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Hi,
My first post after lurking for a while.
I've got an Epiphone Mandobird VIII which came with a badly cut nut - the strings are spaced unevenly in their pairs, making it quite hard to play on the lower frets. I've started to make some enquiries about having a nut made, but wondered if it's possible to buy a replacement nut "off the shelf"? If so, where should I be looking? I'm in the UK if it matters.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.
I don't know about Mandobirds specifically, but replacement nut material can be purchased from Ebay or Steward Mcdonald at http://www.stewmac.com/
I'm sure you can also get advice in cutting a new nut from Frets.com and this forum. Some tools will be required.
It also might be possible to cut new slots in the existing nut if you remove it and shim the bottom.
Thanks for your reply. I've had a look on stewmac.com, but would prefer to buy one pre shaped and cut if I can.
If you are looking for a nut that you can just slap on a mandolin and have it be correct you aren`t going to find one without giving some perfect dimensions to who ever is making it, different mandolins have different width nuts and also different heights, If you can find a luthier in your neck of the woods that would be your best bet to take to him and he can make you a new one or maybe correct the one you have....
Good luck....Willie
Thanks Willie. I didn't realise the nuts could vary so much. I'll find someone nearby to make one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Willie
Preshaped nuts will not work. The final shaping and fine tuning of any nut is normally done after the instrument is manufactured by a luthier at the dealer or an independent luthier. Even if the dealer will sell you a nut it will not work well and will have to be fine tuned by a luthier...... or you.... As suggested above,, the information is available at frets.com and yes, you can do it.
Tusq makes a pre-shaped, pre-slotted mandolin nut. Many music stores carry them. It may fit your electric mando just right, but it would most likely need some adjustment. They are an OK place to start if you don't feel confident about starting with a rectangular piece of bone.
I've done nuts with bone blanks from stewmac and also used the tusq nuts. There is a little less shaping to do on the tusq, but I still had a lot of filing in the slots to do. On my Mandobird VIII I started with a bone blank. I'm still learning. It looks rough but sounds good.
I strongly suggest you take the 'bird to a quality luthier and have them do a complete professional set-up. It will make a world of difference, and you will save yourself considerable hassle. Learn from my mistakes, please.
Thanks for all the replies. I'm currently making some enquiries with some luthiers to get a new nut and full setup. I think I'd rather hand it over to a pro for now.
New nuts are cheap, but they all have to be fine tuned to some extent because each instrument, even of the same brand, is different.