ON THE BENCH #9: Cutting the Perfect Gibson Les Paul Nut AND MORE
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- Опубліковано 18 жов 2024
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On this week's On The Bench episode, we'll go over some nut-cutting techniques to help you get the most stable tuning possible from a Les Paul or any other 3+3 headstock.
Finally, someone who explains and shows the fix!!!! Kudos and THANK YOU!!!
*runs in out of breath* THIS IS NOT AN OFFSET YOU'VE CHANGED MAN.
I don’t know who I am anymore!!!!
I have a 73 SG Standard and this made me take a look at the nut. It stays in tune amazingly well, and sure enough, angled nut slots. This was definitely helpful. 👍
I'm with you on the 70's Gibsons! I know they are looked down upon, but I dig 'em! I had a late 70's Les Paul Custom many moons ago and always loved it.
I hope the move is going well! Thanks for all of your hard earned techniques and information.
Showing the pearly whites after the dentist lol.....you never fail to crack me up man lol
Great video, Mike! I just got myself a 73 SG which at some point in the near future will need a nut change so this video is very welcomed!
Eric how are ya! Thanks for watching!
@@Puisheen Absolutely, brother! I'm good - just trying to stay cool. I hope you are doing the same up north!
Maple neck! Yeah! Safe travels, Oso Rojo.
At 19 I still attended a dental practice that specialized in young children. The dentist and my mum eventually persuaded me that I should really start attending an adult practice. I do still mis looking up at the cute mobile and getting a sticker at the end. I was the by far oldest kid in the waiting room. It was the mid 80’s and I went through a lot of phases - goth, hippy goth, hair metal - so I must have scared the wee ones and perhaps the dentist!
I angled the nut on my Epiphone Casino like you said and boy it made a HUGE difference. Never would've thought of that!
So glad it worked out!
Great video! Your channel is my new favorite being new to Jazzmasters but my #1 is an SG, even though I'm not a big humbucker guy. Thanks!
Once again Mikey, you've saved the day 🫡
Funny how I never hear people complaining about explorers not staying in tune. There is a generous angle on most of the strings and the angle on the high e is unbelievably drastic.
Yeah you’re not kidding! I always wonder about that
I had literally this conversation with a guy at work yesterday, about how Gibsons tuning issues are always because of the cut of the nut, and how important the nut is to the playability of a guitar. There is however a design flaw with the Les Paul headstock. It's not the nut, and it's not the angle alone. It's a combination of the huge cutout for truss rod access, with the 17 degree headstock, leaving very little continuous grain through the headstock, and why they're so prone to breaking. The truss rod access cut on a flatter headstock, or the 17 degrees with a small truss rod slot would be fine, but that combo just dooms them. I love Les Pauls, don't get me wrong, but that headstock design IS a major flaw in my book.
Your Cockney accent is one of best I’ve heard from an American mate lol
That’s a top tip for the nut may try that myself so thanks for that, that LP is killer
Lol thank you Matt
Thank you Mike, your channel is awesome 👌🏼🎸
“Where is The Marshall Super Lead, is she safe, is she alright?”
“It seems in your move, you killed her.”
Yay new video!! I’ve been writing your tips down btw thankssss
the best les paul i’ve ever picked up was a 70’s deluxe goldtop, the feel and the tone was just incredible.
love love love your content. you actually inspired me to try a jazzmaster for the first time and I can't put it down! do you have any video plans for mustangs? picked one of those up recently too and it might be my favorite guitar ever
I do! Just depends on what I’m after
I love a cherry sunburst (I blame Ace Frehley, circa '76 for my immediate love of the guitar and finish) but I think they're hit and miss over the decades. Some are "nope!" and this one is YES!
I just had this video recommended to me on 5/18/24 and wish I had come across it when it was first posted. What would you recommend you're as a alternative to nut files?
I love my Gibson guitars. I have been doing the angled slot setup for years now and I have *ZERO* tuning stability issues.
Surprisingly I’ve never had tuning issues with my Les Paul and I’ve had it for 18 years now. Still has the stock nylon nut, I use 11s on it. I have A bone nut and a sting tree I’ve been meaning to put on, but I’m scared I’ll ruin its tuning stability. If it’s good, I tend to not want to mess with it….
I have an 86 LP Standard. It never went out of tune until the nut was replaced. I play 9’s.
Always save your old nut. You can always put it back on.
very pedagogical as always
Great video! Your expertise is appreciated. Im curious, do you wind your strings in the normal way (both sides wound downwards) on a Gibson or do you think there is anything to this idea of winding the high strings upwards? Ive never tried this myself but have heard people talk about it as if it makes a big difference.
Always go down the tuner shaft says me
Great idea! Do you just use various gauges of Mitchell's abrasive cord for the nut slots, or mostly one gauge? If so, which one/s? Thanks!
I have the whole set! Use the ones closest to your string gauges and you’ll be set
@@Puisheen Thanks! It's a revelation to me! I didn't know about this stuff till I just saw you mention it. I immediately went to the Stew Mac site and there it was. Thanks a lot!
@Puisheen that's good stuff but I wish I could find it small enough for the high e on a set of 9's!
Am I hearing Honeysuckle Blue by Drivin N Cryin? Nice!
I bought two Les Pauls in 2020 having always wanted them. A goldtop w P90’s and a tobacco with HB’s. The experience of joy soon turned very sour as i couldn’t get either to stay in tune. Took it to a renowned tech around my area and got both nuts replaced with bone(came with tusk although advertised with bone) and was so excited for the problem to be solved and my Les Paul journey to officially start only for them to continue to be very moody tuning wise, so moody that you couldn’t rely on either to gig with. Tech just told me, he couldn’t do it any better than what he did it, he’s a good guy. Anyways after 3 years of having 9k AUD sitting on a guitar rack not being used, Ive decided to have a go at it myself. Im going to do my research on cutting LP nuts extensively and see what everyone says because although this guy has nailed that les paul, he’s done nothing visually or principally different to what my guy did. Cut it on route to tuners and on D and G even did a little blow out trick at the back corner of the slot that I’ve heard many people talk about. I bought 4 slot started LP nuts from my new tech yesterday and they are straight. I relayed all of what I’ve just said to him. “Shouldn’t i be heading out towards the tuners”, his answer was a resounding no to which i have no basis not to trust him, he is a very big swinging dick in this world in both LA and Sydney mainly and for 40 years has done all the touring stuff when it lands in both LA and Sydney. He owns a PLEK and the 7 guitars i put in with him to go on the Plek, all came back stunning playing guitars, none of them went in stunning and that includes a 99 CS 59 reissue 335. That guitar now is the pride of the fleet, its better behaved than both my Les Pauls but still not perfect as in tuning. After a few minutes of playing, it settles down but it is an incredible guitar.
So do i slant do i straight? Buddo here says slant, buddo here closer to me says straight.
Im none the wiser.😂
Have you ever heard of the string butler? It's not the best looking thing but it works!
@@brooksphillips2234 my pride wont let me. I have heard of it but I’m not keen. Im going to build two les Paul’s and modify the issue out of them. I’ll keep the 2 standards for the studio but ill never gig with em.
Nice Work!
One of the most Tech Savey musicians on the planet and a Les Paul player is Tom Scholz. Tom uses a device on his guitar that makes the nut on his '68 reissue LP a straight through nut then the string bends at the device. Tom's device is similar to the String Butlar V3 or the Fender LSR Roller nut. What can you tell us about Tom's device?
It's totally unnecessary, but fine to use. Just cut the nut correctly!
@Puisheen the problem for lots of ppl is they don't have anyone near them that can do that. I took my Goldtop to a few different luthiers and I wasn't satisfied at all. Eventually I started to teach myself how to cut a nut. I started with pre cut nuts and now I get blanks and cut my own. It's still not quite there but it's getting there. I am using my string butler for now until I can get another nut. I would prefer not to use it but so far it has played best with it on.
Enjoyed your video! I have a possibility related question. How HIGH should the the nut be? Meaning how high should the strings be off the first frett? I have a R9 I believe gibson is cutting the nut higher than it should be to accommodate sloppy neck work. By that I mean it seems that the distance from the first fret the top of the first fret to the bottom of the string is pretty damn high I play 11 through 52s and I do not like any fret buzz whatsoever. I am not a kid I am not playing metal(very much) I’m 61 I play jazz, and blues. Zeppelin an Peter Green. How high should the strings be at the first fret? Seems very important not just for the instrument to produce the correct note or pitch when fretted but also because the height of the string at the nut will dictate how low the guitars action can be all the way up the neck. Thank for your help. By the way I got my first Gibson les Paul standard in 1976 in Seattle
I think everyone has a slightly different answer for this. Me, I like my slots cut fairly close to the first fret. When I last measured some of my guitars most were somewhere between .012"-.015" between the top of the first fret and the bottom of the wound strings.
What Gibson does these days may not really have anything to do with fretwork -- it's very common for a factory-fresh guitar to have more clearance than necessary because the expectation is always that the guitar will be set up for the player who owns it. As such, you can always remove material on the nut, but your can't put it back so easily.
Your '76 Les Paul sounds cool!
stock keys? Same on my '77 Deluxe:)
Hey dude quick question my Squier jazzmaster had a ground problem cause I replaced the saddles a long time ago with graphtech ones. I took out the ground from the bridge thimble thingy and put straight to a screw on the tail piece thingy not super great job but it now works better. Is this something you've seen or worked on before??
Oh you have to order the conductive saddles if you’re using Graphtech. Otherwise, this happens
@puisheen do you recommend the use of glue to install a nut on Gibson style guitars?
A little dab of Titebond is usually all it takes. I do not recommend CA glue for nuts!
G
R
E
A
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👍
But if Gibson slotted the nuts properly at the factory they might fart out a couple dozen fewer guitars a day 😱😱
I have two Gibsons. One has a Maestro. One has a Bigsby. According to 'boomer wisdom they 'can't stay in tune.' My suspicion is that a lot of people played Gibsons in the '60s and '70s when people didn't really understand this effect of the nut. And guitar repair on these American steel string designs was a little new without a lot of info being shared. So people yanked maestros off SGs and removed Bigsbys from Les Pauls. They also tell you you _need_ a roller bridge (when Bigsby's own bridge design doesn't roll).
Of course it's almost all in the nut. A well cut nut, and your Bigsby and Maestro stay in tune as well as the average Strat. And this video shows another way (new to me) that you can get the nut cut to further improve that stability.
The Lyre Vibrola is my second favorite ever made. My ‘77 355 would NOT go out of tune even when I lifted the guitar by the arm!
Paul Bigsby designed his vibrato unit to work with a rocking bridge. The issue with Bigsbys and Tuneomatics and the idea that that the roller bridge is needed stems from the fact that at some stage Gibson stopped using domed thumbwheels with their Tuneomatics which allowed the rocking motion (like on an offset bridge).
@@colmkelly5524 Odd that Bigsby's own bridges don't rock, no?
@@thecaveofthedead gretschpages.com/forum/general-tech-questions/bigsby-bridge-question/62899/page1/ Good discussion of the original Bigsby bridge here
@@colmkelly5524 Sure, but it's also true that Bigsbys and TOM bridges can work flawlessly with the usual maintenance applied. A rocking bridge isn't necessary at all for everything to come back into tune even with vigorous application of the vibrato. Roller bridges aren't necessary for this
Hey Mike, I got a question, I wanna buy a Fender Classic Vibe Bass VI, but I've heard the intonation is downright horrible with the stock bridge.
Should I replace them, and if so, what bridge? I love Bass VI's and offset guitars, but I also want a guitar that stays in tune.
What do you think I should do?
Rose! I've worked on a bunch of them and the bridge is limited, but not a problem for intonation. The stock bridge is great, the stock strings could use a thicker low E for sure. Just make sure you set it up like any other offset guitar (shimmed neck, raised bridge) and you'll be okay!
Thanks mike! What degree shim do you recommend for the Bass VI? Also keep in mind, I generally like my guitars to have high action, but as you mentioned in your shimming video, some shims can be too large and the bridge won’t be able to keep up. In this case, for a player like myself, I’d like to know your recommendation.
Thanks!
Btw, I really enjoy your channel, and I always enjoy watching your videos!
@@AvaToccoRodriguez Rose, I'd start with the .5. It really helps to get those strings off the body even if you love high action. And thank you!
Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it!
I will get up weird behind the bridge stuff and write some cool Midwest emo stuff with you in mind!
Ah yes, the design flaw built into guitars since the beginning of guitar time. You tell em Mike
Hope the move went well.
Peace
The move was... a lot. Lol
No offset, but good vid and nice tips
Letsgo
The guys who made those ugly-ass string butlers must be laughing all the way to the bank.
Instructions unclear: got into a horrific boating accident while setting up my Hagstrom swede
On any guitar that wont stay in tune 90% of the time it's the nut.
Curvy nuts? 😂
It's not a design flaw that breaks headstocks, it's neglect. Just look after your guitars, you paid good money for them.
Except it IS a design flaw and they should just put a volute on neck. The Gibson neck also effects tuning stability.
@@emzee1148 as he said within the first 2:37 seconds in the video. It comes from the setup, in this case he mentioned the nut being improperly cut. They had values on them standard in the 70s but people didn't like them, so you only see them on some models
@@emzee1148 They did put a volute on their guitars for awhile and everyone hated it. It's not a design flaw if the guitar breaks from being knocked over or falling off something. A design flaw would be if it just broke from normal playing.
Anybody ever had the string tree screw snap off? I don't know how to get it out safely.
Hi mate. Is any of the screw sticking out still? If so, I'd probably use a pair of pliers to grip it and twist it out. If not, would probably have to drill it out and, potentially, plug the hole and re-drill for the new screw.
@@MrCurtyWurty The head snapped off of it and the screw is under the surface of the wood. I'm not sure if they make extractor bits that small...I may have to just re-drill it.
I've had luck scraping a groove in a broken screw so I can use a flat head to remove it. BUT. That was on a much larger screw...
@@AndyChicas hmmm....maybe if I can find a small/hard enough to create a groove for a flathead.
POORLY CUT NUT GANG SOUND OFF!!