Well, I'm building a 5 string bass... Got fretboard/neck blanks but neither are cut to size. I accidentally ordered a Fender style nut instead of the other, thicker type. Having never owned a Fender instrument before though I don't know how I could go about designing the headstock to fit the nut in on the fretboard rather than after it...

So should I fork out another £8 (I'm running real short of cash) for a new, right sized nut, or should I just cut the fretboard Fender style? If so, how?

Thanks,
Tech.

Just tried my first fender-style nut slot today. The zero fret position was already cut by LMI. I measured the thickness of the nut and marked that thickness from the front edge of the zero fret slot. Then I used my fret saw to cut another slot so the outside edge would coincide with the width of my nut blank. I used a 3/64" bit in my dremel tool to route out the material between my two slots. I set the depth of the bit to the depth of my slots. I did'nt have to worry about routing a strait line, since I had an extra .024" or so on each side. Once this was done it took just a little time to file the slot to the perfect width. Quite easy. Go for it.

Thanks for the advice! So did you have an inch from the end of the fretboard to the zero fret?

LMI gave me 3/8" from the zero fret, which left about 1/4" past the nut slot on the headstock side.