I have just tried a slightly lighter set of strings on my fender jaguar, for a test. And adjusted neck relief, action and intonation. The A string was jumping out of the nut, I shortened the string a little so there are only 2 winds round the peg, and the string is lower on the peg....the extra downward pressure is holding it in ok just now. When I inspected the nut slot for the A string it is in the form of a V, and although I am an engineer to trade and not a luthier, this does not look correct to me and seems to be why it is jumping out when struck hard, or under bend. Could I be looking at a new nut due to heavier strings wearing a larger groove that the string is jumping out of. The old e string I think was an 85 and the new is 80. Or....Could I get away with filing the nut slots? if so what distance should the string be away from the fret board at the nut? And what profile should I form it to? Regards
Should be rounded and slanted toward the tuner so that the string only touches the nut in a small point at the fret side. String height. 1) Fret 1st fret and look at clearance over the second fret. 2) Then, fret third fret and look at clearance over the first fret. Make the clearance here at least as low as step 1). Should be about the thickness of a piece of paper.
Ok great thanks, need to get a wee set of files now. Should these checks and adjustments be done with neck relief set in playing position. Ie as fender recommend Or should i straighten the neck again before performing this?
I would. Set your relief and tune to pitch, then do your nut tweaks. I remove and address one string at a time. This maintains the neck at near-normal compression and allows you to re-assess "real world" parameters including string > 1st fret gap (.003-.005"). Riis
Sounds to me like you are winding the string from the bottom up, which is incorrect. Top down, and leave it as long as possible.
This occurred to me as well. I had to read his explanation a couple of times and decided to reject that possibility. YES! Do not go up tuner, go down.
Hmm, so stick the string in the hole down through the middle of the tuning peg, and then wind the string underneath it? Have i been doing it wrong then? I was always shown to wind over the top of it and this stops it from jumping out while tightening.
So the string crosses over itself once? One over the top then cross over to underneath for the remaining?
Yip, every day is indeed a school day Restringed again today when I swapped the bridge winding down this time, not up, and is much better. No jumping out of the nut. Thanks for the lesson folks Wont make that mistake again!
shorten? the procedure with fenders (because this is an inherent thing with all of them) is to use more string on the A, not less, so that the wraps go all the way down the post to the peghead face.
Yeah, noticed that the A string definately needs a bit extra over the other 3. And winding down the peg instead of up helps As I said, every day is a school day Worked ok all this time for my other bass winding this way, but it is 2l 2r configuration. Live and learn
Wind down always, even on your 2+2 bass. I think now you can see that it doesn't make sense to wind up when you take physics into account.
Yeah, a bit of a stupid mistake. Makes complete sense now when i think about it....DOH! Wont do that again, im amazed that ive been restringing wrong all this time and its only just caused a problem now. Handy info about the A string, always wondered why it rides a bit higher than the rest. Thanks again folks for the lesson
