Nut Height. Too high? Rich, do I have to file the nut base?

[MetalZone]

When playing basic chord shapes on my 1 month old RG1570, i've often noticed that the guitar sounded somewhat a little out of tune even though the intonation on the 12th and 24th and tuning is perfect. I didn't notice anything odd when playing on the higher frets including leads on the lower frets. But when playing a basic chord shape, it became apparent that there was something not sounding right.
I then proceeded to check the tuning of each fretted string, and realised that on the lower frets (1-3) it was possible to go out of tune by almost half a semitone sharp if i pressed hard enough, and when pressed with normal strength, it could go sharp by a quarter semitone on a few strings on the lower frets. the intonation is much more accurate as i move up the fretboard.
I remembered in Rich's tutorial it should be around 0.3mm. I measured mine and it turnes out to be way too high at 1mm (1st fret) as he mentioned.
I'm guessing this would be the cause why it goes sharp on the low frets?
I checked the nut for shims... cant see any on the bass side. and there's a 0.5mm(i think) shim on the treble side.
I guess i'll need to file the fretboard below the nut to get it lower...

[frankfalbo]

Just be sure your truss rod is adjusted properly first. Sometimes the neck itself can be curving upward in the last couple frets. That will make the nut sit higher in relation to the first fret, because the neck is on an upward swing back there. But yes, you'd have to file the slot or the nut base.

[MetalZone]

I have my neck bow set at approx 0.4mm gap at 8th fret with fret 1 and 24 depressed.
One of my friends says that it could also be because of a warped neck, or maybe like u say the neck is curved at the last couple of frets... how do i verify this?

[markg5150]

Consider getting the Buzz Feiten mod - I was amazed how much more in tune open shape chords sounded on a guitar with the mod.

www.buzzfeiten.com

[Rich]

I haven't done a tutorial on it because it's really not something a one timer should do. If you're going to take it out of the wood it's easy to get the surface curved with anything but perfect cutting motion, and, you'll find flat rosewood very tough to get through. And if you choose to take it off the nut [which I always recomend over taking it out of the wood] then you have to have a good grinder with good stones, and, be preparred to go thru a nut or 2 until you get the process down.

You should be able to easily see any "ski sloping" near the nut by sighting alone.

[Planeflux]

How high above the first fret are the strings? They should be as close as possible without buzzing. The neck bow affects this also. Many guitars, if not most, have this intonation problem that you mentioned. Reducing the string height at the nut should help a lot, if not completely remove the problem. Buzz Feiten is just too much of a hassle, in my opinion, but that's your call.

More info here: http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech/setup/nut.htm

[MetalZone]

I just lifted the nut the found two shims, a 0.5mm on the treble side, and a 0.1mm on the bass side. I removed the 0.5mm and relocated the 0.1mm to the treble side. The height at the high E is now at approx 0.7mm but the low E is still pretty much the same at 1.0mm. Imbalanced now it seems... I think I have no choice but to resort to filing either the nut or the slot.
The intonation problem is the worst on the B, G and low E string. The high E seems pretty accurate though. The neck doesn't appear to have any warping issues, checked with a ruler.

I checked my Ibanez GRX70 and the height at the 1st fret is at approx 0.3mm and it stays in tune much better at the lower frets.

Another minor problem is the G string seems to have some sort of wierd open string buzz when the nut is not locked, but the problem appears to go away once i lock the nut. Could the buzzing be due to the slot for the G string being too low?

Sigh, its an amazing guitar but this intonation problem is very irritating.

[Rich]

You can take the trebble side down to .2mm depending on how the nut radius plays against the fret radius.