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Gibson F5 G: New Nut
Related Topics: | Nut | Truss Rod | Set Up | Gibson F5 G: Refret | Gibson F5-G: Scoop Fretboard Extension |
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| 1. A New Nut for this instrument is a
must since we just refretted it. The new frets are taller than the slots of the old nut. |
2. Scoring the Lacquer around
the nut will allow me to remove the nut without chipping the finish. |
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| 3. Removing the Nut with a flush
cutting pair of large end-nippers is done with great care to ensure that the finish around the nut sustains no damage. This is the original factory mother of pearl nut. |
4. Clearing the Old Glue from the
end of the fret board is necessary to ensure that the new nut fits prop- erly. I prefer to do this with a sharp chisel. |
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| 5. An Antique Nut Blank. | 6. Sanding the Nut Blank square
on two sides is the first step of shaping the nut blank. After I've done this I'll sand the blank to thickness. I'm achieving this with 220 grit 3M fre-cut sandpaper (from Stew Mac) on a dead flat granite slab. |
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| 7. Preparing the Nut Seat.
I've glued some 600 grit sandpaper to the bottom of the blank with rubber cement. I'm working the nut blank back and forth to both better fit the blank and get rid of the glue on the nut's seat from the factory. |
8. Laying out the End of the Nut. |
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| 9. Rough Shaping the End of
the Blank is pretty quick when I use the shop's disc-sander. |
10. Final Shaping of the End of
the Nut. I'm accomplishing this with 600 grit sandpaper placed on a rubber- ized cork lined block. |
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| 11. Polishing the End of the Nut.
I like to do this with micro-mesh sanding pads. I use these fine abrasives up to 12,000 grit. I'll repeat this process of shaping the end of the nut for the opposite end before laying out the nut's height. |
12. Laying out the Height of the
Nut. A Pencil ripped in half laying on the frets gives me a good line to sand and file to. |
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| 13. Rough Sanding the Nut
Height. I'll follow this up with a few passes with a small mill file to remove the sanding marks. |
14. Contouring the Top of the
Nut. At the customer's request, I'm going to contour the top of this mandolin's new nut in such a way that reduces its mass and string contact. This will fascilitate a greater ease of tuning. |
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| 15. Polishing the Top of the
Nut with micro mesh pads. |
16. Slotting the Nut. I'm only
rough slotting the depth. Next I'll string up the guitar and cut each slot to it's final depth. I've found that the best feel is obtained by gradually decreasing the depth of the slots in relation to the first fret as the string diameters increase. |
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protrusion. The wound strings stick
up a bit more for ease of tuning while
the plain steel strings are slightly
recessed. This provides stability for
the occassional string bending.
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