New Nut with greater cource spacing a success
Well I promised I would post it, here is the before and after, that's an Eastman MD604SB FYI. The after pic is before nut filing, shimming, and centering, but you get the idea.
Hilariously, this amazing upgrade cost $1 (pack of 10 uncut bone nuts for $10).
I am really proud of how accurately I was able to cut those spacings. Notice how the G strings are slightly further apart than the E strings, and it is graduated across the nut, not world-class luthery or anything, but pretty good for an old guy in his bedroom who has to wear reading glasses to see what he is doing.
I would never make it as a Luthier though, it took me about 5 hours to do that, and get the setup right, most of it was filing the nut. Used a finishing sander and a micro-saw to do the initial nut shaping.
I succeeded on the first nut, but I had to shim it, messed up slightly. So I still have 9 left, one more mando (the MD505) gets that treatment, and I'll be too lazy to do that again any time soon.
I played through my entire classical practice set, and it's night and day difference, parts I could not play cleanly are now clear with both strings ringing. And the ease of playing went way up. Its like getting a much better instrument - for $1. :-)
Anyway, the playability increase was everything I hoped for. My guitar player friend's advice - that often it will be the instrument holding you back - has been shown to be true again and again.
So far the playability enhancements I've tried are:
- lighter strings (i went with ultra lights).
- lower action (15 - 12 - 9 - 9 height at the nut, about 50-60 at the 12th fret)
- taller frets (.050 height up from .031).
- narrower courses to give wider course spacing.
The things left to try are:
- C neck - for folks who use the thumb a bit more like a guitar player).
- wider nut
- flat fingerboard
All of which will be on my Red Valley which won't be arriving for a few months. I am a bit nervous about the flat fingerboard, we'll see if I like it, maybe another trip to Gryphon is in order first.
Enjoy:
Last edited by kurth83; Dec-20-2018 at 3:34am.
Davey Stuart tenor guitar (based on his 18" mandola design).
Eastman MD-604SB with Grover 309 tuners.
Eastwood 4 string electric mandostang, 2x Airline e-mandola (4-string) one strung as an e-OM.
DSP's: Helix HX Stomp, various Zooms.
Amps: THR-10, Sony XB-20.
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