Clear to Purple Flame Strat

[lucky13]

Thanks Cagey. This link has been in my bookmarks for more than a year (you probably gave it in another thread I bookmarked too) but it's more telling than all written explanations you can read here or other places.

And yes, I'll go slow. And use feeler gauges as a depth stop (but not the ones from stewmac). And practice on cheap plastic nuts before I start working on the final one. And I have one extra pre-slotted Tusq XL nut (which is an exact match for the one Warmoth made, as far as width and string spacing are concerned) because, well, you know.

Yes, very slow, after every single adjustment re-tune the guitar and check it again..every single time....you'll be thank full you did...also read this its very helpful http://bernietusko.wordpress.com/tag/guitar-repair/

and also read this:  http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.graphtech.com%2Fdocs%2Fdefault-document-library%2Fnut-installation-instructions.pdf%3Fsfvrsn%3D0&ei=49wZU8e4M5fDoATJ-oHwBw&usg=AFQjCNEtiFPlSmkH8x67iT20AGGlxnv8wQ&sig2=JjAAy0a-giMo2cWRH_qbzw&bvm=bv.62578216,d.cGU

both have pictures that say a whole lot without saying a word and there is no room for error cutting the nut.

just capo the third fret when your working on dropping the strings to their final resting place it will give you an easy way to see where and how all the strings are sitting in relation to one another in their slots....you can see which strings are too high etc......having the visual helps you know if you need to cut deeper or not.  strings make nice feeler gauges...when the strings are capoed at the third fret you can see how close you are by sliding a 9 or 10 gauge string between the string your lowering and top of the first fret, start with the high E and work across to the low E, if you sit at eye level with the neck when your making your cuts you will be able to see whats really going on.

I also found magnifying glasses and a magnifying lens very helpful when doing nut work...a small flash light and lots of lighting are also important, another thing I found to help see if the break over points were proper was having a sheet of white paper propped up on the other side of the neck so when I was looking at the strings at eye level I could see the space between them and it made it easy to see which ones were out of whack with the others, nothing sucks more than lowering the wrong string thinking your evening things out only to find the one you should have been lowering is still too high and you just blew the nut by dropping a string too low.

 

[croquet hoop]

Thanks for the advice lucky13, I'll keep that in mind.

Nothing much to report, except that shellac is surprisingly pleasant to work with — on a flat scrap. We'll see later how that translates when working on a neck :icon_biggrin:

Just one thing though, the other day after the last sanding (with 320 grit) I wiped the neck with alcohol to remove the dust (which I usually do with naphtha), and the rosewood stripe bled into the maple:

I let it dry, sanded it lightly and it went away but I was surprised, is this supposed to happen with alcohol? (which is the solvent used with shellac, so I hope it won't happen again now that the rosewood dust has been wiped away)