I have a new neck on order from Warmoth, and thought I'd try cutting a nut out of a piece of ivory* I had hanging around. I used an online calculator with my desired string spacing and gauge and created a spacing diagram. And I did the old feeler gauges -> gauged files trick. The feeler gauges actually seemed to work pretty well, I was impressed. The string spacing seems reasonable. The nut is still way too high (probably needs an eighth of an inch or so taken off the bottom), but I think I could sand that down and potentially actually use this nut if I felt like it. I also have a preslotted nut coming from eBay, and when it gets here I'll compare the two and decide which I end up using. It was a fun bit of tinkering, though.
TZ
*I know, I know. Let's just say, when I acquired this piece, 10 or so years ago, I wasn't as conscious about this stuff. I wouldn't ever buy actual ivory nowadays. It was advertised on ebay as from museum ivory, and pre-ban. It being eBay, I'd put even odds on these three possibilities: 1 - actual pre-ban ivory; 2 - illegal ivory; 3 - not ivory at all, just some bleached bone. Anyway, like I said, I had it hanging around, figured I may as well use it.
TZ
*I know, I know. Let's just say, when I acquired this piece, 10 or so years ago, I wasn't as conscious about this stuff. I wouldn't ever buy actual ivory nowadays. It was advertised on ebay as from museum ivory, and pre-ban. It being eBay, I'd put even odds on these three possibilities: 1 - actual pre-ban ivory; 2 - illegal ivory; 3 - not ivory at all, just some bleached bone. Anyway, like I said, I had it hanging around, figured I may as well use it.
