Mark Scrivener
Inspired
Hey gang!
Despite playing guitar for 45 years now and working on my own guitars for decades, I always (wrongly) assumed that string spacing was baked in with the nut width. Pick a nut width and the string spacing was set in stone. Don't like the string spacing at the nut? Then you must need a neck designed for a different nut width. Wrong!
Turns out you can fit a wide range of string spacings in a given nut width. Pick up a string spacing ruler (Stewmac and other luthier supply shops sell them) and see what will fit on your guitars. I have an old 1957 Gibson acoustic that sounds great for acoustic blues, but drives me crazy finger picking as my fat left hand fingers are always getting me in trouble. Last night I decided to scratch build a nut for it from a piece of bone. I picked the widest string spacing that would fit on the neck (edge of strings about 2mm from edge of fretboard) and much to my surprise it made a huge difference!
Making a nut is not that hard. What is hard is realizing you really do need to shell out $100+ for a nut file set if you want to get a decent result. Of course you could also just have a good luthier make you a nut, but where is the fun in that!
So if you have a guitar that you otherwise love but the string spacing could be wider/more narrow, a new nut might be your answer.
Despite playing guitar for 45 years now and working on my own guitars for decades, I always (wrongly) assumed that string spacing was baked in with the nut width. Pick a nut width and the string spacing was set in stone. Don't like the string spacing at the nut? Then you must need a neck designed for a different nut width. Wrong!
Turns out you can fit a wide range of string spacings in a given nut width. Pick up a string spacing ruler (Stewmac and other luthier supply shops sell them) and see what will fit on your guitars. I have an old 1957 Gibson acoustic that sounds great for acoustic blues, but drives me crazy finger picking as my fat left hand fingers are always getting me in trouble. Last night I decided to scratch build a nut for it from a piece of bone. I picked the widest string spacing that would fit on the neck (edge of strings about 2mm from edge of fretboard) and much to my surprise it made a huge difference!
Making a nut is not that hard. What is hard is realizing you really do need to shell out $100+ for a nut file set if you want to get a decent result. Of course you could also just have a good luthier make you a nut, but where is the fun in that!
So if you have a guitar that you otherwise love but the string spacing could be wider/more narrow, a new nut might be your answer.
