Thread: An introduction... & quick question re: nut position

Welcome Roscoe sorry bout your stepfather but glad to hear you are pushin on ahead with his inspiration, sure he'd be proud.

All the slotted boards I have seen required the nut to be placed hard up against the slot in the direction of the 12th fret. Only a direct measurement can confirm this, fwiw we consider the position of the slot as the zero slot (zero fret) so that its crown sits somewhere above the middle of the slot.
If the measurement postion of the slot is correct at the centre of the fret slot however, then placing the nut at the edge of the slot only incurs an error of 1/2 a fret slot width (about 12 or 13 thousnds of an inch).
A strat I have also shows the nut positioned (at where you describe the slot at zero) with the spare f/board behind it. Most guits, leckies and goose sticks don't use zero frets and the f/board length finishes at the nut.

Steve

Thanks Steve,
Yep, no plans for a zero fret, & if it's only less than 1/3mm out I'd say there's a good chance of some of my fretting/crowning being at least that far askew! So onwards bound.

Roscoe

One option is to fill in the fretslot with an epoxy glue/ebony dust mixture (assuming fretboard is ebony here). Let it set and then rout. You'll end up with nut butting up nice and snug against the fretboard.

Brilliant & so simple, thanks!

I use a 34" scale template and cut off the first fret to get right around a 33 3/8" scale length, which I like a lot better then 34". The nut gets placed on the end of the finger board with a small piece behind it. So far this technique has worked well for me. I'm building basses but I would think the same would apply to a guitar build.

A picture is worth a 1000 words....