Charvel 475 neck/nut question...

[RobRR]

Ok so tonight I finally decided to slap together a little project using a 475 neck I picked up. Once I finished final assembly and strung it up, most of the strings were fretting out on the first fret... strange, never had that happen before.

So I but a little slack in the neck and try again... no dice. Then I look to the nut. I assembled the neck with an import style R4 nut. Well apparently its not getting the strings high enough. I could use shims to bring up the nut, but it wont look right and will bother me. Am I missing something here though? I thought the only difference between an r3 and r4 nut is the string spacing? Looks like I need about another 1mm of height to get this to work right.

Unless Im totally missing something here, either Im using the wrong nut or the nut pocket is too low.

[RobRR]

Alright I dug deeper into this... I miced the depth of the nut shelf and compared it to a few other necks that I know are good... and the shelf is almost exactly 1mm deeper than the rest... so that explains that.

The neck, at the shelf, is also 43.3 so I know its either an r3 or r4 size. Is a shim the only way to go or is an r3 nut physically higher than an r4?

[slash]

Is the nut you are using made by Schaller for an OFR? I noticed nuts tend to vary in thickness depending on the manufacturer. Typically the real OFR nuts are pretty tall.

There is nothing wrong with using a shim, that's what they are made for

[m2pmd70]

Maybe it's been modified to make an OFR nut fit.

[Carbuff]

I had this same problem with a performer neck. It didnt come with the original nut so I stole one from another Jackson neck that I had. It was too short and the strings were buzzing and fretting out all over the place no matter what I did. I stuck a shim or two under it and it was fine after that. They make shims especially for this so its not a jury rig thing. Some guitars come with them from the factory. You should be able to find them at stew-mac or one of the other online parts places. Or you can try all the import nuts that you can find untill you get the right one. The shims look kinda like razor blades with no sharp edge.

[RobRR]

Ok thanks guys, I guess Ill try a shim! Ive got an assortment of nuts here... a Schaller, and three imports. Im gonna go with the Schaller one and just shim until its good... about 1-2mm should do it.

[RobRR]

Ok to resurrect this post... I figured out the problem... it was quite simple!

The 475 Deluxe guitars were outfitted with JT590's which is basically a Jackson labled Schaller Floyd... well this also used a Schaller nut. On the other hand, I was trying to use import nuts, which we all know (as Slash pointed out), are alot shallower than Schaller or OFR nuts. So, there was the solution. While at the moment, the nut is shimmed, I will be getting a Schaller nut for a perfect fit! I have a Schaller nut sitting here, which is how I realized this.

Just thought this might help anyone with the same problem as me.