Grabbed my cheapo Kramer Baretta Special today and noticed a lot of open string buzz on the low E although the action is medium at the 12th fret. A little Googling told me to check the nut height by putting a piece of paper under the string to see if that fixed it. Sure enough, I add a tiny piece of paper folded in half and the buzzing went away. It sounds really good now lol.
Got a new Tusq nut on the way to see if that's better. $200 guitar so just a regular cheapo plastic nut that was pretty low and poorly cut to begin with.
Alright, this was a pain.
I swapped out the Suhr Woodbucker that I had installed for a Suhr SSH (not plus) that I had sitting around. This one was drilled out for direct mount in my old Charvel, so I had to solder new brass nuts on it to be able to use the pickup ring. Now it works great!
The new nut was a PERFECT drop in fit, except the low E was even lower than before. So thinking I have have to shim the neck, I look at the neck joint and not only had I already attempted to shim it, the shim split and the spacing was weird. The neck pocket is not standard Strat so the shim wasn't a clean drop in as hoped.
So I pull that out and try a small shim at the heel of the neck and raise the saddles, that's not working either. There's just no play in the neck. Check to make sure the neck is straight, the truss rod literally doesn't do anything lol. That's a $200 guitar for you. At least the neck was straight, so I left it.
Ended up taking the shim material and cutting out a nut shim instead. This worked much better! Now the low E had enough clearance. I cleaned out the nut slot and glued the shim in place, then glued down the nut. Because of the weird/stupid string angles there's a lot of lateral tension on the nut, so I had to use more glue than in a normal guitar.
With new strings, the slots are just a bit high on the low strings and way too high on the top strings. I guess the nut slot was cut uneven. $200 guitar. I should have probably sanded it down on the base of the nut first, but at this point it's glued in and I have nut slot files. I filed all the strings down and left them just a bit high, then adjusted the string height at the bridge.
It plays pretty well now! With the flat board and height set properly at the nut and bridge, I can get really low action. The frets are still too small and probably a bit uneven, but it's playable.
Honestly I probably won't keep the guitar too long as I have other better guitars, and will likely swap the original pickup and tuners back in, but it's been a neat project.
It's my own body shape and design made from Spanish cedar, going with black painted body and white pickguard, loosely inspired by a tele. Ordered a one-piece maple boatneck w/ 6100 ss frets. Pickups are tbd --but more than likely something I already have.
