Custom 24 Floyd: which nut?

[MjS]

Hi there, bought a ‘14 Custom 24 Floyd (core) and during the string change I noticed there’s some grooves in the locking nut already. I was wondering what nut PRS used for a future replacement (it still has some life in it now, but I’d like to be prepared).

I checked it out and the nut says PR11 (can’t find much about it, but it seems to be the nut from the special/1000 series) on the bottom plus it has three shims to give it some height. I’m not sure if this is original, so would love to know what PRS used. I pulled a R3 from my parts drawer to compare and the mounting holes don’t quite line up, so I guess that points to this being stock?

Guitar is awesome btw! Just want to keep it in good shape.

 

[bodia]

No idea. You may want to send an email to Customer Service:

[email protected]

They're closed due to everything that's going on. Not sure if someone is manning the email from home.

 

[MjS]

Yeah, did just that earlier today, and already received a response (props for PRS CS), even though it's very much not urgent.

Basically, I was told that it's a proprietary nut (hence the lack of info on the web) and that it's customized to the neck carve of each individual instrument. There aren't any replacement nuts available from PRS themselves (well, I guess if you were to send it to PTC they could make a new one) and the best course of action would be to measure the existing one. With those measurements you should be able to determine if some of the commercial nuts (R3, R4, etc) are a fit.

I already put everything back together so I'm not able to accurately measure it, but I guess I will leave it as is for now and start looking for replacements once functionality suffers. I ruled out R3 but it could very well be that a R4 is a drop-in replacement. I did not know that the mounting holes differed from the official Floyd nuts but apparently they do.

 

[bodia]

Glad to hear you got an answer, even though it probably wasn't the one you were hoping for.

 

[MjS]

Thanks, I think I'm pleased to hear to customize each nut for the guitar but had hoped they could tell me 'yeah it's a R3' or that they had one available for purchase. Looking for a replacement will be more difficult.

I know I said mounting holes might differ, but at least for Floyd Rose nuts they are all the same width (orientation within the nut I'm not sure about). Schaller does have different mounting holes, perhaps I need a Schaller one. Anyway, when the time comes and if I remember this thread, I will report back

Small update: I measured the spare R3 nut I had around, and based on the info on the web I'd say it's a Schaller and not an OFR (mounting holes for the Schaller are 14.2mm, for the OFR 13.59mm, other dimensions check out as well but info on the Floyd is hard to find). Chances are that a OFR R3/R4 will fit.

 

[Jazzedout]

Could it be that the grooves were made by PRS to properly follow the radius of the fretboard?
I never needed to change the nut on my Floyd rose guitar that I had since 1990... I replaced the screws a couple of times, but the nut did not show any signs of wear...

 

[MjS]

Not sure, it looks to me like it's worn. I know the previous owner used heavier gauge strings and with excessive clamping force I can imagine this being the result (see some wear on the locking clamps as well, pointing to force).

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Not sure, it looks to me like it's worn. I know the previous owner used heavier gauge strings and with excessive clamping force I can imagine this being the result (see some wear on the locking clamps as well, pointing to force).

This appears to be the result of the guitar being tuned with the clamps in place, with some pressure applied.

As long as you can obtain sufficient clamping pressure at the nut, without any slippage when you’re using the trem, I don’t think you’ll have any issues.