slotting the nut

[Chris Tremble]

Hi,
Im working on my first build, and have radiused my fingerboard, cut the fret slots and marked out where my nut will be located. How do I determine the height of my nut? Im using a graph tec nut which is radiused on the bottom which brings me to my next question. How do I make a radiused slot for the nut to fit in?

Chris Tremble

[Nick Middleton]

It's a lot of work to make a matching nut-slot in that style. Since you are building a new neck then I would suggest to instead make a flat-slot on the neck and simply file the underside of the nut until it becomes flat and matches. Prep the nut first to make sure you know how deep to cut the slot on the neck.

[Chris Tremble]

That makes alot of sense.
Thanks very much.

[Nick Middleton]

You're welcome. I only bother with the rounded bottom nuts when replacing it on a guitar that came that way. I would not go out of my way to build a new on that way.

[Mark Swanson]

You'll have to slot it as well, the slots in a pre-made nut are only meant to be the starting points. You'll need to make finished slots.