Nut Replacement

When should you replace your guitar's nut?

Generally you would replace the nut because it's broken or because the slots have worn down and are now too deep, leaving the string too close to the first fret, causing the strings to buzz. 

But you might also want to change the nut to improve the tone and resonance.

Guitar nuts can be made of many different types of material such as plastic, bone, Tusq, brass, Graphtech, etc.

I personally prefer bone or Graptech, but if your guitar nut is made of plastic (often hollow), and you want to improve your instrument's tone, replacing the nut would definitely help.

I prefer to make bone nuts from scratch, but already shaped and slotted ones are available.

Nut replacement includes the following:

• Shaping of the nut out of a blank, following the radius of the fret board (material of your choice)

• Lay out the spacing for the strings

• File the slots for the exact gauge of each string

• Final shaping and polishing

• Setting string action at first fret