Changing a nut on a Tele.

[Justin Cyder]

I have an achingly pretty Palo Escrito Telecaster which is in essence MIM 60's player with the Palo Escrito top. I've made a few mods to it, Texas Specials, modern bridge saddles & generally got rid of the third world hardware.

The thing is it still doesn't quite feel right to play. The action is hard to describe, but feels a touch spongy, not as tight as a Fender should. Flicking through my Haynes Strat manual, there is a section where they change a nut & the author asserts that this can make a big difference to how a guitar plays & feels & I would say the Tele nut is cut a little high. It just so happens I have a spare nut lying around from one of my strats...

Any veracity in the claim? I do like to tinker with my guitars & I'm comfortable withalmost any job on them.

[Lotus 50]

Surely you could achieve the same thing by filing the string slots if the strings are too high? One thing I have noticed is that the string break angle over the nut (and bridge on a LP) does make quite a difference to how easy it is to bend a note so if the string tree(s) on your tele could be adjusted to increase the break angle that might tighten things up. That said, I don't think it's that much of a big deal changing the nut on a tele so I'd be tempted to have a go. One of the things to look out for is if you have a maple fingerboard and pulling the nut out would cause the finish to chip where it's stuck to the nut itself (using a scalpel to "cut" the finish around the nut might be the way to avoid this?). Probably plenty of "how to..." vids on t'interweb...

[Justin Cyder]

Rosewood, thankfully. It's one of these:

[Lotus 50]

mmmmm.... I have a real hankering to build a frankentele (Tele body and neck, wilkinson trem, Strat control layout and mini humbuckers). That hasn't helped me resist...

Does the string tree at the top have a spacer on it that you could remove to experiment with increasing the string angle?

[singlecoil]

It's important to get the slots just right. They need to be the right depth and width, and the slot needs a slight angle on it. You are looking to get just a small amount of clearance over the first fret when the string is fretted at the second, and for the slot to slope back toward the headstock slightly.

Quick sketch




The proper way to do it is with a set of specially made nut files, you can buy them from Stewart Macdonald in the States. Invest in a set, they will last forever.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Files/Gauged_Nut...

[Evangelion]

Singlecoil, that's the third fret that's being fretted in your diagram.

The way I check the nut height is to insert a plectrum in the strings at the first fret. If it falls out, the nut is too high (of course, the rest of you may not use the same thickness plectrums as I do).

[singlecoil]

Evangelion said:

Singlecoil, that's the third fret that's being fretted in your diagram.

It is indeed the third fret if you are concerned about the length of string between that fret and the bridge. In this case we are concerned with the length of string between the second fret and the nut.

There is more coming back to me about this (it is more than fifteen years since I repaired and made guitars for a living so that's my excuse).

I would suggest using a strip of ordinary paper such as one might buy for a printer- A4 90gsm, and sliding that into the gap between string and first fret. Hold the string down where shown in the diagram and fell if the paper is caught between the two. If it is not, the slot can be lowered a little more. The thing to do is to stop lowering the slot when the paper is just starting to drag.