Installing nut

[Les Corley]

I'm getting ready to install my nut tomorrow & I'm wondering what a good starting point is. I'm thinking maybe 13-15-17-19 thousands at the first fret. Let me know if I'm off base here.Thanks for your help

[bennyb]

Howdy Ol' Timer,
Looks reasonable to start with to me(rookie). There's this page (http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/GenSetup/NutAction/nutaction.html) at Frets. And here's something I copied from some source a couple three years ago:

EDIT: below measured in thousandths of inch from top of fret to bottom of string. I read the OP's measurements as measured fret to string E A D G

low:
12th fret G to E .060 to .050
1st fret G to E .014 to .008
relief .002

medium
12th fret G to E .075 to .065
1st fret G to E .014 to .010
relief .008 to 0

high
12th fret G to E .076 to .068
1st fret G to E .018 to .012
relief as much as .012

Best of luck, bennyb

[markishandsome]

Could you maybe clarify what measurement you guys are talking about?

[billhay4]

Fret to string bottom is my guess.
Relief is a slight concavity in the neck around the 12th fret.
Bill

[Rick Lindstrom]

A good way to do it is to fret each string at the second fret and check the clearance over the first fret. You want to lower the nut slot until the string just clears the first fret when fretted this way.

If you do it this way, you'll end up with the nut height being approximately the same as the height of your frets, which is what you want for best playability close to the nut.

Also, if you set up in this way, the bridge height has no effect on the measurement.

Rick

[sunburst]

If you do it this way, you'll end up with the nut height being approximately the same as the height of your frets, which is what you want for best playability close to the nut.
It will also give you the best intonation at the first three or four frets. As the string height gets higher at the nut, the notes on the first few frets get sharper.

Pressing the strings down at the third fret, as outlined in the Frets.com link above, is the best way to do it, IMO.

[Rick Lindstrom]

Oooops- my bad. John is exackerly correct about using the third fret, which is what I meant to say. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

The idea is to have a straight line (the string) between the nut slot and the top of the second fret, and to measure under it to determine how far to lower the nut slot so that your straight line nearly grazes the top of the first fret.

I don't know if Frank mentions it, but it's important when doing the wound strings not to press them all the way to the fingerboard, but rather just far enough to touch the fret top. The wound strings are stiff enough that pressing them to fingerboard can cause them to bow up a bit and throw off your measurement. Because of the high tension on mando strings, this is probably less of a concern that with guitars.

Sorry for the goof up!

Rick

[sunburst]

Rick, I didn't even notice the second fret thing, I knew what you meant so I read it as if you had said third fret.

[Les Corley]

Thanks for the excellent info. I set mine up at 11-13-15-18 & thought that was low. I like the third fret theory & I can see that I hive some nut filing to do. Thanks again for the help