I got a nasty surprise when I went to change the nut on my Squier Bullet Strat!

[philo426]

I went to change the nut on my Squier Strat and had a serious problem removing it.In the past I have changed nuts on acoustic guitars and all it required was a light tap with a piece of wood to make the nut slide out after scoring it with an Exacto knife. The nut on the Squier was apparently heavily glued and no matter how careful I was it simply would not budge!Finally I had to resort to shattering it with a screwdriver which should not have been necessary!Worse yet,in the process a chunk of Rosewood was knocked out of the fretboard!Luckily it broke away clean and I was able to glue it back after the new Tusq was installed and the new strings put on!Man I was pissed!

[B. Howard]

those nuts are glued in and then finished over. That plus the fact they sit in a groove and not against the end of the FB makes them tough to remove. To avoid chipping the end of the FB as you did I saw a groove in the center of the nut and collapse it in on itself into the slot.

[philo426]

Okay thanks!After I file and sand it to profile it should be okay.It does play right and I am not getting the binding that caused it to go out of tune when doing bends.

[redir]

Tapping it out in the same direction of the slot will help prevent the chip out too. But yeah those are a PIA.

[philo426]

Yes this was unexpected but there is a noticeable improvemenet,so it turned out ok!

[fazool]

I had a similar problem once - mine chipped out a piece of the headstock veneer overlay. Really really upsetting.

[philo426]

I know!What would a Luthier do if he encountered this problem?Acetone might loosen the glue but the Risk of finish damage is great unless you totally tape the guitar off and apply it with an eye dropper.

[philo426]

Okay all better now!

[BT55]

Would it make sense to drill a few holes in the nut to drip acetone into to loosen the glue?

[philo426]

Yes that might be effective!I think we need to somehow give Squier owners a heads up about the excessively glued in nut!

[bnjp]

I cut the finish all around and try to tap it out from the side. If it won't move I cut through the middle of the nut lengthwise and dig it out. I've chipped wood before too...that's real common...but if you're careful you can glue the chip back in where it's barely noticeable.

[philo426]

Yes as you can see,with a little dark stain the damage is not easily detectable.