#1
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How to remove a string holder
I have a Furch Little Jane that I love. It's my favorite travel guitar. The neck comes off, disassembles into 2 pieces, which along with the body all fits into a small pack.
The one thing I don't like about it is the excessive (to me) spacing they leave between the outer strings and the edge of the fretboard. That makes it really hard to do a thumb over on the E string. On other guitars I've just made a new nut with a slightly wider string spacing. But the Little Jane is different in that it has a zero fret and, in place of a nut, it has a string holder to keep the strings in place when the neck is removed. I'm thinking of removing the string holder and making a new one with better string spacing. The question is how to remove it. I emailed Furch and asked if the string holder is just lightly glued in place like a typical nut, which could be removed with a gentle tap. Their response was "no". So I'm assuming it's more firmly glued in place. But I can't see a good reason to not try removal. What's the best way to approach it? Gentle heat from a hair dryer or heat gun far away on low, with some sort of protection to the surrounding areas. Then tap sideways or work a knife blade under it? Or am I risking messing up the headstock overlay? Some pictures: |
#2
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I'd tap it with a hammer and replace it with a nut. The design of that thing makes me wonder how tuning stability is on that guitar.
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#3
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I'd put a wood block against the string holder and gently tap the block with a light hammer.
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#4
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Ditto the light hammer tap. Since it's a cast plastic spacer Furch may have opted to add protrusions that insert into drilled holes in either the end of the fretboard or into the neck surface.
It looks like they drilled all of the holes the same size, probably to shave production cost by a few pennies. On a zero fret instrument that causes the strings to pull toward the center unless the hole locations are spaced further outward. |
#5
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I would try to do some surgery on it and use it as a nut before removing it completely. Just file down the top until you are halfway through the holes.
If that proves unsatisfactory, then I’d tap it out as suggested and make a new nut. Rb |
#6
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Thanks for the suggestions. It's nice to have the string holder, rather than a normal nut because it helps keeps the strings in place when disassembled.
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#7
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You can use a capo to hold strings in place while the guitar is disassembled.
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