Nut elevation suggestions...

[Bandersnatch Reverb]

One of the things my Tacoma really suffered from was a poorly fit nut when new. The string elevation was about .030 above the _top_ of the first fret. Akk horrendous. I took it down to about .020, but, it probably ought to go lower.

Acually, to be fair, the G and D are seem set just fine, and feel fine at .020, but the A and E seem like they could use some fine tuning.

This is all new to me. For a guitar, I'd set the high E string about .015 or so, but the distance from nut to first fret is greater, and therefore it _seems_ easier to finger. Compared to a mandolin set at .020 its night and day as you can imagine.

Some suggestions would be great. Other than that - the neck is really nice, with great frets, proper relief and very playable anywhere. Getting it a bit more comfy up on the first and second frets is all it needs for a great setup.

As an aside to all that, I'm still pounding my head trying to figure something for a tailpiece, considering making my own.

[sunburst]

This has come up several times, a search might find a thread, but here's how I (and many others) set nut height.

Press a string down with your finger between the 2nd and 3rd frets. Now look at the clearance between the 1st fret and that string. There should be just a little clearance, so that you can barely see the string move if you press it with another finger over the 1st fret.
File the notch if it's higher, do that with all 8 strings, done.(Unless you want to file and polish the nut down so that half of the string diameters are above the nut surface.)

[Dolamon]

This is from Frank Ford's FRETS # (http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/GenSetup/NutAction/nutaction.html)site and it illustrates what S'Burst was talking about. There is a really nifty trick at the end of the article I'd never seen before. Then there's a follow up article which shows how to measure, score cut the slots to #fit. (http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Setup/SetNut/setnut.html) - I've used a flattened pencil to measure and mark the nut and I think Frank has that hidden on his site - somewhere. This should get you headed in the right direction.

[Bandersnatch Reverb]

ok nothing special...a nut's a nut's a nut! Thanks

[John Flynn]

One of the great techniques on the Ford site is measuring the nut height by depressing the string at the second fret and then measuring the clearance between the string and the first fret with a feeler gauge. I think it is much more accurate. I my unprofessional experimentation, I found that I could go down to .003 without buzzing, but not even a hair lower. .004 is probably safer, but .005 was starting to feel a little too high.

BTW, my handy-dandy money-saving hint for filing nut slots: Torch tip files, available at your local hardware store!

[Bandersnatch Reverb]

Thanks for advice - from what it sounds like, a manolin can have somewhat lower nut action than the gitfiddle. I guess this makes sense - ie shorter strings, smaller envelope, higher pitch.

THANKS!!~~