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New to it all.


gan_nair

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Hello, Im new to guitars in general, Ive always seemed to have one around me, but I never learned anything about them, like how to play them or repair them. I now have 2 epiphone electric guitars and an epiphone bass. Im still learning to play though, mainly into learning Tool, As I Lay Dying, Lamb of God, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Led Zeppelin, etc. Just a huge range of all different types of music. A problem I ran into was that one of the electric guitars I striped to paint it and add some graphics, seems that Im an artist before Im a player, but the other one that I was learning on the nut broke on it. I dont know if I was using too big of strings, I had Zakk Wyldes strings in it, I love that deep sound, and the edge of the nut broke right off. Im needing to replace it now, but Id rather learn how to repair the guitar as opposed to taking it to someone to have it done.

 

Im wondering if anyone can tell me what kind of nut to buy, what I need to do in order to fix it, etc. I appreciate it, thanks.

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Check out Dan Erlewine's book on Guitar Maintanance. It's a big paperback at Barnes and Noble and places like that. I might have spelled his name wrong, but it's close...a search will get you there prob for the proper title. Lots of good info for the self helper. I'm too scared to do the actual operations, I 'm no good at much of anything practical, but it's a good book packed away someplace around here.

 

Nuts are pretty cheap though, and hiring someone to do it, and to tell you how, or even show you how they did it might be a good primer for the first try. You may well need extra shaping even with a pre fab. Kind of like that time way back in ...nah, nevermind! Best keep this family friendly. A little help with the nut the first time ain't a bad thing is all I mean! =D>

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What people are trying to tell you here is that a guitar nut is at the same time a very simple and a very complicated component. On the simple side, it's just a little piece of plastic/bone/composite worth about five bucks. On the complex side, the shaping of the nut and the cutting of the slots is critical to a good-playing guitar that will stay in tune and won't buzz.

 

Even the 'pre slotted' plastic nuts need to be adjusted for height, and in all honesty the only proper way to do it is to slot the nut string-by-string for each particular guitar and for your particular choice of string gauge. So while it looks like a simple job of gluing in an off-the-shelf part, in actuality for good results you want to make one from scratch or else have a pro do it for you. As it has been mentioned, the proper files are very expensive and unless you are going to start doing this professionally it doesn't make sense to buy such expensive tools just to do one or two nuts. You also kind of need access to a bandsaw and a belt sander unless you want to take all day to do one nut!

 

The good news is that bone is free (be nice to the local dog) and many feel that it is the best material to make nuts from.

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