Absolute Nut Case! – ROB C MUSIC

The revelation I’ve had recently has joined so many dots for me that it’s nothing short of transformative and it revolves around one of the smallest components of the guitar… The Nut.

I’m Talking Nut Width

Not so long ago I got a new neck to replace the one on my Squier Bullet Hardtail Strat. The original neck was always nice to play, but the frets had worn a little. Not too much, but enough to cause some buzzing on certain chords and fretted notes. After weighing up the pros and cons (and costs) of getting the frets levelled, having the neck refretted or doing either of those things myself (for the first time ever), I decided to go with a new neck.

A Very Lazy, but Smart Choice!

That decision was made because I found a neck for a very good price with stainless steel frets, which I figured would provide some longevity going forward. Stainless steel frets are likely going to last as long as I am on this guitar (depending on the quality of the stainless steel I suppose).

The price of the neck couldn’t have been any more than a refret or buying some decent tools and materials to do it myself, so it was a very practical solution as well as being one requiring far less effort and it had a bone nut too!

Nuts… Now to the Point

As soon as it was on the guitar, the new neck felt very nice. It had a slightly chunkier profile than the original, which suited me and the frets were bigger. The whole playing experience felt smoother and more responsive to a lighter touch than the original. In basic terms it felt easier to play, except for one thing… It still didn’t feel as good as the old one, despite the upgrade in performance.

After assuming it might take a few days to get used to the new neck I kept feeling like that was never going to happen. Something didn’t feel right about this neck and I couldn’t work out what it was. I thought the action at the nut might be a little too high, so I tried to file down the slots and I went too far on one or two, causing some slight buzzing.

Now having to buy a new nut I decided to get a Graphtech one because I remember the Graphtech I put on my Classic Vibe Strat years ago was pretty much plug and play.

After I received the Graphtech nut and fitted it, all my niggling issues with the new neck were gone and I wanted to know what exactly had changed. Then after a quick glance over at the bone nut I had just removed from this neck I could see it. It was obvious. The spacing of the string slots.

The spacing on the bone nut was a good 1mm narrower than the new Graphtech nut and so I measured the nut on the original Squier neck and that was closer to the spacing of the Graphtech nut. Now I was onto something.

What About My Other Guitars?

The next question was “I wonder if any of my other guitars have a narrower nut that makes me less inclined to play them?”

So I measured and compared the string spacing on all my other guitars and found all but two of those were wider. In other words those were good. The other two (my Paramount Tele copy and my JV Custom Origin-S) had narrower widths and about the same as the “problem” nut on the new neck. It just so happens that while I like those two guitars, they are the ones that get left hanging on the wall more than they get played. Well now I know why!

For the record, the width of the good nuts was over 35mm. The width of the “bad” ones were down near 34mm, so about 1mm difference. That doesn’t sound like much, but it feels like night and day to me.

A New Guitar for the Price of a Nut

I’m in the process of upgrading the Paramount Tele, so a new nut will be going on that at some point and I’ve already replaced the nut on the JV Custom with another Graphtech and yes… It has been instantly transformed into a guitar that I can’t stop playing!

I’ve read a lot about the nut being often overlooked when it comes to issues of tuning and lack of sustain etc. But I’d never thought about the string spacing at the nut being responsible for the difference between being a joy to play or one that I don’t want to pick up!

I feel like I have a couple of new guitars now with that one seemingly small change.