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  #1  
Old 11-21-2018, 08:09 PM
kriso77 kriso77 is offline
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Default Does this look right? Taylor nut replacement

Just had a nut for a Taylor 714 replaced today at a shop. Out of ignorance, I’m not sure if the replacement should have been sanded down on the bottom. The nut is much higher than the original but the slots seem to be properly filed. Just not sure if the overall heigh should be lower.

[IMG]Taylor 714 by Kris Ohrenick, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Taylor 714 by Kris Ohrenick, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Taylor 714 by Kris Ohrenick, on Flickr[/IMG]

Last edited by kriso77; 11-21-2018 at 08:42 PM.
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Old 11-21-2018, 08:16 PM
Rudy4 Rudy4 is offline
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There's a whole bunch that looks wrong with that job. I looked at the photo of the bass end, zoomed in and can easily see the end of the nut is short in the slot.

No sense in looking any further.
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Old 11-21-2018, 08:22 PM
kriso77 kriso77 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rudy4 View Post
There's a whole bunch that looks wrong with that job. I looked at the photo of the bass end, zoomed in and can easily see the end of the nut is short in the slot.

No sense in looking any further.
Might be bad lighting on my end. It’s definitely flush with the slot. Feel free to elaborate on the other whole bunch that’s wrong.
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Old 11-21-2018, 08:33 PM
ChalkLitIScream ChalkLitIScream is offline
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Like Rudy, thought the bass end of the nut was sanded too far...but if its just the lighting, then its fine.

I would sand off the top of the nut so that you havethe top of the strings exposed.
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Old 11-21-2018, 08:43 PM
kriso77 kriso77 is offline
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Posted some better pics. The work looks sloppy to me, but I'm not an expert.
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Old 11-21-2018, 08:52 PM
Brucebubs Brucebubs is offline
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The slots don't look very smooth too.
I just went and took these shots of 2 guitars I own.
The solid headstock guitar is my H&D and the slotted headstock is my Martin JDP II... just to give you something to compare with.





I can see traces of the black graphite on the Martin - I like to run a very soft lead pencil in the slots when I do a string change.
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Old 11-21-2018, 08:57 PM
Bigredhog Bigredhog is offline
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First off I am not a luthier but have some experience cutting a nuts for my guitars and looks like a very poor job from everything I was taught on how to cut a nut. It almost looks like they set the nut then cut the slots to get the action right the slots look like the were gouged and extremely deep. There are special files for dressing the slots. Again not claiming to be an expert but that ain’t right and that is clearly not the work of luthier at least not a good one.
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Old 11-21-2018, 09:00 PM
YamahaGuy YamahaGuy is online now
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The slots look like they're just barely wide enough for the strings. I wouldn't be surprised if you have tuning issues with the wound strings sticking in the nut slots. And the slot cuts do not look perfectly vertical to me, especially on the D and G strings.
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Old 11-21-2018, 09:09 PM
D-utim D-utim is offline
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Find another tech.
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Old 11-21-2018, 09:11 PM
kriso77 kriso77 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by D-utim View Post
Find another tech.


Yeah, I figured. My typical go to guy is an hour away and I’ve done a couple small fixes with the guy that did this nut. Looks like I’ll be making the hour drive to get it done right. This one just didn’t work out.
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Old 11-21-2018, 09:51 PM
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ChuckS ChuckS is offline
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Sorry to say, but that’s a really poor job. If that was done for me I wouldn’t take anything there again, but I would let them know what I thought.
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Old 11-22-2018, 12:14 AM
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RW54 RW54 is offline
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That seems to be a very rough, unfinished piece of work. The strings seem to be angled wrong, and with you stating it is higher than the one you had, not sure if that is good or bad, from the guitar's point of view.... will the strings hold a business card at the nut, and will a quarter fit under the string at the 12th fret? I will admit, that has something to do with the bridge height, too, but if you are looking for a great set up, it should be a consideration. I've posted some photos of set ups that we have done in our store. Saddles are calibrated so that every fret intonates correctly. Nuts should be clean, well filed, not too deep, and as deep as 1/2 of the string. That seems to work best for us. Included are some photos of The Loar LH600 and an Epiphone AJ220S, nut and saddle. The Loar saddle width is calculated wide so the bridge sets straight on the sound board, not slanted. The other thing we noticed, is that the nut you were given appears to have a crack in it- a linear crack. That will affect the amount of carried sound. I'm not sure how to post these images, sorry if any are duplicates. Will also say we do these all day long- might not be the best, but strive to give a person a good, clean well done nut or saddle, and give them back an easy to play, clean sounding instrument! I don't see any images, in preview, hope you can see them.
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Old 11-22-2018, 12:27 AM
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RW54 RW54 is offline
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I don't see how to load a photo, to help you see a clean nut... Can anyone help? I've looked about everywhere. Thanks.
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Old 11-22-2018, 12:30 AM
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RW54 RW54 is offline
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We have people that ship their guitar to us, and some people that drive 6 hours each way, to bring their guitars in. Go to the best that you can get to.
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Old 11-22-2018, 01:01 AM
Mr.Bill101 Mr.Bill101 is offline
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Looks pretty sloppy to me. I would expect a professional to do a cleaner job with the top of nut sanded down to be even or a hair lower than the strings along with a cleaner look overall.
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