MIMF

Frustrating.
Probably no help but:
Put a small piece of thin paper on the nut slot and press the string into it - see if it persists.
Loose truss rod?
Bad string? - try another.
Dampen the string (with finger) from nut to tuner.

You've probably seen this thread here, but if not it may stimulate some ideas about tools for making nut slots.

https://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=414

It was many decades ago, before the WWW and online instructions/videos, and I didn't know what I was doing - I mean, how hard could it be? :o The synthetic hair came prepared for installation, so I was lucky, though it was probably a pretty crappy job. The horse's hair was individual strands, and I ...

Good luck. Years ago I rehaired a violin bow with synthetic hair and as I remember it went OK. I tried rehairing a bass bow from the tail of one of our horses, and it was a complete disaster.

So many great methods, tips on guitar repair, and much more, and kind enough to answer emailed questions. What a loss.

Check this book out. It might turn out to be a fantastic teaching aid. I've suggested that it be added to the MIMF Amazon list, but in the meantime -- https://www.amazon.com/Building-Steel-String-Acoustic-Guitar/dp/1734125616/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3VXOD9YUBN13D&keywords=r.m.+mottola&qid=170086414...

I inkjet print them on regular copy paper, spray with rattle can lacquer, and glue with Elmer's wood glue. They will probably last as long as the instrument does, and certainly much longer than I will.

Thanks for the kind words, Philip. I am a physician (now retired) and along those same lines, I was taught (semi-jokingly) that when doing a procedure on an awake patient, and a mistake is made, you forcefully say "There!", instead of "oops."

Karl Wicklund wrote: ↑Thu Oct 05, 2023 6:22 pm Do I remember you posting another coin inlay?

I've inlaid coins, mostly Mexican but 2 Indian head pennies, in all the instruments I've made the last several years, mostly in the headstock. Easy to do once I matched drill bits with coin diameters.

Just finished a couple of basses. The tops are single piece walnut I cut out years ago from a milling offcut. Everything on these is from stuff on hand, except the black tuners and neck plate I bought to fit with the color scheme. Bodies are chambered, alder with walnut strips, as are the necks - fr...

If the neck is already cut to width, I'd think you could make the bottom of the fret board the width of the neck, and bevel out to the top the 1/32 inch, which shouldn't be very noticeable, assuming the fret board to be 1/4 inch thick (arctan 0.125 = 7 degrees.)

I've never had that problem, but I'd think a file card would clean most of the rust between the teeth, and just filing a piece of steel would get it off the tooth ridges if needed.

I stuffed steel wool around my charcoal lighter to transfer heat to the pipe. Maybe it would hold the heat cartridge in place if stuffed in very tightly.

I can't tell from the pics what is above or below the level of the finish. A lot of it looks like some liquid dropped on it and ran down. I guess the first thing I would do is scrape it down to the finish level, assuming a some of it is above.

Maybe I'm not understanding your exact need, but I googled "polishing cloth" and this came up:

https://www.amazon.com/Cape-Metal-Polis ... B00Y7KYEQA

The body was from my dental hygienist, that she got at a yard sale, who knows I build instruments. She bought it because she thought it was pretty, and found out it was from an instrument, but didn't know what kind. The strings were from a 96 year old auto harp player whose harps I tune for her (she...

I was gifted the body of a sanshin and a set of concert ukulele strings, so made an instrument to fit. The body is an open center wooden framework with python skin stretched over it, so is sort of banjo-like with a bridge sitting on it. A proper neck is long, fretless with 3 strings - since mine had...

Should I pull all the bracing and start over? If nobody else will answer this, I'll try. Yes, I would take it off and redo it more properly. It might be difficult to get the old braces off, unless you used hot hide glue. If not HHG, careful use of a chisel or small plane will be time consuming but ...

I think that besides the x brace being too thick and probably too high, the center of the x is placed too far toward the tail, toward the most resonant part of the top, and the vertical angle of the x needs to be widened, again to avoid the most resonant area.