Nut Slot Depth Anyone Can Do

Why go through the pickup positions, they have nothing to do with the nut. You didn't change pickups in this vid, so that had me wondering what that had to do with the nut work. I like your method, I had not seen that before. I have all the nut tools and files and such, but I will have to give your method a try next time I put a new nut on.. When I buy a pre-slotted nut, the easy thing I do is simply sand the underside of the nut to good thickness before I do the final gluing. Good video, thanks for this tip.

Wtf

looks like a bunch of unnecessary steps to me

Great video, thanks! my tele neck is new and without a nut slot yet, the tusq nut that Im installing is 5.71mm in height, how deep shall I file the slot on neck to start with please?

Absolutely and utterly WRONG!!! And the files are NOT nut files at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great method!! Thanks for posting

Really useful method, nice one!!

I appreciate the effort you put in in this video, but this is a very bad process. First off you can measure the nut slot deepness just by pushing the string at the third fret than tapping the string to the first fret, the gap should be less then 1mm, but should not touch the first fret. If you have your strings off, just use a short straight blade for this. This will give you a more accurate result. Also do not SAW nut slots, always file them! Why? A saw creates a very uneven surface and your strings will bind in the nut slots. If you do not have nut slot files, you can use anything that will fit in the slot and wrap around 1 layer of sandpaper. When I got my slots to the correct depth I always polish them with 1500-2000 sandpaper.

Lol!

The tape idea is one I hadn't thought of... and I might give it a try - although I've just got a set of feelers and I think they'll be more reliable! Also - Ali sell boxed sets of nut files and they're 'inexpensive' - I certainly wouldn't go near a but with a saw blade and hack backwards and forwards on it! As for putting petroleum jelly in the nut slots....? - that's insane - grab a pencil and put a layer of graphite in there like everyone else does. As said - great video idea - but some of the methods and materials will give me nightmares! If the job's worth doing - it's worth doing right!

Good thing it is a Fender Squier.

wtf is this guy doing?.. lol

Your nut should be sloted to the heigth of your frets. Think about it. When you capo your are using the copo's fret AS a nut. And guess how high this "nut" is. It is the height of the fret. So you can measure your fret. Make a spacer the same thickness and place against you nut and file DOWN to your spacer. Great video. Takes the mystery out of doing this.

I think I'll give it a miss

if you have relief in the neck the nut slots can be lower than the fret wire .

As soon as watched a few minute of this video, I went to the comments. I wasn’t disappointed.😂

Those jewelers files looks like what we call 'fretsaw' blades, should be easy to find and probably don't need special ones for metal like the jewelers need

This aint rocket science! Just check the clearance with strings on by pressing down on 3rd fret. If the clearance between string and 1st fretwire is too high, loosen the string and file down the slot. Just repeat until your ok! By the way. Why not replacing the plastic sh.. nut with a bone one?

Yup, that has to be the most inaccurate way to do a nut... period.

Tape compresses. You’ll not
get a fully accurate depth using
tape. And if you say you’re going
to replace the nut, why not just
replace it?

I know your intentions are good but the tape thing is not the way to go. Actually, with strings on, loosen one, move it over, "lightly" file, put the string back and check the height and move on to the next string and repeat. Another way is using something like a wide feeler gage of the proper height you are looking for rather than tape.

Lots of negative responses to this, but I've just tried it and it worked for me. I have a cheap Asian made, solid top acoustic which needed a new nut as the plastic one had cracked. I bought a cheap bone nut from ebay and sanded the bottom to try and set the nut action. It was ok on the bass strings, but still too high on the treble strings. The jewellers saw blades worked great and the masking tape worked well as a guide. Proceed slowly, check often and I can't see why it wouldn't work for anyone else.

Great information and demonstration, sir. Thanks for posting!

Jeweler here, those are saw blades and I have a trillion of them in every size. You just saved me hundreds of dollars on nut slot files. Thank you. I had always wondered if this would work.

I like that tone. What kind of amp are you using?

If you half a pencil long ways you can put it on the fret and draw the fret height on the nut

U dont find them to be of use for nuts because they are NOT NUT FILES those are NEEDLE FILES wich youd know if you would just read the packaging

This is wrong in so many ways...
I suggest checking other videos before attempting this.
There's different ways even if you don't want to invest in some slotting files.
But at least buy a cheap set of feeler guages and set the strings to around .020 .

Frickin genius ! thanks !

Thank you for this! It works great, every time.

Very cool.. More than one way to skin a cat as they say! ❤..
Thanks man ❤

Obviously wrong on so many levels!! The string slots depths should only be half the diameter of the string!! You’re showing people how to ruin the intonation of the instrument!!!

I’ve seen a bunch of videos on this, this is the best technique. Thanks

I use Music Nomad's setup guide with feeler guages checking string height at the first fret. The danger is going too low or too wide - new nut incoming.

Thank you for a helpful video

What brand of files are those? All the jeweller files I see are a lot bigger

I use an old Sam club card. Slide it tight against the nut. Gets close, then uses a feeler gage if needed. Yours is a good method also

I have a set of music nomad files work good, but not for a professional who would be doing a lot of nuts

These are jewellers fretsaw blades , not files.

Use the string as a file. Works great!

These Nuts! :D

Wish I had seen this before I wasted money on the nearly useless (for guitars) welder's tip cleaner set. However, your method will make a flat bottomed slot. Shouldn't the slot be rounded?

Why do you use a saw instead of a file? The hole should be round or the string will pinch inside the slot.

I tried this and cut too deep

I use a stewmac file set and micrometer. Go slow follow the angle of the head stock. Better to take a bit off then retry when tuned to pitch. . If you go too low, time for a new nut or the super glue baking soda trick (not a good trick) Good luck

How do you widen the slots for thicker gauge strings? If the depth is fine to begin with?

100% worked for me. It intuitively makes sense but I get the skepticism because this is such a bro-science-y realm of guitar maintenance.

I have a LP Special that has a low cut on the nut slot for the high E string. Sitar sound. It did not do this for the first year and a half. I wedged a tiny piece of foil to bring it up, and then it is good. The rest of the nut is cut perfectly, and there's not a whole lot of nut indentation where the high E is on it. I've seen people use super glue and baking soda to rebuild low nut slots and then re-cut them. I'm wondering if anybody can give me some advice if that actually works or what I should do instead. I guess my main question is how strong will the baking powder/ superglue mixture will be. If so, how long will it hold if I take this route. Any advice is awesome!

Graphite in the slot is a much better lubricant than Vaseline

I bought these blades amd was afraid to use them ...i finally did onna cheap acos