps avoid drifting. I a few guitars this way because they were cheap instruments, that I was getting set up to give away. If I had to do more I would get the proper tools.

Last time I checked nut slotting files from stewMac were around $60 for a set?

I had access to everything I needed,so i did my own bone nut replacement. it really made more of a difference than I thought it would.

Yes. I have all the proper tools to do it with and must note that to do it properly, it takes a lot of experience.

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You dig?

work slowly and carefully.

Essentially agree with what everyone has posted.

But just to not entirely pour cold water on the idea of DIY, I have used the GraphTech pre-slotted TUSQ nuts a few times and usually found that very little - and sometimes no - work was needed to get them perfect. (Mind you, I don't use gigantic strings, so that helps...)

If work is needed then you can usually get away with very affordable needle files from a tool shop on the wound string slots. So then for the time being you probably only need to buy a single double-sided slot file for the treble string slots.

Stew-Mac offer some options on nut files and it can be a bit confusing at first. I'd have though that the 0.012 / 0.016 inch file on this page would do you fine for the top three strings for decades to come:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... Files.html

You can rock the file from side to side to make a slot that is bigger than the file's gauge. So that 0.012 edge will cut both the e and B string slots.

If you're up for it, give it a go! The worst that can happen is you spoil a nut while learning - and that ain't the end of the world.

Good luck - C

one thing i do advise is. To do your absolute best to get the old nut out without breaking it. Then it can be used as a template for the new nut regarding size, shape and string spacing. If you can get the new nut to fit tightly into its slot, then place it in without glue whilst you cut the slots to depth. If you muck it up you wont have to break the glue again.

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No no and no

Do you know, I've never thought of that. What a brilliantly simple idea.

Thank you! - C

Ceri, since you've undertaken your own lumbering and mentioned the plan to build your own guitar(s) from scratch, I was wondering if you've ever posted pictures of previous projects? I'd like to see some/all!

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hijacking the thread further, please take a close look at this picture and tell me what you see (any seams, a dowel, for example):

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1012/578 ... 03_b_d.jpg

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

[Panic!] Oh help! Whatever test is being set here I'm sure to fail. I've never claimed the slightest expertise on this kind of thing. I've been learning like mad on this stuff - over the last year on this Forum in particular...

...Hopefully nobody will get the wrong idea if I identify that '70s Strat as yours - from the bedspread. you've mentioned you have a '74 and a '75 (amongst several other objects of desire): since I can't see a seam in what looks like an ash body I presume this is your '75?

What the heck am I missing...? If there's something about the block I have no idea. Do the string ball ends sit close to the surface in their holes? Looking at the backplate screw holes, is the spring cavity quite large? ...The gentleman owner prefers a moderately firm trem action, appears not to tend towards large belt buckles, probably has a taste running from the Allman Brothers to Pink Floyd, Yes and beyond; and I deduce a mathematical tendancy, and in the home life parenthood, perhaps with a musical daughter (elementary, Watson)...

Calm down, Ceri, be serious. Serial number on the neckplate - does that signify something? Don't know.

Dark looking mark towards the tail strap button on the edge of the black paint. Is that a dowel? Did they still use the dowels by then?

Wracking brains - am I going to have to post my Homer Simpson "D'oh!" picture when you point out to me what I'm missing? Oh, well. Go on: show me what I can't see...



Hmm. All right. I'll be at a different location beginning of next week. I'll post you a "project" thread then...

Cheers - C

is there a dowel between the backplates bottom lefthand screw and the neckplate? I saw the one at the other end that i mistook for a wood imperfection

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No no and no

I'm sorry, this wasn't a pop-quiz for credit! I was wanting your expertise in all-things-wood and Wood Grains to validate my long held (30+ years) belief that this is a one-piece body from the '70s (oh the horror of the thought that such a decent piece of ash could come from such a despised era!).

That is a dowel near the tail strap button at the edge of the black paint. The other dowel is in the black to the right of the serial number and can't be seen (you have to hold the body at just the right angle to see it).

There's not a lot of info about Fender's use of Dowels either on the web or in books, so I don't know when they stopped. We did have a very useful thread on Dowels within the last year. I'm sure you remember that.

Oh, you must be psychic to have all of that other info you listed! What a good memory!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

>look at this picture and tell me what you see

I see the EXACT finish I am going to attempt to restore my '78 Strat!

(NICE!)

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Visit ALL of the exhibits. I have!

Phew! No need for the "D'oh!" picture.

Can relax instead:



Cheers - C

If it was a quiz, I think you got full credit!

Here's a front pic of same guitar (for completeness sake). Sometimes you have to compare front and back to look for seams. (And I gotta figure out how to take better pictures; how to take close ups of parts, is that called a Macro picture?)

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.