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dul/dead sounding strings


slk

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Hey guys I took a nut off my DOT yesterday to lower it just a little. All went fine so I thought. I loosened the strings, and pulled them to the side of the neck just enough to do the work. It is back now and string height is where I wanted it but they all of a sudden sound dull or just flat sounding. Do you think I could have messed up the strings, or something else. The strings are not hitting or touching any of the frets.. Any suggestions????

 

Steve

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Hey guys I took a nut off my DOT yesterday to lower it just a little. All went fine so I thought. I loosened the strings, and pulled them to the side of the neck just enough to do the work. It is back now and string height is where I wanted it but they all of a sudden sound dull or just flat sounding. Do you think I could have messed up the strings, or something else. The strings are not hitting or touching any of the frets.. Any suggestions????

 

Steve

 

How old are the strings?

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That I could not tell you. I just bought this guitar used a week ago and finally decided to lower the nut. The guitar sounded fine and had good tone at the strings. They were just really high at the first fret. Someone had changed out the nut but never set it up for ease of playing. I found the old nut in the compartment of the case and at the low E slot it was worn out enough that the string would have never stayed in the slot. So they must have replaced it with the new one and just played it like it was. Ok now the dull sounding strings are the first 3. The unwound ones.

 

I did put graphite in the slots after lowering the nut. I also noticed that after I played it some the string tone came back a little. Don't know if it was me getting use to the dullness or not though.

 

Steve

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I'm assuming you didn't touch the slots? The nut could be seated at an angle, then the strings wouldn't sit on a point break off but more on a flat surface Whitchurch can cause a duller or damped sound. If you have access to nut files or jewellers files try opening up the slots and creating a break off point just don't go too low. Use feeler gauges to stop the file on the fret side. Also if the nut is too high around the strings it can sometimes effect the sound.

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Right ...I did not touch the slots. The nut is perfectly squared with the fingerboard. Now the first 3 strings are siting down in the slots past the top of the nut. So I guess I could try to file them just a tad to open them up. That is if it keeps sounding dull.

 

All of that being said I played it a little while ago and it is just about back to sounding good again without me doing any more tinkering.

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Right ...I did not touch the slots. The nut is perfectly squared with the fingerboard. Now the first 3 strings are siting down in the slots past the top of the nut. So I guess I could try to file them just a tad to open them up. That is if it keeps sounding dull.

 

All of that being said I played it a little while ago and it is just about back to sounding good again without me doing any more tinkering.

Yeah, I would be inclined to put another set of strings on it before I removed any more material from the guitar. Especially if you have the set up the way you like it. After changes like that I've found that it is good to play the thing even if my first impressions tell me something is not right. That way i am sure the issue is diagnosed properly.

 

I have seen many a 'new' shite set of strings over the years…

 

jv

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