Official Luthiers Forum!

This is probably going to sound strange but I've had this problem for a while. I don't think I've ever been able to get a Fender type nut slot correct. I'm trying to get the bottom of the slot flat on a tele neck. I'm using the Stewmac 1/8" seating file. The problem is that the file will end up taking more off of, let's say the treble side. So, I flip the neck over and try to match the depth on the bass side. When I place the flat-bottom nut in the slot, it rocks like a seesaw. I tried sitting the file on the very center of the hump but that doesn't work. It inevitably ends up taking more off of one side than the other.

Does anyone have a trick or technique I could try? I really can't afford to make the sides any deeper at this point. I just need to figure out how to knock the middle down so the nut will sit flat.

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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

On some Fender necks the nut slot is cut at the same radius as the fingerboard... would that be the problem?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

It's not a fender. I built it from scratch. I cut the leading edge when slotting the fretboard since it is the first notch on the slotting template. To get the width, I just moved the neck backward in the jig 1/8", cut another slot and then made one or two cuts in between. I then chipped the excess out with a chisel and filed the slot "flat" with the seating file.

Sorry... I guess I should have mentioned that.

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"I'm not going to say that perfection has never been achieved. However, if it has, it probably went unnoticed due to it's lack of character."

This is where super sharp micro-chisels come on handy.

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Old growth, shmold growth!