View Full Version : Temporary nut slot repair
Help please. Just like my dentist who goes on holiday when my tooth starts aching, my luthier is laid up with a hand problem for the next three weeks. After hunting for a few days, I discovered an irritating buzzing on the D string is just one string and it is caused not by the bridge, as I suspected but by the nut slot, which the luthier filed down a bit a year ago. How can I do a temporary repair until my luthier is back in action again? I think I saw some suggestion about silver paper. Any ideas please?
sunburst
Feb-08-2008, 9:33am
The time-honored scrap of paper under the string will get you by until you have it repaired.
Jerry Haynes
Feb-08-2008, 10:05am
A piece of waxed dental floss will work also, may have to double it though.
PaulD
Feb-08-2008, 12:02pm
I've done the "time-honored scrap of paper" shim before, I've never heard of using dental floss. I think that whatever you go with you have to make sure the string is sitting on the shim right up to the edge of the nut (fretboard side) or you may create intonation problems.
pd
Bernie Daniel
Feb-09-2008, 11:01am
Twice when I have had this same problem I filled the existing slot in the nut with a mixture of bone dust and Stew Mac 20X cyanoacrylate (superglue) and then file it back down to the depth I want it. #
This is (to my mind anyway) a permanent fix and I have had really good luck with it. Of course you need to have a set of nut files or the equivalent handy.