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Dan Erlewine using
a plastic nut? No way!
Yes, way! And sometimes I use plastic saddles too! Nobody preaches about quality bone nuts more than me, but sometimes the job calls for plastic. Plastic nuts are for high-speed, affordable repairs.
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Dan Erlewine, June 21, 2007
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A new nut in less than 30 minutes?
“Time is money.” I got my start in repair work at a music store, and as a lot of you know, that means working fast and keeping prices low. I always have plastic nuts and saddles on hand for fast fixes on inexpensive guitars.
How fast can a new plastic nut be installed? Let’s play “Beat the Clock” to find out. I’ve got my tools ready, but we’ll need a timer... Hey, this is the wrong kind of timer! My 30 minutes starts now! I’d better hustle!
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There’s no saving this guitar’s nut. It’s gotta go.
It took five seconds to figure that out...
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I gently cut the lacquer all around the nut.
Less than a minute so far...
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| The guitar being worked on is a Kent classical that had been tossed out. I enjoy saving a guitar like this so someone has a low-priced instrument to learn on. And it's a good way to practice working fast! |
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I knocked the nut loose with a metal block and a hammer tap. It popped out easily.
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It took me another minute to clean and level the nut slot with a nut seating file.
About 2-1/2 minutes so far...
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Next step: mark up the new nut, showing where material needs to be removed so the nut will drop into the slot.
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The unwanted plastic comes off quickly using coarse and smooth shaping files. (Don’t use a belt sander for this; the heat will warp the plastic.) A nut and saddle vise is my third hand for this operation.
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The trimmed-down nut dropped right into the slot. Installing the two outside E-strings showed that the nut is far too tall.
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To lower the nut, I removed material from the bottom by sliding it on a 6" fingerboard leveling file — it cuts clean, and it’s fast.
A little over 10 minutes so far...
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Whether plastic or bone, I always remove all sharp edges with a nut shaping file followed by 400-grit Gold Fre-Cut sandpaper. Don’t forget the very front edge of the nut. There's no reason to leave it sharp, especially on the corners.
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The finished nut is ready to install with #20 super glue (medium viscosity). On the right is an untouched plastic nut to emphasize the rounding and shaping done on the finished nut. The two E strings will hold the nut in position while the super glue sets (60 seconds).
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Strings installed!
Stop the clock!
OK, that was just over twenty minutes of high-speed work. If I were charging a customer for this job, let’s see how it would add up:
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Other work done on this guitar included cleaning up the tuners, super-gluing loose frets, leveling the frets, and applying fingerboard oil. It looked and played a whole lot better after just 90 minutes of attention!
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Labor |
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$ 25.00 |
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My costs: |
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Parts &
Supplies |
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1 Nut at $ 3.50 |
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.40¢ ($3.10 profit) |
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Strings at $ 8.00 |
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$4.98 ($3.02 profit) |
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Glue, sandpaper, polish $ 3.00 |
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$1.00 ($2.00 profit) |
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Total parts & labor $ 39.50
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So, in less than a half hour, I earned $25 and made a profit of $8.12 on parts sold. That feels good. I love it when I have six or eight of these small jobs all on the same day. They usually require the same tools and bench setups, so I can work through them fast.
Share your ideas with other luthiers! If you have a Trade Secret using StewMac tools, we invite you to share it with other Trade Secrets readers. Send your story idea to: tradesecrets@stewmac.com
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Problem-solving products mentioned above:
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Economy Nut Assortment
Quick and easy preslotted plastic replacements for acoustic, electric, classical, bass, banjo, and mandolin. Handy organizer box included. |
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Nut Seating Files
Clean out old glue and properly prepare a nut slot for a new nut. Available in three sizes and a special angled file for Martin-style nut slots. |
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Processing...
