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GMC Forum _ GEAR & PRODUCTION _ How To Change A Nut ?

Posted by: fzalfa Sep 17 2015, 11:02 PM

Hi

i like to change a nut onto a Lp guitar

is it complex and/or need tools ans knowledge or can i do it by myself ?

Laurent

Posted by: Mertay Sep 17 2015, 11:20 PM

To me its a bit risky and needs a lot of attention, a lot can go wrong to be honest.

It's also the very setup that makes an average guitar feel amazing when done properly. I highly recommend finding a professional to do the job.

Posted by: Chris S. Sep 18 2015, 12:51 AM

If you have the money investing in a nut making kit from stew mac would be my suggestion.

It is very hard to ruin a guitar when changing a nut, however, it is very easy to RUIN THE NUT when filing it. If you can invest in the tools, and a dozen or so nut blanks then I would say go for it.

Learning to make nuts is a valuable skill and also extremely fun once you get the hang of it. I ordered the kit and ruined a bunch of nuts but once I got the hang of it making a new nut is a cake walk and it earns me a couple bucks here and there from friends and friends-of-friends who need a new nut but don't want to spend a lot at a shop.

Your choice

Posted by: jstcrsn Sep 18 2015, 12:10 PM

I always have mine done. I know how to do it, but one who does it everyday is going to have a much better grasp of the fine tuning ( no pun intended) things that needs to be done

Posted by: Darius Wave Sep 18 2015, 12:22 PM

Replacing the nut is not as simple as it might look. If you haven't done it before I highly recommend to take your guitar to a luthier

If the nut has a common paint surface with neck, you might break it while removing the nut. Usually some pieces of old nut night stay in the not slot with some glue. Nut alwasy has to have pefect contact on the bottom side with the neck so any pieces of old nut or glue has to be removed and the slot has to be pefectly flat. Othwerwise you might loose some sustain or treble tones.

Also...most important - even if you are lucky with no nut surface issues, there are still slots in the nut to be adjusted (routed) for each string individually. Very often if you put the nut just the way it is, you will have tuning issues between open strings and fretted notes due to high strings pressure (strings height on the nut). The lower you cut the slots in your nut, the less tunning differences will be between open stringsand fretted notes. Unfortunately it's usually a compromise between tuning perfection and fret buzz level

Posted by: fzalfa Sep 18 2015, 12:50 PM

i'll do make it by a luthier

a friend of me is one of http://www.guitares-galabert.com/

he done it with a fret flatening et a neck tune

Laurent

Posted by: Darius Wave Sep 18 2015, 01:25 PM

Sometimes it will cost you less money to make it at luthier first as an opposite to mess it up yourself and pay extra cash for fixing the problem