Warmoth Nut Install
- Thread starter Roland
- Start date
YEP .. all mine have been pre installed. 10+ necks (Most with Graph tech)
YEP .. rather spent the $$$ & have it pre done, then get it all set up then see if anything needs doing.
$30 is for the Nut & Install !!
They are cut to a standard size, so you can then set / file to your desire.
String size / action etc etc
I'm guessing many people, do have them pre installed.
But many others here DO their own too.
YEP .. rather spent the $$$ & have it pre done, then get it all set up then see if anything needs doing.
$30 is for the Nut & Install !!
They are cut to a standard size, so you can then set / file to your desire.
String size / action etc etc
I'm guessing many people, do have them pre installed.
But many others here DO their own too.
I'm not too sure about this. It's such a normal part of setup that people who've started by maintaining and upgrading their guitars consider nuts to be easy. You can buy 8 blanks for the cost of one install, and if you've got the tools anyway.... I guess if you've never done one, having them do it it for $30 is a start - but you're still going to need a tech to get it absolutely right. For the cost of three installed, you could have all the tools and the book or video that'll teach you to do them, which you'll then know forever. It becomes philosophical, I spoze - are you just trying to get a decent axe, or something...
more? 
Super Turbo Deluxe Custom
Epic Member
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I've had no trouble filing nuts on basses because of the larger gauges. On guitars I've ordered them installed and ended up taking them to be lowered. In the future, on guitar necks, I'll have them installed when I take it in for fret level and setup. It doesn't cost much more to have a tech install one he'll file anyway. It's cheaper than having Warmoth install one that's guaranteed to be taller and take it somewhere for that work. If you have the patience and gumption to buy the files and learn to do it, that skill is worth having. I couldn't care less about aquiring a new skill I would seldom use that could save me $120 in my lifetime.
Ace Flibble
Hero Member
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- 865
I can't say I've been too impressed with Warmoth's nuts myself, and I lack the tools/skill to do it myself (and the nearest decent tech is a three hour drive away). Luckily, Earvana drop-in nuts are great right away and fit both the Warmoth nut slot on straight headstocks and the shelf on angled ones. LSR is a good way to go too.
The biggest time-saver (for you OR Warmoth OR Graphtech) is the work you do on the nut before it's on the guitar. I have a little bitty garage-sale vise, like a toy vise or something, that just I use as a handle for the things - I don't mount it to anything but the little buggers are slippery. So that's helpful. And once you figure them out, how high above the fretboard to clear the 1st fret by .010" and stuff (and how to MEASURE for that), you can put a blank in the guitar, pencil it up, vice it and then do 93.75% of all the cutting & filing without needing the guitar again. It's an easy skill to learn, Dan Erlewine has special nut-courses and it's all covered in his "Guitar Player Repair Guide."
And you'll never know whether your action is as good as it can be -
until you make it too low and get to start over! <-BWAHHAHAHAHAHA brainworm, now yer screwed...
And you'll never know whether your action is as good as it can be -
until you make it too low and get to start over! <-BWAHHAHAHAHAHA brainworm, now yer screwed...
S
swarfrat
Guest
I love my Earvana, have two. But ... both of them required not just setup, but basic fitting. If you just slap an Earvana shelf nut in the warmoth slot you will have not just "I like to play 11's with high action blues" high, but in lap steel territory.
Ace Flibble
Hero Member
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Yet to have this problem. I have multiple guitars with Earvana nuts, all of them put on straight out of the box (well, bag) and not cut further. All of them have action around the 2mm mark, depending on frets/string gauge/etc. I think the highest is 2.4mm, lowest is about 1.8mm. In fact on one of them I had to shim it, 'cause I like my action to be fairly high (don't play slide or use crazy thick strings or anything, I just find bends awkward with really low action).swarfrat said:
Cagey
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StubHead said:
Speaking of "toy" vises, when working on nuts I like to use this little rascal I got from Micro-Mark...
Clamp a nut into that thing, and you have something you can terrorize on 3 sides without moving the part. It's made of brass and steel, so it has some heft to it and will take some abuse, plus it can be clamped into a larger vise for polishing your part once it's properly shaped. Mark the nut depth, clamp it into this thing to where the depth should be, and just sand/file until it meets the vise. Cut/grind/sand/shape/polish the ends, and you have a drop-in part ready to have slots cut. Very handy.
For those who are unfamiliar, Micro-Mark is a supplier of modeler's tools for the fanatic types, such as railroaders. Ask for a catalog. There's a lotta really interesting stuff in there. Apparently model railroaders are expert at aging things, for those of you who like to make "vintage" stuff. Lotta tools and supplies for doing that sort of thing. But, basically there are just a lotta tools and supplies that you simply don't see anywhere else for cutting, machining, bending, etc. of small parts.
Mine was 50c, I think.... figuring out ways to hang on to stuff, and sand/file/cut without fingertip torture, makes all this stuff a lot more enjoyable. Cut and glue some rubber sheet to little sticks and do the same with thin mousepad neoprene to sand & polish with instead of fingers... it's worth it to me to have the Micro Mark, Stew-Mac, McFeely's & Lee Valley catalogs & scope them just to get the concept of a time & finger-saver device, then cowboy it. I am a really cheap date.
F.E., you can make abrasive paper-holding "fret crowning files" of any width, depth & contour by drilling the appropriate holes through 1" X 2" pine sticks, then saw along the hole carefully to get the slot out of it, thin it down flat-wise and glue in rubber sheet. You won't get contour out of the store-bought ones, so you have to use the triangle files and consistency with them (22 frets = 88 corners :confused4
is a bitch. THINK, that's all. I look at Stew-Mac's $80 - $150 "kits" with amazement. There are even books and probably vids by now about making tools, jigs and stuff, but really, ummm, jeez. You just look at some recalcitrant little damn thing and tell it "I AM GOING TO DICK WITH YOU, DAMN THING."
but you knew that
F.E., you can make abrasive paper-holding "fret crowning files" of any width, depth & contour by drilling the appropriate holes through 1" X 2" pine sticks, then saw along the hole carefully to get the slot out of it, thin it down flat-wise and glue in rubber sheet. You won't get contour out of the store-bought ones, so you have to use the triangle files and consistency with them (22 frets = 88 corners :confused4
is a bitch. THINK, that's all. I look at Stew-Mac's $80 - $150 "kits" with amazement. There are even books and probably vids by now about making tools, jigs and stuff, but really, ummm, jeez. You just look at some recalcitrant little damn thing and tell it "I AM GOING TO DICK WITH YOU, DAMN THING."but you knew that
