New guitar day...Again

[Mikernaut2]

tasty, yup once you try an USA made Jackson it's kinda hard to go back to an Ibanez, even if you do luv their thin necks. Jackson's have more tone ,mojo, soul and craftsmanship to me.

[AlTheHell]

Killer look... great score... CONGRAZ!!!!!

[MortenP]

Oh man, that looks totally killer!! That blue is my favorite colour!

Howzitplay?

[jonipop]

flames look awesome great job

[kmanick]

Congrats I'm glad you finally got a good one.
she is a beauty
Soloists rule

[RemCarr]

Nothing says "sexy" like some Blue Ghost Flames! Killer guitar dude.

[S-man]

Well I've been jammin on the sl2 and it plays awesome.

Today I started to use the trem quite a bit and noticed a creek when diving all the way down and pulling up. So I look into it and it seems the nut is moving ever so slightly. It sounds like the creek is there. I put my hand on the neck at the nut and sure enough, it's the nut moving and creeking.

Alot of people may just except it because it really wasn't that bad. Even still, it's not quite right as far as I'm concerned.

So it's time to check the screws that hold the nut on. It's seemed like most of the movement was on the bass side. I check that screw and it doesn't seem to have the right amout of resistance when tightening (ever so slowly). Turns out that screw was pretty much overtighten at the factory. It wasn't completely stripped or anything...it was just turned a little tighter than it should have been.

Time to break out a toothpick. So I do the toothpick thing and get it pretty tight. I'm still not happy with it. It creeks less but still isn't solid enough.

So I look at the screws and think...wow, these are pretty small to handle all of that force. They are #4 screws and have a fairly small head....off to the hardware store. I bought several differant types of screws. None of the #6 screws had a small enough head to work properly with the counter sink in the nut. I did find some zinc coated, steel #4 wood screws with a larger head, and a solid shank in the area where the screw passes through the nut. That makes them a little longer than the factory screws.

I wanted to get black screws, and I did. But they just weren't going to work properly.

I get everything tight and now the E and A string buzz on open notes. I'm not suprised. I break out a piece of copier paper, cut it to size and place it under the existing bass side nut shim. Then I tighten it all back up AGAIN.

The end result...totally solid nut, no buzz on open strings (even when being fairly aggressive), no creek, no perceivable nut movent.

The only problem is.. I occassionaly cut my thumb on the tips of the screws where they come through the back of the neck. Oh well, I can just sand them down.....I'm kidding! There are no screws coming through the back of the neck.

It would be better if the screw were black, but it doesn't look bad and they work MUCH better. Looking at the original screws now, I can see why it was an issue. But hey, I'm pretty picky about my guitars.

As good as the guitar played before, it plays even better now. It is definately one of the best guitars I have ever played. I know guitars aren't really supposed to make you a better player, but this one does.

I freakin love it!!!!!

Thanks for all the compliments on the pics.

I gotta go jam.

[slayer]

Congrats man Sorry about the screw thing, that should have never left the factory like that. Glad you got it the way you like it Jack.

[S-man]

Thanks man. No need to be sorry. I'm glad I found the problem so quickly. It didn't do it at first, I played it before I bought it, new in the case. Not a display.

Looking at the factory screws, I think they are too small. The head isn't large enough and they aren't long enough. The part of the screw that goes through the nut has threads, why? Anyway, I'm pretty anal sometimes, so maybe it's that.

Honestly it's not even an issue. The guitar is bad ass.

[Diego_]

Congrats, really sweet!

[jcm800x]

Nice guitar man! My last soloist was loaded with toothpicks from the factory! One of my favorite necks on that one, real nice looker too!