DXMG new locking nut

[groverj3]

Hello all,

My first Jackson was this DXMG... doesn't get played much now because of my SL2H, but, I did drop it to D-standard tuning for a few songs I play, giving me a reason to play it again. Making a long story short, I let a friend borrow it and now that I've got it back I noticed that the string clamps have grooves in them from overtightening on the strings (last time I let someone borrow my guitar!). I got a whole R3 nut assembly including a new locking nut as well as string clamps from stewmac but to my amazement even though supposedly it "should" fit, the nut is much higher and the string height at the low number frets is totally unacceptable. I suppose I could just swap the string clamps onto the old nut, but they don't fit that well. They'll screw in, but it seems like the old nut is a tiny bit narrower in the middle. The middle string clamp gets stuck in the space and I have to pry it out to get it off .

Is it normal for this R3 locking nut not to fit correctly? I suppose I could take the guitar to a shop and they could route a bit off the locking nut's shelf to make the action normal again, but it might just be easier and cheaper to buy another locking nut.

[groverj3]

Put the original locking nut on it, won't stay in tune but at least the strings are the right height. Weird, I always heard that R3 nuts were used on all Jacksons.

[Newc]

Take a file to the center lock and make it fit.

[groverj3]

Yeah, that solved the problem, but the black finish on the clamp didn't survive the process. Oh well, the guitar is already beat to hell anyway since it was my main gigging guitar for a while. I guess I don't care if its pretty anymore.

This seems very odd to me. What if I really did need to replace the nut, where would one find one that fits? Or would I just need to have the shelf modified to fit a standard FR or Schaller locking nut?

[DonP]

Never route the neck nut slot. Sand down the nut lower.

This is a common cause of frustration. There seems to be no real standard on how high a Floyd nut should be.

[groverj3]

Seems like this would be something that'd be standardized by now, odd. Luckily I don't need to replace the nut itself for now, so I'll just forget about it.

[Newc]

I'd be willing to bet the license agreement says they can't make them as tall, so everyone has to cut a shallow shelf.