IndexThe Unpacked Kit |
Once the notches are in the "right"
locations, I took a pencil that is cut in
half lengthwise, cut right down the center of the lead,
and used it to draw a line across the face of the nut to
mark where the height of the first fret is against the
nut. Then, using a razor saw for the high strings and a
small back saw for the low strings, each notch is
deepened in the nut until it just hits the thin pencil
line on the face of the nut. Note that this notch needs
to slope slightly down from the fingerboard side of the
nut, so that the strings will be certain to rest on the
front edge of the slot. The slots for the low strings are
made to the right width by gentle rotating the back saw
as you cut the notch. You can check the width of the
notch as you go, by reinserting the string to make sure
that it's not so tight that it binds, but not so loose
that is moves side to side. This procedure was taken from
the Cumpiano book, as the kit instructions did not
address how one slots the nut.
After the nut is slotted, you take measurements of the height of the strings from the crown of the twelfth fret. The guitar books give you the "ideal" heights for each string; you take the difference between these two numbers, multiply by 2, and that’s the amount of height you need to remove from the saddle at the point where the string hits the saddle. You mark this location for each string on the face of the saddle, play a little "connect the dots" to get a best-fit curve, and go at it with rasps, files and the sandpaper to get the saddle to its final height and rounded-over shape. At this point, you put the saddle back in place, reposition the strings, and tune it up! On to my final comments and pictures! |
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