The Nut Addendum and Conundrum...

[The_Sentry]

Allright Allright Allright!

'Ol Lefty has been gracious enough to help me...with my nuts.



...on my guitars....

Seriously..that's really, really cool. Really cool. (Well...why wouldn't he be cool? He's...'Ol Lefty! )


So...now I'm at home, and I have a quandary....I don't know which guitar to give him dimensions for....I could give him 1...maybe 2...but all of 'em?

And would I know what to request to maketh the nuts out of?

So...I turn to ye customizers for advice...here are the potential vaso-vasectomy patients that are in need of...nuts....bear in mind that my guitars typically revolve around 3 basic designs in terms of recipients....

1. Archtops for pulling classic rock and blues tones.
2. Les Paul(s) that offer up something with passive pickups.
3. Active pickup monsters that are borne for skull crushing leadwork.

So...here's the potential candidates...

Case number 1:



This is a Rondo SX GG5 Dot clone. I modded it over the winter. It's had everything done to it...except nut replacement. This includes bridge work (used strips of sheet metal to fill the holes vs. glue), fretwork (all the frets were re-glued as well as rubbed with leather to take the edges off), and it's got Gibson 490/498's that are complemented with Jonesy's tone mojo. It does not SOUND like a 200 dollar guitar...but at the end of the day...that's excatly what it is. It plays very well. The nut is plastic, and the slots might be...a tad high...not much, but a tad.

This one? And should I ask for bone or tusq?

Case number 2:



A MIK Epiphone Sheraton II that I bought off of Moff40. Sweet guitar...awesome tones....it's got the modified stuff including a boutique pup in the bridge (handwound) complemented by a Gibson P-94 (may pull it and dump a T Top in there.) The nut..plastic...although it's cut very well....

This one? (I don't think I'd consider anything but bone for this guitar.)

Case number 3:



2005 Epiphone Les Paul Standard. Since this pic was taken, it's gotten a full Tonepros System II bridge and tailpiece. It plays beautifully....it's also got a plastic nut. I'm curious as to whether or not a bone nut would improve the tone even further. (Running Gibson BB 1 and 2's in that one.)

This one? And would a bone or tusq nut do?

Case number 4:



Agile Dauntless Silverburst. When I got this guitar, it came with a tusq nut. But it was too high. Like the big dummy that I am....instead of pulling the entire nut off and filing the backside of it down by 1/32nd of an inch, I filed the slots....(based the height estimations of my Norlin Custom which has a professional bone cut nut that was done by a guy who has almost 40 years of experience along with a full refret job.) The action is....amazing on this guitar. The frets are even smoother than my Studio. But when I deepened the slots...well, you can imagine...I did a sloppy job. The D slot is deep...but the string is too wide to meet the groove. I suspect sooner or later it's gonna spread. Either way...this guitar plays beautifully now.(running a Gotoh bridge along with active EMG 81/85's)..but will it last?

This one? (This one would probably be a tusq nut)

Case number 5:



Gibson Les Paul Studio with a standard Earvana nut. This thing plays beautifully as well..got the action just where I want it. Only complaint? The D string tends to go out of tune faster than the other strings. I have to admit that I'm sort of wary of doing any work on either of my Gibsons vs. my cheaper guitars. (I tend to have this belief if there's any potential damage to be taken due to inexperience, do it on the cheap bastards first!)

Still though....this one? (Tusq nut...let's face it...it doesn't look like a guitar for handing out lollipops with. )

Case number 6:



'07 Epi Les Paul Custom. If this guitar was a woman...she'd be like one of those good looking girls who's crappy in bed. For the most part....eh, it's OK. The main issue I have is that I paid someone out in Virginia for a bone nut and they did a crappy job on it. Unless I plug the slots with graphite I get tons of fret buzz. I also know it's not the bridge, and the neck...well...can't tap it too much...I think it's made out of agathisis. (Any more than a minute turn and you can hear cracking sounds....scary shit.)

Still though....this one? And would you do bone or tusq? Or, should I just get another guitar and dump the h/w out of this into that one?

Well, those are my options. I wish I knew which one....but TBH this is all a grand experiment for me.

Which one (or two) would you give measurments for? Which one (or two) is worthy of 'Ol Lefty's TLC?

(PS: TWANG also does this kind of work...he's a pretty sharp guy...but 'Ol Lefty...that crazy crazy guy...offered to help one of the Devilspawn lefties with a nut problem.... )

[Torren61]

All of them.

[The_Sentry]

Originally Posted by Torren61

All of them.

Dude...'Ol Lefty's doing me a favor. I don't wanna abuse him over it...

[leftylover]

i put the agile, but after reading over them again, definitely do it for the epi custom.

[Torren61]

Originally Posted by The_Sentry

Dude...'Ol Lefty's doing me a favor. I don't wanna abuse him over it...

I thought you were paying.