Rodent wrote:
pre slotted nuts are a bad thing IMO. a good guitar tech can properly slot a nut blank and have the complete replace/slot/install job completed in under an hour. if your local shop charges $50/hr + materials, you're looking at less than $65 for this job
all the best,
R
I'll second that, Rodent is totally right. I charge 60 bucks flat rate to replace a standard, not lacquered over nut- more for a Martin 4 mitre, and for 12 strings- and it will be correctly spaced and the right string height. Same price if you want to use any material other than brass. A friend who collects PRS and Gibson high end guitars wanted to buy pre-slotted nuts. I told him the same thing Rodent posted. He bought them anyway, and I showed him why I was right, when he brought them all to my shop- and not one fit any guitar he owned. And they were all factory parts, supposedly fitting the guitars he had.
Why is this? Because they almost NEVER fit right. In my 40+ years repairing, I've never seen one that did. EVEN the factory parts- like the Gibson ones- do not factor in the numerous variations in fingerboard widths. If the spacing is too narrow, or it's too small for the slot, you're out of luck. If it's too wide, and you try to file off the excess material, the spacing will be wrong. And it looks really bad, too. Don't mess around, get a good luthier to do it, you'll be glad you did.
