Thank you, Ned. This gives me a staring point. My goal is to do some research before launching into making a whole new nut. I always leave the original nut and saddle untouched ans start fresh. I have done set-ups on most of my six string guitars, and even made entirely new six string nuts to convert a twelve into a wide-necked six temporarily, but a set-up from scratch on a twelver is new territory for me.
My comparison is a brand new carbon fiber Emerald to one of the best playing Taylor twelve's I have ever encountered (and bought on the spot). Emerald is very close, but not quite as good for fingerstyle. (It is fine for moderate strumming). I'm talking about really tiny adjustments, as the guitar is close right now.
The neck has a truss rod, but does not seem to change relief whether there is heavy or no tension at all. I don't think it is binding nut slots, because the guitar came wearing heavy EJ-37's (336 pounds total) and I replaced them with light gauge EJ-38's (245 pounds). The slots should be wide enough, but as to the depth?
I need to make a couple of measurements. My first thought is to pop the nut off the Taylor and put it on the Emerald (temporarily) and see if the better playability follows the nut. At least I have a "known good" prototype to work from.
I am also pondering a couple of things:
Do I set the octave strings up into the same plane as the wound strings? This would allow them to be pressed down well by the fretting finger, but might bend the octave string out of tune. I believe that Taylor does this on their T5-12, but that is basically an electric guitar set-up. (I have their spec sheet for set-ups. They list heights for the wound strings, but not for the octaves).
The other thing I am considering is to put the wound strings up high, with the octaves closer to the floor, as Rickenbacker does it.
Pondering and research continues.......
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