Opinions on this string nut cut

Crunch

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Dec 1, 2020
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So I paid a local luthier to have the plastic nut replaced with an unbleached bone nut on my Custom 22 SE, which included a setup as well. It seems to me something is off. Looks like the low E is too far over to the right? I'm not sure if I should be concerned enough to take it back and have him recut the nut. What do you think?
thURrjc
qwKsWFl


thURrjc


qwKsWFl
 
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images not showing. Have to try to fix.

Edit: there we go.
 
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Just my 2¢: the nut and frets look good, the bridge pup slightly misaligned. Perhaps the angle of the camera shows the G-B & E-string slightly off?

Suggestion would be to take a separate pic angled from the right slightly, and see if the opposite E-A-D strings slightly misalign...

If yes, the guitar looks OK. The real issue might be how does it play? No fret buzz, dead spots, volume drop, etc?
 
Yes, G, B & E slightly off, with B and E being the most. Really hard to get a straight on picture with a crappy phone camera. E,A,D look good. Plays ok, no fret buzz of any consequence (the frets where leveled by a tech where I bought it), volume drop only when splitting PUs. The PUs in the SEs are nothing to write home about. I did readjust pickup height, the tech did an adjustment but the guitar was way too harsh sounding so they had to come down, particularly on the high strings (he had them more or less flat across). String height 5/64 on the low E - 2/32 on the high E at 12th - or as far as my aging eyes can tell. I'm in the process of upgrade / tweaking it, I just got it not long ago. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
 
I agree. I wouldn't overthink it if sounds and plays good. I also always adjust by ear and sometimes it takes awhile to get where I want it. Its funny how the ear can change the next day after I pull my head out of the rabbit hole. More of the overthinking advice I have to remind myself,

The neck pup alignment looks great. Recut the nut to get the bridge and what do you know the neck is out of alignment...
 
If it feels good, sounds good, and plays in tune, you’re good to go. I’d be more concerned if everything looked perfect and it didn’t play right.
 
If you do want to move it without making a new one I would try just knocking it loose and shifting it towards the bass side a hair. The edges of that nut seem a little wider than the fretboard on the picture.
If you like the way it plays after moving it you could sand down the edge on the bass side flush and re glue with a dab of wood glue.

A lot of older guitars I have are also way closer to the treble side. Yours does look good though.
If you leave it as is you can go wider on the vibrato on that low E.
 
Play it and decide. John Mayer had a strat with a warped neck. They changed it out and he said all the magic went out of the guitar so put the warped neck back on and the magic came back.
 
Sometimes photos have a way of distorting geometry, but the spacing looks uneven to me. But I am looking for something to be wrong. I am not sure I would have noticed if you hadn’t asked us to look at it. I would call the person who did the work and let them know you have the concern, but you are going to play it for a while and see if it is really an issue. Give them an opportunity to weigh in on the situation. If I had done the work, I would want the opportunity to get the results you want as soon as possible.
 
If you have a set of calipers, I'd measure the string spacing on both the high and low E strings and then go from there. Sometimes pictures can distort the perspective of what we're seeing on our screens versus what you see right in front of you with your own eyes. The string spacing across the magnets honestly doesn't look bad, but again perspective is better in the real world.

BTW, if you don't have a set of calipers, you really should. I use mine way more than I ever thought I would and not just for guitar. For around 20ish bucks for a decent set, I think mine is a Vernier, they're a good investment for guitarists.
 
To make your brain hurt a little more...do you know if the nut was cut for equilateral or equidistant string spacing?
 
Couldn't tell you. However the spacing seems ok. It just seems the entire string set is shifted slightly towards the tremble side. He did say something about it being a "set neck design" that was the reason why when I mentioned it him. I'm going to take it back to him and have him remeasure some things. The action is a bit high for my taste but flattening the neck slightly will start causing things to choke out some. The low E saddle had to be moved all the way back to get intonation correct (the high E is all the way forward).

I had tuning stability issues at first, until I lubed the nut with wax and that helped quite a bit. I have some nut sauce on its way here. I have to sometimes wonder about these so called "35 year experience" luthiers. I paid $150 for this work and expect it to be right naturally.
 
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So, I took it back to the luthier. He's going to recut the nut. Of course he wasn't happy about it. Piss poor attitude about it really, even though he agreed it was 'slightly' off. Maybe its just the area where I live. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a cluster because he's 'unhappy'.
 
If you do want to move it without making a new one I would try just knocking it loose and shifting it towards the bass side a hair. The edges of that nut seem a little wider than the fretboard on the picture.
If you like the way it plays after moving it you could sand down the edge on the bass side flush and re glue with a dab of wood glue.

A lot of older guitars I have are also way closer to the treble side. Yours does look good though.
If you leave it as is you can go wider on the vibrato on that low E.

Yeah, I ran that idea by him. However the nut is actually flush on the fretboard so there was no extra to move it. Thanks for the idea though, wish it would have worked.
 
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