String nut on a San Dimas Kelly/string spacing question w/pics

[Bobby8]

I haven't been noticing this by now but now it's really starting to bother me. The slot for the high E string on the stock nut is way too close to the edge of the nut. It causes the 1st string to slip off the first two or three frets when it's played.

I've noticed almost the same nut on the guitars some of you guys posted on the board, including Soloists, RRs, etc.

Isn't this a bit too close? Especially on guitars with binding on the neck. To make matters worse, I've got binding over frets.







The saddle spacing on the Kahler is set toward the middle of the neck on the bass and treble sides, it can't go any closer.

Did any of you guys had a similar problem? And my most important question would be: Should I mess with it? Should I maybe build another one with narrower string spacing or order from stewmac a new one or something else? Thanks.

[MountainDog]

How's the spacing on the big E? In your second pic it almost looks like a shadow where the high e side of the nut is hanging out farther than the edge of the neck. If you have too little space on the high e and too much on the low E, then it would appear your nut just needs to be shifted over to better center things. This would be easy to do before you tried cutting a new nut.

By the way, the Kahler spacing is a little narrow, that's just the way they are, and doesn't really affect the issue you have. Shifting the nut over slightly or cutting a new one would be the way to go.

[Bobby8]

The spacing on the low E is just right. If it were any more towards the fret ends it would be like the high e, slipping of the egde of the fretboard. The nut is set right on where it should be. I would certanly try to move it first. Thanks.

[MountainDog]

If the nut is centered and the big E is cut right, then your original thought of cutting a new nut with slightly narrower spacing is probably the only way to go.

Graphtech/Tusq has a lot of good info on how to measure length, width, height and string-to-string spacing (which is the important item you need to correct!) and have several options:

http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?SubCategoryID=8

Not sure of the thickness of your stock nut, but for example's sake, let's assume it's 1/4". They have a couple options:
43 x 6 which is a 43mm wide nut and has a string to string spacing of 1.387":

http://www.graphtech.com/product-483-2/

42 x 6 which is a 42mm wide nut and has a string spacing of 1.355" (i.e. narrower width and string spacing than the 43 x 6.:

http://www.graphtech.com/product-482-2/

These Graphtech nuts in my examples above look similar to your stock one...not sure if these would dimensionally fit your needs, but they have lots of others; measure your guitar and see what they have that is close (you can always sand the nut thinner if need be and sand the bottom down if too tall (Ideally you want to adjust the nut height so the string slots are a little higher than you need, then carefully file the slots deeper so string heights come in like the original nut). In order to use a precut nut from Graphtech or Stewmac, you many have to go with a nut that is narrower than your neck width in order to get the string spacing you need.

Of course you can also get a nut 'blank' and carve everything yourself, but if one of the premade nuts comes close it will save you a bunch of work. As the nuts are cheap, I'd suggest getting a couple in case you sand or file too much on the first one.

[Bobby8]

This is cool info. I didn't know they have so much different options on string nuts. Btw, is bone or micarta better material for the nut, tonewise, sustainwise and metalwise or is this black tusq as good as them?

[charvel750]

You see this sometimes on older guitars where over many years the fretboard seems to "shrink" inward on itself, thus exposing the high E string like that. Although, it looks like it's still within normal limits. But if your playing style is causing it to slip off, then you have to look at getting a new nut then.