Fender recommends 3 in one oil to lubricate the saddles when changing the strings. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to put a little 3 in one oil in the nut slots as well.

Would it hurt anything?

You do NOT want ANY petroleum products coming into contact with ANY of the wood of ANY guitar.

Putting oil in the nut slots pretty much guarantees an eventual bleed out into the wood so don't do it!

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You dig?

Fender Fretboard Conditioner, Ducks Ax Wax, Lemon Oil all contain petroleum distillates. Not suitable for lacquered maple though of course.

I use a slight dab of white mineral oil in the slots. It is a very light lubricant and there is not enough to bleed out anywhere. If it does wipe it off.
The problems all stem from over lubricating and oil getting under the lacquer and soaking the wood. If your putting that much on you need to get your nut looked at.

Read this thread for more information on what I do. http://www.fender.com/community/forums/ ... 8&start=15

Is this a LSR nut? If so, folow the far more intelligent responses above. If it is a standard nut, then what I use is a graphite pencil and rub it in the nut grooves.

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2012 American Standard Strat Charcoal Froast
2009 Standard Strat Sunburst Brown
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Of course there's the old standby graphite from a pencil lead. Maybe a little messy if you overdo it. For a few bucks you could buy some Big Bends Nut Sauce or the lube that Rene Marinez sells. But first make sure your string slots are physically smooth and don't bind. No lube is going to help if there are burrs or binding.

Hey
Ive read that Jimi Hendrix used to rub a pencil lead in the slots of the nut where the strings go. Ive tried it and works fine to me..
Cheers
Mike

Nikininja in another thread said something about using waxed dental floss >_>

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

For the nut I use graphite from a #2 pencil. I've also used Big Bends Nut Sauce and that works really well.

Since many years I use a mix of graphite with a very very small amount of petroleum gelly (vaseline).

It work fine.

I read this receipe on a book write by Dan Erlewine

I put a Graph Tech nut on when I first got the guitar and it does not seem to be binding, but I just set my bridge to floating and just want to make sure I don't have any tuning issues.

I'm NOT going to use the 3 in one oil. It would not be a good thing if even a little bit of it got into the wood.

Thanks everyone, and I will consider some of your ideas.

Never tried the pencil graphite since I had some actual dry graphite lube made for door locks. It was too messy though so I mixed it with a small amount of petroleum jelly - worked well but didn't like the black appearance.

Now I use the Rene Martinez lube from GHS (GraphitAll). It's white so it's basically invisible and works great. For $4, it can't be beat since the small tube will probably last a lifetime. I could see using the pencil trick in a pinch, but not for general maintenance since there are cheap alternatives.

(just tried to find it at MF and GC, but it doesn't appear they stock it any more)

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Then again, what do I know ... I've only been playin' for 6 months ... !