Aluminum Nut!?!?!

[RevNigel]

I've acquired a Peavey t-40 with an aluminum Nut... I am going put some extra heavy strings on it... I may have to widen the slots... What to ya all think? Rat tail file?

 

[littlepope]

How about a radial arm saw?? I had a T-40 once. You had to exercise before the gig with that beast. Skip all the drama improvements, (do yourself a favor) get a Fender '60 Vibe J Bass and groove like Verdine White!!

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Needle files should do the trick.

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Rat-tail file works if You're really careful, but a constant diameter helps a heaps. It's way too easy to ruin a nut with a rat-tail file.

Either a set of round needle files or a strip of emery paper wrapped onto an a drill shank of an appropriate OD works best.

Regards
Sam

 

[lethargytartare]

You might consider finding some scrap corian and try your hand at making one from scratch. Yes, a lot more work, but it will use the same basic tools -- if you can widen the slots on your existing nut well, you can probably make the slots on a new nut -- and if you can get a chunk of corian, your mistakes will be free and you will have your aluminum nut in stock condition to go back to at any time. And even if the corian (or bone, or tusq -- you can obviously get anything) experiment fails, you'll be better prepared to start filing away at the aluminum nut -- increasing the chance that you'll get a good result.

Good luck!
ltt

 

[RevNigel]

Thanks guys... I'll get to it soon. I'm really liking that bass. Very aggressive sound, and very durable.

Sorry bro, but I'm not going Fender. The string spacing on Fender stuff makes me frown. I'll stick to my "different" choices in instruments.