The slots have to be wide enough so the string sits fully in the bottom of the “U” without binding…you’re already aware of the depth issues. Slope / angle is also mission critical.
Riis
Riis
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Bridge saddle height - should I shim?
- Thread starter swagbotbilly
- Start date
When measuring how deep you'll have to cut your nut slots, I find it very helpful to know how tall your first fret is and have an actual or even a makeshift feeler gauge roughly that size. Ive used a dunlop .60 flex pick for my own instrument since it matched my first fret height and im able to press the pick right up against the nut and bend it to follow the fretboard radius and have a rough measurement of how far the slot is from the first fret height. I found the perfect measurement for my preferred amount of relief was the height of the first fret plus the thickness of a peice of construction paper. When strung up to pitch this resulted in enough clearance for a white sheet of printer paper (not cardstock) to clear the first fret when fretting slightly in front of the second fret.
I just reamesured my recently cut brass nut and it my first fret was actually two .60 picks stacked on top of each other. My point still stands it helps to know how tall your first fret is and have a way to compare that measurement against the height of the nut slot.
Span your 1st & 2nd frets then 2nd & 3rd frets with a straight edge (…want an average). Measure gap between straight edge and fingerboard w/ feeler gauge(s). Add .010”. This should give you the desired slot depth.
Riis
Riis
Y'all -
After an entire afternoon of despair and not being able to get a reasonable action with a capo on the first fret, I figured it out:
The neck pocket is too deep.
It's not a squier body and I knew that, and yet I didn't consider that the stock bridge might have been shorter than the Hipshot.
Sure enough, I measured my MIM vs this guy. The top of the fretboard on the MIM sits 1/4" above the pickguard at the neck pocket. The "Squier"? Not quite 1/8"
So I'm thinking that a flat 1/8" full pocket shim should do the trick after all.
After an entire afternoon of despair and not being able to get a reasonable action with a capo on the first fret, I figured it out:
The neck pocket is too deep.
It's not a squier body and I knew that, and yet I didn't consider that the stock bridge might have been shorter than the Hipshot.
Sure enough, I measured my MIM vs this guy. The top of the fretboard on the MIM sits 1/4" above the pickguard at the neck pocket. The "Squier"? Not quite 1/8"
So I'm thinking that a flat 1/8" full pocket shim should do the trick after all.
