Fitting Nuts - Pre-Shaped Nuts Part 2 - Installation - Haze Guitars

5/19/22, 7:09 PM Fitting Nuts: Pre-Shaped Nuts Part 2 - Installation — Haze Guitars
FITTING NUTS: PRE-SHAPED

NUTS PART 2 - INSTALLATION
Setup · 25 February 2019
We’ve seen how to select the right pre-shaped nut. Now we need to
get it fitted.
Brace yourself. It's a wild ride. Ready?
Then let’s go.
https://hazeguitars.com/blog/fitting-nuts-pre-shaped-nuts-part-2-installation 1/13
Guitar nut replacement

This stuff's not rocket science but to do it well is a little more
involved than the nut-sellers 😉 would have you believe. Patience is
key here.
Getting old nut out

We’ve looked at this before. Check out these links for more info on
how to get the existing nut out of the guitar safely.
How to remove a Fender guitar or bass nut
How to remove a Gibson guitar nut
How to remove a stuck nut
Fit for Thickness

We begin by getting your nut fitting into the slot. Most of these
things are going to be oversized so you’ll have to do some sanding
to get the nut in. First off, we want the thickness right so it fits into
the slot.
Use some 220 grit sandpaper and lay it on a completely flat surface.
Start to rub the front face of your nut off the paper to remove some
material.
Because you’re using a pre-shaped nut, you remove from the front.
Removing material from the back will ruin that nice curve from top
Removing material from the back will ruin that nice curve-from-top-
to-back shape. That’s not quite such a problem on a Fender-style
nut but you should still go with the front edge.
Keep checking your fit as you go. Try both ends in the slot. Remove
some more material as needed. Try again. Does the centre fit now?
Keep going until you’ve got a snug push fit. It should fit into the slot
with just a small amount of pressure and remember you want this to
have a uniform thickness all along its length. This means take things
slow and keep checking. More than you think you have to.
Oh, and, the other important thing to remember is that you need to
keep the front face at right angles to the nut bottom. If that face
angles, the string take-off point could shift and make intonation
more difficult.
That’s a lot of stuff to try keep right, I know. Just go slowly and
carefully.
When the nut fits easily into the slot and remains snug, without
falling out, you’ve nailed it.
Radius the bottom of the nut

As discussed in the article on fitting replacement nuts with a curved
bottom, for Fender-style nuts, you need to match the bottom of the
nut to the fingerboard/nut slot radius.
Square bottom
It’s important to keep the bottom of the nut at 90º to the front edge
It s important to keep the bottom of the nut at 90 to the front edge.
That’s going to get you the best fit in the slot. If you’re radiusing the
bottom, check constantly as you go and keep that angle square. If
you’ve got a Gibson-style, flat slot, your nut might still benefit from a
little cleaning up and squaring off. Check it.
The outlier on this step is a Martin angled nut slot. Many Martin
guitars have a nut that fits into a slot angled back like the headstock.
If you’re lucky, your nut will slot in there and the angle will be perfect.
Chances are, though, you might need to do some finessing of that
angle so the nut sits properly along the bottom of the slot. Patience
is useful here.
Your email address
I consent to my data being used to send this email newsletter
Sign me up!
N h i h
Nut height setup

Patience is definitely useful in this step. Like, so much patience.
For someone with a nice selection of nut-slotting files, final setup of

string height at the nut is relatively straightforward. It still needs
patience and it can still go wrong but, it’s straightforward — you take
each string slot down individually until it’s at the height you want.
For someone without nut files, things are less straightforward. Not
complicated, just time-consuming and fiddly. You’re going to take
the string height down but removing material from the bottom of the
nut. You’re lowering the overall nut height to bring down the string
height.
This typically takes a lot of trial and error progress. So, let’s get to it.
Before starting though, this information assumes the nut’s string

slot radius pretty closely matches the fretboard’s. If there’s a
mismatch, things are a little less straightforward and there are some
compromises necessary. We’ll deal with that in a minute but do
finish this article before you start work.
Start by installing the top and bottom strings on your guitar and
tune them to pitch.
Check the side-to-side positioning of your nut to make sure it’s ok.
You don’t want those outside strings too close to the edges of the
fretboard. If there's not much room, I’d err towards having the
bottom string to be a little closer to the edge than the top string, but
try ensure you’ve got enough space on both.
Check your neck relief. You don’t want to set nut height with a ton of
relief in the neck. With only two strings on, that’s not likely to be the
case but you should do this with a neck that’s as close to straight
(no relief/bow) as possible.
Use feeler gauges to measure the height of the strings over the first
fret. You’re measuring from the bottom of the string to the top of the
fret.
Now, nut setup is a subjective thing and it’s the one setup step I’m
always reluctant to give measurements for (this might be, partly,
because I’ve always eyeballed it and my brain is unused to
measuring here). That said, I’ve pulled some specs together to give
you something to aim for.
As a reasonable, ‘average’, electric guitar action, the following is the

first fret measurement you’re aiming for.
Bottom String: 0.017–018” (approx 0.43–0.46mm)
Top String: 0.010” (0.25mm)
Your pre-cut nut will likely be miles off this. That means you have to
slacken off the strings, remove the nut and sand some material off
the bottom.
This is the painstaking part. It’s incredibly easy to go too far and ruin
the nut. Avoiding that means sanding a little off the bottom, refitting
the nut, re-tuning the strings, and checking the measurements
again.
Remember too, that you’re trying to maintain that front-to-bottom

right angle and, if applicable, the bottom radius.
Yeah. I know. It’s a pain.
But it’s doable if you’re careful. Expect to have the nut off and on a
lot. Keep your cool and be as exact as you can.
When you’re getting close to these measurements, check it out for

‘feel’. How does it feel to finger those strings in the first couple of
frets? A bit stiff? Keep going.
Also, check for tuning on the open string and the first fret. If normal
pressure at the first fret pulls that note sharp, the nut’s probably still
a little high. Essentially the sting’s being stretched more than it
needs because it has to travel further to the fret. Beware of finger-
of-steel syndrome, though — don’t press any harder than you would
in normal playing conditions because that will result in a sharp note
regardless.
God speed, you patient, nut-bottom sander. 😉
Compromising for radius mismatch

Remember we talked about how the nut’s string slot radius would
ideally match the fretboard radius? Well, here’s why…
If your pre-cut nut has a radius that’s larger (i.e. flatter) than your
neck, the outside strings are going to sit higher, relative to the
fretboard and frets. We’re not talking a massive distance here but,
remember, we’re measuring all this ideal setup stuff in thousands of
an inch.
And here’s the compromise. Unless we can file those slots with
properly gauged nut files (unlikely for most DIYers), we have to
accept that some string slot heights will not be as perfect. Only
being able to sand the bottom of the nut to adjust height limits how
well set up we can be.
For this reason, in the circumstance described above — you have a

nut with a flatter/larger radius than your fingerboard — I recommend
stringing up the middle 3rd and 4th strings as well as the outside top
and bottom. As you can see from the image, these middle strings
are the ones that will end up closest to the fretboard so it makes
sense to work with these for measuring.
Aim to get your middle strings about 0.013–014” (0.33–0.36mm)

from the first fret. Don’t use the measurements above for the top
and bottom strings — if your outside strings reach that
measurement, odds are good your inside strings will be too low.
Continuing the annoyance, you do need to measure your outside

string height too, just to make sure the overall top to bottom
5/19/22, 7:09 PM
g g j p
Fitting Nuts: Pre-Shaped Nuts Part 2 - Installation — Haze Guitars
‘balance’ is correct. Otherwise, even if the middle strings are

correct, you could end up with one side of the nut high while the
other’s low.
OK, I know this is stupidly fiddly. I know. You buys your nut and takes
your chances.
Dealing with a nut slotted to a tighter or smaller radius is actually

easier. You can just use the bottom and top strings as described
initially and let the middle strings take care of themselves. The
middle will be a little high at the end but that’s the compromise.
Take nut edges down flush to the neck

sides
After all of that, this bit should be easy. You’re just going to take the
sides of the nut down flush with the guitar neck.
Double-check alignment, mark the nut with a pencil along the neck
edge. Remove and get sanding again.
Keep popping it back in to check. Once you’re done, you’re done.
Dab two small blobs of wood glue into the slot, insert the nut and
string up. Make sure it doesn’t shift as you tune to pitch and then
wait for the glue to dry. Superglue will work fine if you don’t have
wood glue but don’t go crazy — just a couple of tiny dabs.
The bottom line

Phew. That was a lot to take in (and to write).
Sorry for all the intricacies here but fitting a pre-cut nut well, without
fret files is not as simple as the nut companies would have you
believe. Lots of instruction videos and articles tend to gloss over —
or even skip entirely — the height-setting part. I wonder why.
Look: Nuts are tricky. Even for pros, we sometimes do something

stilly and blow it. A replacement nut can be fantastic upgrade and
but getting it installed well isn’t necessarily the simple task the
manufacturers make it out to be. It’s definitely achievable but expect
it to take some time and require some substantial patience.
Right. Time for a tea, I reckon. 😉
Your first name
Want more?
Your email address
I send a (mostly) weekly
newsletter full of great setup I consent to my data being
and repair tips.
used to send this email
newsletter.
Sign me up!
I don't do spam and you can unsubscribe at

any time. Read more at my Privacy Policy.
This article written by Gerry Hayes and first published at

hazeguitars.com
Like This? Check Out These Other Great Articles… 
How To Handle Helpful Bone Bad To The Bone:

The Nut During Thicknessing Tool Nuts, Saddles, And
Fret Work (And A Life Lesson) Bad Bones
Cheap Alternative To Guitar Nut Files?

Fitting Nuts: Pre-Shaped Nuts Part 1 - The Right Nut
HAZE GUITAR S GERRY ’ S BOOKS GERRY'S

NE WSLET TER
54 Rossberry Avenue,
Complete Guitar Wiring
Lucan,
Buying Used Guitars Email

*
Ireland
gerry@hazeguitars.co Sketchy Setups Guides #1–7 Your email address
m Solving Intonation Problems

(Free Download) Privacy
+353 (0)87 9966439 consent
*
Truss Rods Made Easy (Free To comply with privacy
regulations, I need you
Download) to allow me to store
Make an and process the
information you've
Appointment entered. I don't do
spam and you can
unsubscribe at any
time.
PRESS I consent to
having this data used
to personalise
Press Kit newsletter emails.
Subscribe
Privacy Policy

Fitting Nuts - Pre-Shaped Nuts Part 2 - Installation - Haze Guitars

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Fitting Nuts - Pre-Shaped Nuts Part 2 - Installation - Haze Guitars

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

5/19/22, 7:09 PM Fitting Nuts: Pre-Shaped Nuts Part 2 - Installation — Haze Guitars

FITTING NUTS: PRE-SHAPED

Brace yourself. It's a wild ride. Ready?

Then let’s go.

Guitar nut replacement

Getting old nut out

How to remove a Fender guitar or bass nut

How to remove a Gibson guitar nut

How to remove a stuck nut

Fit for Thickness

Radius the bottom of the nut

Your email address

I consent to my data being used to send this email newsletter

Nut height setup

For someone with a nice selection of nut-slotting files, final setup of

Before starting though, this information assumes the nut’s string

As a reasonable, ‘average’, electric guitar action, the following is the

Bottom String: 0.017–018” (approx 0.43–0.46mm)

Top String: 0.010” (0.25mm)

Remember too, that you’re trying to maintain that front-to-bottom

Yeah. I know. It’s a pain.

When you’re getting close to these measurements, check it out for

God speed, you patient, nut-bottom sander. 😉

Compromising for radius mismatch

For this reason, in the circumstance described above — you have a

Aim to get your middle strings about 0.013–014” (0.33–0.36mm)

Continuing the annoyance, you do need to measure your outside

‘balance’ is correct. Otherwise, even if the middle strings are

Dealing with a nut slotted to a tighter or smaller radius is actually

Take nut edges down flush to the neck

Keep popping it back in to check. Once you’re done, you’re done.

The bottom line

Look: Nuts are tricky. Even for pros, we sometimes do something

Right. Time for a tea, I reckon. 😉

Your first name

I don't do spam and you can unsubscribe at

This article written by Gerry Hayes and first published at

Like This? Check Out These Other Great Articles… 

How To Handle Helpful Bone Bad To The Bone:

Cheap Alternative To Guitar Nut Files?

HAZE GUITAR S GERRY ’ S BOOKS GERRY'S

Buying Used Guitars Email

gerry@hazeguitars.co Sketchy Setups Guides #1–7 Your email address

m Solving Intonation Problems

You might also like