1964 Jaguar Nut Lacking Lustre

[CloudZzZz]

So after switching to Cobalt Strings on my Jag I have noticed a substantial amount of powder on my fretboard just beside where the nut sits. It had not effected the guitar in any manner until recently - now just lightly strumming knocks the G & D strings right off, to the point where its happening so frequently that the strings are carving a new groove atop the nut!
Whats options are available to remedy such a situation? Excluding switching gauge, Ive already tried 10s 9s & 8s its doesn't make any difference. Two people have previously told me to add a new string tree but I don't like the idea of drilling into a 50yr old neck that already that has already had dodgy work from a previous owner. I took the guitar to a fender tech today & he spent at most 10 seconds looking at it before he told me to add another string tree. The bridge has been lowered, raised & lowered again, its helped the overall tone but has not kept those 2 strings from jumping around. Any ideas?

[Snap_Jangle_Pop]

I had a similar issue with an acoustic, and I met a luthier who had an interesting fix. He made some sort of filler out of a powder, and what I assume was some kind of hard glue. It was like a bone cement, so to speak. He started by taping both sides of the nut to create a sort-of mold, and filling in the worn area with the mixture. It fixed the problem permanently. I think short of changing out the nut, something like this would be your only other option. Let us know how it goes.

[andy_tchp]

I had a similar issue with an acoustic, and I met a luthier who had an interesting fix. He made some sort of filler out of a powder, and what I assume was some kind of hard glue. It was like a bone cement, so to speak. He started by taping both sides of the nut to create a sort-of mold, and filling in the worn area with the mixture. It fixed the problem permanently. I think short of changing out the nut, something like this would be your only other option. Let us know how it goes.

Cyanoacrylate aka 'Superglue' mixed with bone dust shaved off the existing nut (or another) will do the trick.

In the absence of bone dust, baking soda will react with the superglue and set hard fairly rapidly, allowing the slot to be re-cut.


What's the deal with the 'cobalt' strings? If you're not wedded to them as a 'must have' I'd go for pure nickel or nickel-wound strings myself, as the cobalts seem to be chewing the nut out excessively.

[jorri]

It seems the slots are too shallow or too wide. The cobalts are harder, if anything they'd be cheese-wiring deeper and strings would be binding too much, not slipping.
You don't need the extra string tree if the nut is properly cut. The situation that's hard to tell from the pic could rather be that the strings don't fit the slots-that would also cause a lot more self-filing by the strings.

I have a set of cobalts on now, like the tone quite a lot but the 12 sets are hideously unbalanced, they have a 24 plain about 3 guages more than it needs to be, and then EB only sell 11s with a weak E, or a set with a strong E that has 10s on the top! If they are meant to be high output, why are the plain steel strings twice as loud as the others!. I have a brass nut though so can't comment on the nut, i've noticed a little more saddle wear but that can be good to get the strings to sit deeper on offset saddles.