Nuts!

N

notCardio

I walk the line
Two questions about nuts:

1) If I get a neck with a plastic nut, how hard is it to replace? I know I could have someone do it, but what's involved in doing it myself?

2) I was looking at a neck that's had a FR locking nut in it, that's been removed, so the nut slot has been cut for it. Is there any reasonable way to undo that cut and put a regular nut in there?
 
1) You need a set of nut files to cut the slots on a new nut to the right depth and width. If you cut them too deep, you make up a 'cement' to refill and cut again.

2) No, you can't undo the cut, but you put a new nut in that is a standad one, and you'll have an ugly 'back of the slot' showing. You could cut some laminate of the same color/type as is on the head and glue it in I guess.
 
Yeah, I know I'd need to cut the new nut, I was just specifically concerned about the extra wood that had been taken away, since I assumed I would need a 'slot' to put the new nut in. Something would have to be used to 'backfill' behind the nut on the tuner side, and under the nut because a standard nut wouldn't be as deep as a locking nut.

It really sounds like a job for a professional, but I just wanted to know if it was possible, and what was involved.
 
If you dont have tools or experience, stew mac sells pre slotted bone nuts. You still need do some height adjustment most likely
For a floyd cut on a fender style neck you would just glue a shelf of the same wood as the fingerboard to get it back to proper height. Then fill the area behind the nut, and shape the curve back in.
On a rswd board it can be almost invisible.. if it is an old style nut where the neck is drilled through, you'd have to dowel the holes as well.
 
I did this very conversion on a neck with FR locking nut. My solution, as I couldn't match the headstock where I needed to back fill was a strip of brass cut and shaped to size. I drilled three small holes into the side which was going face down just over half way through the brass, cut 5mm of the pointy ends off three panel pins to tap into the holes, applied a little epoxy and tapped it into place before fitting a bone nut. The brass looked pretty good as it was profiled to match the missing material behind the nut. Had no issues with it, passed the guitar on a few years ago.
 
How did you shape the brass? And where would I get a strip like that? And did you also have to put clearance in for the truss rod?
 
Brass is pretty soft, I used files and emery paper then used a buffing wheel. I used to make brass dolphins for the girls I fancied at college while doing my engineering workshop courses, so fairly familiar with working it. There are numerous metal suppliers/iron mongers that are not too hard to find. You'd only need an off-cut. It cuts easy enough with a small hacksaw. Because the excess material comes off slower than wood sometimes does it's less likely that too much gets filed off before checking for fit. The truss rod cover/channel was not an issue as the brass combined with the new nut simply replaced the missing locking nut area and no more. The locking nut was nut height front to back. My new nut was narrower hence the brass fillet which was closer to the headstock level so did no interfere with the truss rod in any way. The truss rod cover butted up to the brass just as it had in respect of the old nut.
 
In that case once you've made your fillet from whichever material, take a round file to it with gusto until you have said channel :thumbs up:
 
Your "floyd" nut had a channel?
What is the headstock configuration? Almost sounds like a fender with a bullet truss rod.
 
RFR said:
Your "floyd" nut had a channel?
What is the headstock configuration? Almost sounds like a fender with a bullet truss rod.
Click to expand...

It is. Strat. Well, it's not mine yet. I was thinking about buying it because it's more or less what I was looking for, but it's dirt cheap. But I didn't know if it would be worth it because of having had a Floyd nut and the resulting work/expense of converting it back, if it was even possible.
 
Bullet truss rod? Rosewood or maple fingerboard?
Can you work with wood, even a little?

If rswd AND if a top mount floyd (as in screwed in from the top, rather than drilled all the way through the neck) it might be worth it.
For sure its repairable, and in the right hands invisible.

You buying the neck or the whole guitar. Does it have a floyd on the body ?
 
Dammit. Looks like they deleted the ad, which means they sold it. At least I'll have this information for future reference.

It was a bullet truss rod. Hatchet head aka CBS style headstock. Rosewood board. Just the neck, not the body.

Thanks for all the info guys. Sorry it was for nothing. Someday I'll just have to break down and buy a new neck and get exactly what I want, instead of always looking for a used one that I can afford.
 
Hey, I never did get an answer to my first question: What's involved in replacing a plastic nut on a new neck? How does one unglue the old one without doing damage to anything (other than the plastic nut)?
 
I'm interested in this as well... When I had the nut replaced on my ES135 a month or so ago I didn't see the guy do the work but he said he "just popped out" the old plastic one and cleaned the slot out before he installed the new bone nut. It looked clean and it only cost me $45 for the nut replacement and set up but if I could do that myself it would keep me from having to wait until the wife and I go to the in-laws to get anything done.
 
I've taken a few off over the years and probably been lucky, they either had a couple of pins in the bottom of the nut and a small amount of adhesive or were glued with a small amount of a superglue derivative. When I removed each of mine, I drilled two small holes into the old nuts, wound a screw into each for leverage and then had a feel to see how well attached they were, on each occasion they simply came off with small, sudden break of the adhesive leaving everything pretty much ready for the new nut after a careful clean.
 
notCardio said:
Hey, I never did get an answer to my first question: What's involved in replacing a plastic nut on a new neck? How does one unglue the old one without doing damage to anything (other than the plastic nut)?
Click to expand...

On a fender style;
With an exacto score the finish where it meets the nut. On a maple finished neck you need to do this on both sides of the neck.

With a flathead screwdriver and a smallish hammer, tap the nut for the purpose of breaking the glue bond. Works best if you do it all along the width of the nut.

I then just wiggle it out with a set of fret pullers.

Scoring the finish it important. You dont want to pull that up along with the nut.

Gibson style;

Again, score the finish. In this case you can just tap it off.

In both cases, it is a matter of going easy. Definitely Not a job where you want a bigger hammer!

:-)
 
What do you mean exactly by 'both sides of the neck'? Do you mean 'both sides of the nut', the fretboard side and the tuner side?

If not, then could you show me a quick pic of where you mean?
 
My bad, that's what I get for quick typing on a phone.

I meant score on either side of the nut. they are generally finished AFTER the nut has been glued in. Sometimes, you have to score on the sides of the nut as well.

The point is you need to break the finish so that when you pull up the nut no finish comes along for the ride.

That make more sense?
 
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