Screw it, I'm learning to do a full-setup on my guitars.

[Diego]

Remember I took my Ibanez to a tech for the first time?
I asked him to replace the plastic nut with a bone nut.

Turns out he cut the slots extremely high, so I'm having intonation issues with chords on the lower frets,
and in fact I can't intonate the low E at all. It's sharp with the saddle all the way back.

How did I miss this one while inspecting it on his shop, I have no idea.

So I paid for a lesson: I'm buying the Stew-Mac nut files and I'm gonna learn to do this myself.

[Chris of Arabia]

Good move. Get the Dan Erlewine book too and you'll be set for many a happy set-up? Check out this too, it's where I started and has served me well - I have my well thumbed printout next to me as I type - Basic Guitar Setup

[CTN]

about damn time! :P

I need to get me some nut files and nut blanks too...and learn how to cut a nut properly. But the other parts of a setup = something every guitarist should know how to do

[Aceman]

Number 1 - he cut them high because he can ALWAYS lower them. Take it back for an adjust - should be free.

Number 2 - How are you doing intonation?

Still - learn to do it yourself. Although doing a nut is "a notch up" IMO. still, doable....


I know I play heavy handed so I like low frets, low action, low low low. Scalloped and big Dunlops + me = suck.

[TheLivingDead]

I wish you luck.

[ItsaBass]

Good idea to try that yourself. But do take it back to the guy as have him do it properly...once you are certain that he did not do it right. If nothing else, he needs to know that you know.

[Diego]

Good point. I have a gig this Tuesday, after that I'll give him a call.
I guess he won't mind doing some extra work to keep a loyal customer.
The tech's an incredibly nice guy actually.

As a sidenote, the intonation on the lower notes was a mess... until yesterday.
I had rehearsal today, so last night I tweaked the setup for my taste.
High action and some extra relief. I like that clean, fat sound.

The thing was SPOT-ON today. I just don't understand guitars sometimes.

[Powdered Toast Man]

The Dan Erlewine book is really good. I'm in the same boat. After playing for 15 years I figured it was long overdue that I know how to do a basic setup on my own guitars.

[Agileguy_101]

Here's a poormans trick...but might be to late for you now..

You can file the nut with the string. Any round wound string will eat out the corian to the perfect size of the string. Just hold a scrap piece tight and floss it down. Won't work on brass nuts of course.

Or on the G, B, and E strings :P

[Diego]

The Dan Erlewine book is really good. I'm in the same boat. After playing for 15 years I figured it was long overdue that I know how to do a basic setup on my own guitars.

Actually, I've known how to do the basic stuff for years.
Intonation, string action, neck relief, simple electronics, etc.
But I want to learn about doing a nut from scratch and fixing frets.
I'm missing that.

A good site on setups is http://www.ibanezrules.com, Tech section.
It covers pretty much everything except those two points I want to learn about.

I tried to use GJ's folding sanding paper trick, but I sort of ruined the string separation on another nut before like that, and I don't wanna mess this one up.

[JaySwear]

Hell yeah! I taught myself when I assembled my first warmoth. Glad I did now. Warmoth number 4 is on the way and I feel like each was better than the last haha

[GuitarDoc]

Good move. Get the Dan Erlewine book too and you'll be set for many a happy set-up? Check out this too, it's where I started and has served me well - I have my well thumbed printout next to me as I type - Basic Guitar Setup

Thanks for sharing that section about guitar setup. Very informative and useful.

[GuitarDoc]

A proceedure that every guitar player should know how to do.

[King IzzO)))]

Eh, high is better than low. My SG has has a 3 month old bone nut on it that the 1st string has apparently cut into and now it's too low. Gotta go back to the tech, I think the nut is gonna have to be replaced.

[Ball&Chain]

I just installed a new bone nut on one of my guitars from bone blank using a set of auto thickness guages, welding tip cleaners, calipers and some various grits of sandpaper.

I bought the gauges from autozone for 7 bucks. For the thicker strings you can combine 2 gauges to get the exact thickness you need. Once I had my combinations set up for the 6 files I needed, I took an old file I had and used it to rough up the edges of the auto gauges. I used those to cut the nut slots to close to where they needed to be. To fine tune the nut slot depth and round out the bottoms, I used the welding tip cleaners. Those are basically just small round files that come in a pack of various thicknesses for about 4 bucks.

All in all I think it works great for nut maintenance or a do it yourself nut replacement kit, though it's obviously better to invest in a good set of files if its something somebody would be doing regularly.

[cohara41]

Diego, way to go. I keep meaning to learn the re-fret, level & crown, cutting a nut on top of all the other stuff I do in my lil shop....Good Luck...Cheers

[GuitarGuy503]

I think I'd take the guitar back and have them do it right. Thats just me though. I'm not comfortable working on my guitars personally....

[ImmortalSix]

Good on ya

[gilaltom3]

I always say that I'm gonna learn things like that. Never do, though. Way to actually do it!