High nut, how to rectify?

[Random Hero]

You guys that have fixed a high nut, did you file the whole thing and basically make it sit deeper in the slot at the end of the fingerboard or did you get each slot filed down to allow each string to sit individually lower?

The nut is a 7 string locking nut, Lo-Pro 7, FWIW.

[skins345669]

Can do either. File them down from the top, or take the nut out and file up from the bottom, if you see what I mean. I would recommend the second one; doing the first makes the strings liable to getting stuck which causes problem with tuning.

[Rich]

Are you sure you don't have far too much neck relief? A high 7 nut is pretty rare, the biggest problem with 7's is the radius mismatch to the first fret that you have to bend the nut to correct.

You could only file the wound string slots, the pads still have to be able to keep the strings locked, and you will quickly kill a nut file trying it to begin with.

[Random Hero]

Originally Posted by Rich

Are you sure you don't have far too much neck relief? A high 7 nut is pretty rare, the biggest problem with 7's is the radius mismatch to the first fret that you have to bend the nut to correct.

You could only file the wound string slots, the pads still have to be able to keep the strings locked, and you will quickly kill a nut file trying it to begin with.

Fretting at the first and 15th, my neck is almost straight with slight relief.

[Jaden]

If its not what Rich says then I quite often remove material (wood) from beneath the nut simply by chiseling away a few thou at a time using the chisel like a plane and making sure I keep the nut platform flat... which is pretty important.

I dont know if I would recommend anyone to do that though, my chisels are like razors and ive been wooworking/joining/working on guitars for nearly 20 years and its still a difficult job to do perfectly.

[Rich]

I used to take it out of the rout, but discovered grinding was 10 times faster, and didn't further weaken the thinnest part of the neck. Although, I'm not sure I'd recomend grinding to somebody that's never done it either

[Random Hero]

I took a few pics to highlight the action at the nut and the rest of the neck to give you an idea.

Nut, with Jazz III for comparative purposes;


Low B at the 7th fret;


High E at the 12th;


12th;


24th (1);


24th (2);


Nut again;

[jb4674]

I'd say you should file the grooves like Rich suggested, instead of filing under the nut. As it looks like from the pictures, the action seems pretty low.

Jimmy

[Random Hero]

Originally Posted by jb4674

I'd say you should file the grooves like Rich suggested, instead of filing under the nut. As it looks like from the pictures, the action seems pretty low.

Jimmy

The action is actually very low. It's ~1mm at the 24th on the High E but it feels weird coming from a higher point at both ends rather than a lower nut... if that makes sense.

To crudely illustrate;

You would normally have a string angle like so... "/" (extreme angle, but I'm using standard characters here...) but you push it down to something like "___" yeah? It's more like "___" being pushed down to "\/".

Did that make sense sense to anybody?


Basically the action is very consistent all the way along, it just feels a bit weird coming from a higher nut.

[bammbamm]

Are there any shims under the nut?
Most ship with brass shims.

[axemanrio]

From one of the pics it looks like there's at least one shim. If you haven't already, remove the shim(s) and see if that gets you closer to what you want.

[Random Hero]

Originally Posted by bammbamm

Are there any shims under the nut?
Most ship with brass shims.

Originally Posted by axemanrio

From one of the pics it looks like there's at least one shim. If you haven't already, remove the shim(s) and see if that gets you closer to what you want.

Nope, no shims under there.