Nut Slot Depth/Low Tension Strings

[Placida]

If I string up a short scale guitar with low tension DR Sunbeam or Thomastik Spectrum for example, will the nut slots have to be raised to keep them from buzzing? The nut slots currently are just a baby hair above the first fret when holding the string down at the third fret. I use 12-53's on this guitar.

Or, will adding a little relief solve any potential buzzing?

[brianli408]

Tape a tape on the bottom of your nut to sightly raise your nut is a quickfix. Meanwhile give some more relief to the neck then you are good to go

Nut slots should be at fret height regardless of string gauge, tension, or tuning. From the description it sounds like yours is setup correctly. If you get buzzing with lower tension you may need to add some relief (only if the neck flattened too much) but more likely you need to raise the saddle slightly.

[Placida]

I should have added that I recently removed the relief and the neck is pretty flat, which has the action on the lower frets just where I want it for moderate flat picking and strumming using EJ16's. I'll get slight buzzing if I inadvertently go too hard with the pick but mostly the action is perfect.

When and if I go with the low tension strings I'll try adding some relief. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Placida

I should have added that I recently removed the relief and the neck is pretty flat, which has the action on the lower frets just where I want it for moderate flat picking and strumming using EJ16's. I'll get slight buzzing if I inadvertently go too hard with the pick but mostly the action is perfect.

When and if I go with the low tension strings I'll try adding some relief. Thanks.

If you have the nut slots correct and the relief is flat, but you're getting buzzing when you play hard, then the 12th fret action is too low for your style.

Adding relief is only going to make it harder to play in the middle frets, and possibly create buzzing around fret 10 or so.

(1) Set the relief between 0.005" and 0.008".
(2) Set the nut slots at fret height (or just enough enough above to know that they're not too low.
(3) Set the 12th fret action as needed for the style of play by adjusting the saddle height.

[Placida]

Thanks again, Todd - I'll try that out.