Locking nut size/replacement

[The Shred Baron]

Hello folks!

I'm the happy owner of an RG 570 with a well-used neck that needs a refret.

Rather than spend the money to have a complete refret done, I just purchased a Prestige neck from everyone's favorite online auction site.

The auction did not include the locking nut. My current RG neck has the bottom-mount nut, this neck has the top-mount.

My question is: Do I have to use an Ibanez nut (and either wait for an auction to spring up on **** or pay an exhorbitant price for a genuine Ibanez nut), or can I just purchase a Floyd locking nut...and if so, which size? I see R4 and R3 nuts are both 43mm, but I take it that they use different string spacings?

Any thoughts would be appreciated - the neck arrives shortly and I want to get it on the body ASAP!

Thanks again!

George

[honky_tonk]

i George ive been wondering this myself....... i think ibanez uses 12 radius...and the floyd is 10??....... i could be wrong though....... make sure you get some nut shims.....you can get some off evilbay....just search nut shims... i bought three shims for my nut and it wasnt enough...

[steve]

I would go with an Ibanez nut - the Floyd Rose nuts are made for a smaller radius (I believe the above-quoted 10" for Floyd Rose, vs. 430mm (just under 17") for the Jem/RG/7-string type nuts.
If you put a Floyd Rose (or compatible - Schaller for eg) nut on there, you'd have to set the height for the E-strings, and would then find the inner strings A through B would be much too high; a perfect recipe for miserable intonation problems, especially likely to show up on the G string (try playing an E-Major chord on a guitar with high nut-end action... that G# will be heading for an A quickly...)

It'll cost more, most likely, but you'll be much happier with the results by staying with Ibanez for that nut.

[The Shred Baron]

Thanks for your responses guys...guess I'll have to pony up the cash! Worth it to have a sweet-playing axe.

Thanks again!

George