Stringdistance E - A different to others

[proxmax]

hello,

 

as said above:

the stringdistance E - A is larger than at the other strings.

i saw that couple more times - is it wanted?

or does heritage do this by "luck"?

down at the body you don't see it that wide.

 

see pic!

 

thx klaus

 

[cod65]

wow, what do you call that finish? is it trans black?

[proxmax]

wow, what do you call that finish? is it trans black?

 

i'm not the original owner and the seller called it trans black.

 

but in sunlight you see some blue shimmer in, like mother of pearl.

 

there are some custom features at it, so maybe also a custom color.

looks different to other trans blacks i've seen.

 

-Klaus

[Paul P]

the stringdistance E - A is larger than at the other strings.

Nut cutting is not one of Heritage's strong points. It looks to me like

the A string is not where it should be. And the high E looks close to the

edge (but that may be just the angle of the photo).

 

If you want a perfect nut I suggest you do it yourself then you can put

the strings where you want them. There are different ways to space

the strings. It's not hard to make a nut, well the first one can be a bit

daunting but the following ones are easy. There are a few threads here

and elsewhere describing how it's done.

[proxmax]

thx, that sounds plausible to me.

guess i'll gonna try.......

[Gitfiddler]

Before you remove and replace the nut, is the current set up affecting your playing? I'd imagine that the greatest adverse impact would be in the first position.

 

If it not a problem, I'd leave well enough alone.

 

Conversly, if it IS impacting your fingering, then I'd take it to an experienced tech for the nut replacement. They've got the proper tools (files, glues, etc.) and will (should) get it right the first time.

 

I'm not much of a DIY guy when it comes to expensive instruments. Little things always go wrong that invariably cost me big bucks later. I tried to work on a nut on an old beater and dug one slot a bit too deep, resulting in string buzz all up the neck! Never again for this player.

 

Good luck and let us know what you decide.

 

That is a REALLY sweet looking H-150 by the way!

[FrankS]

The same guy that made your nut must have made mine. It is exactly the same... E and A are further apart than the other strings. The high E is also too close to the edge of the fingerboard. I have tried pencil lead in the slots to stop the strings jamming in them but it doesn't work that well. I see new a new nut in my future.

[SouthpawGuy]

 

Sweet guitar !

 

Do you have shots of the back ? Is it a natural mahogany finish ?

 

It looks like a very fancy version of those black'n'tan 150s' I have seen before.

 

btw, maybe a new nut might be in order, the spacing does seem to be off quite a bit on that one.

 

Regards.

[fxdx99]

Say, Paul P (or others who may know), what kind of files do you use to cut the nut string notches? Get 'em from someplace like allparts, I'd guess?

[Paul P]

The first nuts I did were not from scratch. I bought some Tusq nuts from Graphtech :

http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?CategoryID=1

and adjusted the slots using automotive feeler gauges wrapped in wet-n-dry (silicon carbide)

sandpaper. This works but is not terribly elegant. There's a guy on ebay, from Sweden I

think, who sells the same feeler gauges with teeth cut on one edge. They probably work fine.

 

For the nut on my Heritage I felt it was time to get some proper tools so I bought a set of

nut files from Warmoth, which were the cheapest I found :

http://www.warmoth.com/Nut-Files-Set-of-8-P45C215.aspx

On the recommendation of our own illustrious Cryoman I bought some 40 year old camel bone

blanks off ebay from hongkongsuperseller :

Bone nut blanks

15$ for 5 nut blanks shipped worldwide from Hong Kong is a good deal. It took less than two weeks

for the blanks to arrive.

 

Take a look at this masterpiece by Cryoman :

Great nut

For the string spacing, first decide how far in from the fingerboard edges you want the outer

strings to be. One way to lay out the remaining four strings is to simply divide the space by

five. This causes the string centers to be equally spaced apart but since it doesn't take into

account the thickness of each string there won't be identical spaces between each string.

With this method the fingerboard dots, if you have any, will be centered within the two center

strings.

 

Another way is to take into account the thickness of each string and space them so there is

an identical amount of free space between each string. To do this measure inside the outer

strings, subtract the total width of the four remaining strings, and divide that by five. Then

place this amount of space between each string. I prefer this method but the dots on my

fretboard are not centered and look a bit weird if you care about such things.

 

Or just do it by eye.

 

Frets.com is a great site with tons of info on guitar maintenance. Here are some articles on

nut making :

Making a new nut

Setting nut action

If you decide to give it a try keep us posted on your results.

[fxdx99]

Wow, Paul - THANKS! Excellent and informative post - have already learned a lot by reading it. Right after posting my question, I went to the music room to check the guits and see if I had the spacing like in promax's pic... but there's this recent guitar I got that was sitting on it's stand. 2 hours later (where'd the time go?!) I come back upstairs, waggle the mouse to get off screen saver and here's this thread. Oh yeh, forget to check out the spacing. And the file question is for the B string on the 535 - a bit tight for behind the nut bends so wanted to widen it. Think I may try the auto gages/sandpaper deal now since I have both in the house.

 

Again, great reply - Thanks much!

[proxmax]

Sweet guitar !

 

Do you have shots of the back ? Is it a natural mahogany finish ?

 

It looks like a very fancy version of those black'n'tan 150s' I have seen before.

 

btw, maybe a new nut might be in order, the spacing does seem to be off quite a bit on that one.

 

Regards.

 

yes, it is in a natural mahogany finish!

black'n'tan - was it any special edition?

you know how many were made?

 

thanks

klaus

[Thundersteel]

Another way is to take into account the thickness of each string and space them so there is

an identical amount of free space between each string. To do this measure inside the outer

strings, subtract the total width of the four remaining strings, and divide that by five.

 

Or, just use this String Spacing Ruler from Stewart-MacDonald. I bought mine from eBay for about half price.

 

[proxmax]

i decided to get a new nut.

pix later!

 

-klaus

[big bob]

all three of mine are that way, the millie, the stat, and the 575..