Warmoth Earvana nut tuning issues?

waygorked

Junior Member
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I have a Warmoth Jazzcaster with a standard GraphTech nut. It sits on a body with a Suhr/Wilkinson WVS130 locking saddle bridge, mated to a set of Gotoh locking tuners. I can beat up on this guitar's trem for days, and it holds tune as well as any Floyd Rose equipped guitar I have ever owned.

I also have a Jazzcaster with the same bridge, only this one has the Warmoth version of the GraphTech Tusk XL Earvana nut. Despite everything being the same Warmoth components, I struggled to get the guitar to intonate, and needed to remove saddle springs to bring 2 of them all the way back to the point of touching the bridge plate. Nothing I can do seems to make this guitar stay in tune. Whenever I drop the bar at all the tuning returns sharp by a few cents, across all the strings. I was originally thinking that this was from binding at the nut, but I had no issues before I put on the Wilkinson bridge. I'm wondering if this nut design and the need to shift all the saddles so far back has introduced some string break angle issue at the block that is destroying my tuning stability.

Has anyone else found something similar with Warmoth Earvana nuts?
 
I have not had observed this with the earvana equipped Warmoth I have which has a Gotoh 510. I have some Wilkinson locking saddles to retrofit to it so at some point I can see if it makes a difference but I cannot see that it would.

The Warmoth I have with a Wilkinson WVS130 has a bone nut and it is extremely stable.  Although mine is intonated the low E in particular next time I change strings I am going to shorten the spring to give a little easier adjustment range. 

You might need to cut one of the springs so the saddle can move further back. But on the Earvana, have you tried adjusting the nut slots with some nut files to dial it in along with some nut sauce. It sounds like something is binding in the nut.

Can you post some pics of your JMs with the WVS130 as I would like to see how it looks?
 
yo my earbana has been straight perfecto *chef's kiss*. have u checked to see if the strings r binding in the slots, tho? Maybe they need to be engorged a little
 
I have already removed a few of the saddle springs, low E and G strings, and have the saddles butting up against the bridge plate. It just *barely* intonates on those strings that way, and can't be moved any farther back. I know if's not about the bridge, as the same setup on a similar Warmoth body and neck without the Earvana nut lets me have the saddles sitting 2mm forward on every saddle. The saddles are so far back that the break angle into the block has changed. Instead of going through the saddle and straight down into the holes in the block, now the string has to bend forward across the top of the block to make it into the hole. It's as if the block holes were drilled for a range of saddle movement that I have exceeded in order to make this thing intonate. I would expect that what happens once I get past the locking saddle shouldn't matter, but maybe it does.

As for the nut slots, I'm not ruling this out as an issue, but I'm skeptical. I had no nut binding issues with the previous bridge, and before I was using 11s. Now I'm using 10s with the Wilkinson setup. I would think that makes the nut a less likely culprit for the tuning issue.
 
I have a 25.5 earvana strat neck and a regular nut strat neck and the earvana nut does not really make any difference in intonation. What seems to make the difference is that the wilkinson vs100 tremolo I have on my guitars does make it so the guitar can be intonated perfectly.

If the string is sharp you may want to try to lower the height of the string by both by lowering the nut height by way of removeing the entire nut and sanding the bottom of the nut to height and also lower the string height by lowering the saddle. A high string will pull sharp when pressed down.
 
Don't assume the slots in the nut don't need tweaking just because another nut did not. It really sounds like your strings are binding in the nut.

The fact that it is an Earvana is not contributing to having difficulty in intonating. Are the saddles of the bridge locked or unlocked when intonating?

Try putting a capo on say fret 3 and intonate the octave at the 15th. That rules out any nut being involved in the process. If strings go sharp after use then it must be nut binding.
 
While Tusq builds a VERY consistent product; there is no such thing as a "perfect" product (in terms of consistency in production). There WILL be a rare and occasional fault in the product. That's ot be expected (or should be).

Let Tusq know and I'd bet they'd send you out a good replacement. I realize you'll also need to spend time and money getting it installed and perfected/setup, but having it "right" will soon make it all seem worth it.

Just my 2 cents....
(of course.... you can try to go back to the original bridge and "see" if the intonation is "back" to what it was originally. If that fixes it, then get a different bridge)

You are replying to a thread more than a year old. The OP has not been active since around about the time he posted.

For information, Tusq Earvana which the OP was asking about are nuts that are factory fitted on Warmoth necks are cut by Warmoth from Tusq blanks, so Graphtech can not send a replacement.
 
Replying to old topics that are no longer topical is best avoided, generally on most forums. Especially when the question is already answered.

In this case, I have also had to clarify that Warmoth provided Earvana nuts are made by Warmoth and can not be replaced by calling Graphtech Tusq as suggested, which is incorrect.

The previous forum software used to warn if a thread had not been posted in for 180 days to ask the user if they really needed to post.

Generally on most forums if a thread with a question, has been answered and the original poster has abandoned the thread and has not been active on the forum it is best avoided posting in it. You can see when a user has last been active by hovering over their username with your mouse or similar device.

There are other threads for example such as sticky threads and post what music you are listening to etc that although they are older threads may still be considered active.

Use discretion, but if in doubt, make a new thread and check similar threads in case there is already an appropriate thread.
 
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