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nut 'ping' sound, driving me nuts...


budalash

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The nut is the issue.


My experience has been, when there are tuning issues, that the nut is to blame 99.9% of the time. Bridge saddles, MAYBE, but it's usually the nut.


Pencil graphite usually clears it up. I have a set of propane torch cleaner things that I use to clean up / shape nut slots and they work well enough for me. At some point I'd like to get a set of real nut files.

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The nut is the issue.


My experience has been, when there are tuning issues, that the nut is to blame 99.9% of the time. Bridge saddles, MAYBE, but it's usually the nut.


Pencil graphite usually clears it up. I have a set of propane torch cleaner things that I use to clean up / shape nut slots and they work well enough for me. At some point I'd like to get a set of real nut files.

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One of the things I usually find on guitars is that the nut is cut higher than it should, mostly because as soon as it's a hair too low it has to scrapped. Maybe the tech lowered the slot a tiny bit, but left a pinch-point? They also can wear over time, so this could be a coincidence in terms of timing.

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Quote Originally Posted by budalash

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What's confusing is that there was no problem before the setup. If it was the nut I would have noticed it a long time ago...weird. The guitar was re-strung with the same gauge, 0,10s

 

Part of a good setup is cutting the nut, especially if the frets have worn or been leveled. That could explain why the tech touched it-
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I've been meaning to post this for some time. It's a little trick that may or may not help. I've wanted to change the nut on my Paul Allender for some time and just never seem to get around to it.


So, when I changed strings I laid a layer of teflon tape across the nut so that the string would push it down into the slot. As you may know, teflon tape is incredibly thin, so I didn't expect any problem, and didn't have any.


As I tuned to pitch I saw the indicator gliding gracefully up the scale. Very nice! Unfortunately, after this is done, trimming off the excess teflon with an Xacto knife isn't pretty. If you have a white nut it will look better.


I've tried the nut grease, pencils, chapstick. They help, but the teflon tape helped a bit more. I guess I've put off posting about this because I next wanted to try two layers of teflon tape. Maybe someone will try that and let us know.


In the meantime, I'll try to get around to replacing that nut. That is, if I don't put it off again. Perhaps the teflon tape in the slots will help you. Let us know.

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