Filing a Nut

ouch! why would anyone want to do that.










sorry, couldn't resist.

 

The reason why you hear more about adjusting action at the bridge and trussrod is because work done on the nut is not reversible, so if you screw up and go to low, you will have to get a new nut entirely. So it is less common to fix action problems with filing a nut.

 

Actually,Ben, there are at least two ways to correct for a nut slot that is too deep. One way is to build up the slot with a mixture of baking soda and superglue and refile the notch. Another method is to remove the nut and place a shim of the correct thickness under it.

The safest way to cut the notches for the strings is to use a feeler guage laid flat on the fingerboard, right up against the nut. Start out with a feeler guage(s) that you know is considerably thicker than the frets are high. File the notch down to the point that the file just barely touches the feeler guage. If the string is still too high, simply use a thinner feeler guage.
When you go shopping for a file, look for a handsaw file. A long narrow triangular file that will cut a vee shaped notch that can be rounded pretty easily by sawing an old string through the slot.


Pkr2

 

My 'Lex' Luthier is cutting a new graphite nut for a J project. Cost is $25 bucks ... I'd rather have him do it rather than dink about with the files for that long... I have heard good things about Corian for a nut. Anyone else ?

 

Well, both of those are more time consuming than just adjusting the action back at the bridge.

BTW-Do you have more info on the baking soda thing, I would like to know more info on that for the future.

 

I'm sorry but if you have a nut problem, no amount of bridge adjustment is going to correct it.

To build up the notches in a nut, a pretty common practice is to make a "putty" or thick cream from baking soda and super glue. just fill the notch with the mixture and cut a new notch.

Pkr2

 

When i de-fretted a p-bass it was the one thing i tried to avoid doing because of lack of confidence,it tried every which way to get the action lower with no avail.I finally gave in and carefully ,little by little filed them done one by one.After some trial and error it worked out fine and its now where i want the action to be.

 

I have a little library of graphite nuts with slots cut to exact size for 4 different gauges. Took a while to figure out hot to make them "just so." Now it takes me a few minutes to make a new one. Much better than trying to fix a bad nut--the fix may blow up during a gig.