It’s tone man! Or tradition... um... or traditional tone? I dunno. I can never keep all the luthery voodoo straight, especially since some of it is contradictory.
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First Build - "Lucifer"
- Thread starter TerribleTim68
- Start date
It’s tone man! Or tradition... um... or traditional tone? I dunno. I can never keep all the luthery voodoo straight, especially since some of it is contradictory.
Rôckhewer
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- Feb 28, 2015
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Dude... no grief. If you can build a bass (and frigging race cars
)... ...you can make a nut.You don't need a "nut blank".
If you feel like going with brass?
This is what I use. 3/16" x 3/8"(tall)... and you can buy as much or little length as desired.
I've had the same 4 foot piece last me 12 basses.
Did you happen to ask Graph Tech if they can make one at that length? Wouldn't hurt, right?Still fine tuning that volute -
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And I started looking at how the bridge saddles will lay out -
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That low B saddle is gonna hang off a bit. I think I misjudged the length of that 37" scale somehow, or the saddles I ended up with are longer than what I thought. No biggy, I'm okay with it.
I still haven't found a nut material yet. Still weighing my options, the fact that it needs to be 3" long is causing some grief finding an off the shelf blank. I'm also totally unsure what the width should be. I see a ton of options like 1/8", 3/16", 1/2" and I have no clue what the extra thickness means or if it even matters.
Weirdly, my favorite nut material so far is Bakelite, an old school type of plastic. That's what all the old giant black phones from the 40's were made from. It has a waxy consistency, kind of like graph tech, but I think it's harder, it polishes up nicely. Rickenbacker is the only company that still uses it AFAIK.
Other than Lignum Vitae, I cant think of any wood material that rounds wouldn’t chew up. Nothing’s moving at a bridge, so wood works down there.
I wonder if I can get brass stock at the hobby store, like Hobby Lobby or Michael’s.Dude... no grief. If you can build a bass (and frigging race cars
You don't need a "nut blank".
If you feel like going with brass?
This is what I use. 3/16" x 3/8"(tall)... and you can buy as much or little length as desired.
I've had the same 4 foot piece last me 12 basses.
View attachment 3936876
Nope, the XL blanks are 2-1/2” long and I’m gonna need 3” to have enough to work with. I’m thinking I need to take Rock’s advice and look for a brass stock. Or look into corian, I’m thinking of stopping by the depot of homes tomorrow when I go pick up the mini lathe.
oh yeah.... I said mini lathe.
Rôckhewer
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Very probable... also decent hardware stores.
but likely not as many size options as a dedicated metal seller.
Like.... they might jump from .125 to .25
....just speculation
Okay, small update.
Checked the local Michael's and they did not have any brass stock, only balsa wood shapes. Bla!
Swung by the local Lowes and they only had samples of Silestone, which from my research is an engineered stone, not solid surface material. I grabbed one but I have yet to see if a nut can be fashioned from it. Hmm.....
Checked the local Michael's and they did not have any brass stock, only balsa wood shapes. Bla!
Swung by the local Lowes and they only had samples of Silestone, which from my research is an engineered stone, not solid surface material. I grabbed one but I have yet to see if a nut can be fashioned from it. Hmm.....
Rôckhewer
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... yeah. Well.... um...
Silestone .. or Silly-stone as I "lovingly" called it back in my stone days... is a composite made from upwards of 85% natural quartz... feldspar etc...other minerals for color... and some crazy hard binder. It's actually harder than some natural granite colors, due to the high quartz concentration.
You'd need water fed diamond blades to cut it.
And even then.... its kind of a nightmare.
...sorry.
"Solid Surface ' is kind of a generic term for basically any counter top material that's not Formica or wood. (Including granite, marble, Corian, cultured marble.... silly-stone...etc.)
I had a feeling you were gonna say that, but it didn't cost me anything and I was already headed there for a drill bit so I'm not out anything, including time. The search continues.....
Well I'll be dipped in poo and covered with a thin candy shell......
Actually, @dwizum sent me some Ebony "scraps". I was told they were scraps, but there was 3 pieces in there perfectly suitable for nut making. I would not call them "scraps". But many, many thanks for the Ebony pieces! So my plan at the moment is to cut my own nut from the Ebony provided by our fellow TB'er.
I marked out some "stuff" and started cutting the nut slot. I was able to salvage the chunk removed from the nut slot in a manner that should provide enough material to patch that chip-out at the other end of the fretboard (if y'all remember that) like @Rôckhewer suggested trying. I held it up and found a spot on it that the grain should match up well enough to make that work. So yeah, I think I'm in pretty good shape on this.
But, I need to get some better tools and think through a couple things. I only own two chisels and they are both really old hand-me-down stuff that have sizable chips out of the leading edges. I did pick up a diamond stone sharpening kit yesterday so my hope is to spend some time today basically taking them down past the chip out and trying to get a cutting edge back on them. I'm going to need good sharp chisels to make sure that nut slot is correct and then again to make sure my patch job is accurate.
Then there's the conversation about slotting the nut. Currently I don't own nut slotting files, so I'm trying to think through that too. I may order a cheap set off the Amazonians, or I may attempt to use some string trimmings from re-stringing my other basses. I'm a little unhappy with my cheap Amazonian fret slot saw, it seems to have gone dull after the first fretboard, so my gut tells me the cheap nut slotting files will do the same. I know, buy good tools and you won't have this problem. But I also have to balance the budget as well. So if someone has a suggestion on an affordable set of quality nut slotting files, I'm listening. I do plan to build at least one more after this one, so there's that.
Rôckhewer
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Man... I don't think I would want to cut slots for an angled multiscale nut, with anything BUT an actual set of guaged files.
... but yeah they are pricey. Round wounds aren't very abrasive... to "cut" with.
But similarly..... one can get fairly decent results with a set of welding torch tip cleaners.
(If you you don't want to spend the $ on actual files)
They cut slow and are kinda fiddly. But they work.
I've used them on two builds, before I invested in a real set of files.
Rôckhewer
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i took the tip cleaners out of the metal case and made a little wooden handle... that holds them kinda like a hack saw blade.
...I'll find a picture.
...I'll find a picture.
Rôckhewer
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Found it.
Also discovered I used these on 4 builds... before buying files.
...go figure.
The handle helps immensely.
Also discovered I used these on 4 builds... before buying files.
...go figure.
The handle helps immensely.
Ah geeze! Thats brilliantly simple. I cheaped out and bought a set of those, but they are a lot smaller than they look in the ads. Now I gotta make a handle like that. I was holding them in a set of vise grips like a moron.
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