Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi im new to this forum and had a quick question. I bought a yard sale guitar to do work on and the walls of the nut slot slant slightly outwards instead of being straight vertical. I was wondering the best method for squaring them up would be. Thanks

I think most people's nut slots would be a bit tapered.
Anyway a cheap set of needle files from a hobby shop will do to straighten them up.
Well actually, you can't really get a decent needle file for nut slots. Forget that.
You can get some really good files for nuts from Stewart-MacDonald or LMII. They're called nut files. Also jeweller's suppliers have knife files.
You can make a nut file by folding some sandpaper. Grit outwards. To thicken place a card or paper inside the fold.
If any slots are oversize, fill with epoxy resin mixed with chalk/talc/grout/paint to whiten
Then file nut smooth and file slots.
You can flip the strings off the sides of the nut. 3 each side. Out of the way. Steel strings will need loosening to do this.
Good luck. Hope you end up being the best guitar repairer in Seattle.
Cheers Hip

thanks for the reply, I think i worded my first question wrong. I didnt mean the individual string slots i meant the actual walls of the nut slot, they go up and outward like a slight V except the bottom of the slot is completely flat and square. The only thing i could think of was to put some sandpaper on my six inch ruler and mark the walls with white pencil to make sure im sanding correctly. Has anybody ever encountered this problem before?

Thanks

Hi Rob, if it's not too late, and you've already fixed it, a bit more info would be helpful. For instance, is the nut there and you just want to replace it, or is it missing and you're making a new one, or what?
There's a few different ways to fix this prob, PM me I'll let you have my E mail, then send a pic? Or post the pics on here?
Cheers.