the Fly Clone Project

Oh that subject line....!

The nut on my 2010 Fly Mojo had some issues, but it's the original nut and the neck finish goes on its sides so neatly, I hate to replace it. So I spent way too much time trying to patch it up, literally.

It had the dreaded sitar buzz on the high E and B and G. Instead of replacing the whole thing, I grafted pieces of Tusq material into the nut slots...
(I didn't have any black Tusq scraps lying around)

Then it was just a matter of precisely filing the string slots in the grafted material.

It solved the buzz issue, but I'm still debating replacing the whole nut, this one was mishandled at some point, I don't think they left the factory this low and poorly cut. There's barely any nut material around the string on the higher strings, which is not at all how it is on my 1999 NiteFly.
It no longer buzzes, but as a luthier, it bothers me that the nut isn't 'perfect'.
#NutIssues

Fox wrote: ↑Sun Aug 11, 2024 11:48 pm There's barely any nut material around the string on the higher strings, which is not at all how it is on my 1999 NiteFly.
It no longer buzzes, but as a luthier, it bothers me that the nut isn't 'perfect'.

Thanks for documenting this. I thought it was very odd that USM began painting the sides of the nuts, circa 2008 (a guesstimate on my part, from having seen '07s with unpainted nuts); because trem use with a non-locking nut setup causes the strings to saw downward through the nut slots (with the G tending to develop the "sitar buzz" first, due to detuning the most with trem movement). And this insistence on painting the nuts continued through the switch over to the "Gibson-style" nut and truss rod cover circa 2011, and right up until the shelving of the brand. It makes no sense to me that a brand would semi-permanently install a component fabricated for the sake of being cheaply and easily serviced or replaced; necessitating the paint be scored (and potentially chipped) in the course of replacing that darned nut.

The result is that, whether they know it or not, we have many owners of trem-equipped Parkers built from at least 2008 through 2015 who will inevitably have to deal with the same question of "Do I replace the nut, or rebuild the slots?." This makes your thread very helpful; and much appreciated.

mmmguitar wrote: ↑Mon Aug 12, 2024 2:43 am The result is that, whether they know it or not, we have many Parker owners of trem-equipped instruments built from at least 2008 through 2015 who will inevitably have to deal with the same question of "Do I replace the nut, or rebuild the slots?." This makes your thread very helpful; and much appreciated.

Thank you!
Yeah, it bothers me when they finish around the nut, no matter the brand. I have a Les Paul that someone was taking a look at once and the first thing they say is "gasp! you replaced the nut!". Yeah, the nut is a semi-consumable part of the instrument, more-or-less like the frets (depending on some factors). Replacing it should be considered in the lifetime of the instrument!