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Setting up an 8-string


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My 8-string only gets used for a few songs in a typical set, and so it's only recently started to bother me that you could drive a small car through the gap between the strings and the fingerboard. I've finally resolved to try and set it up, and one of the obvious places to start, of course, is to lower the nut a bit.

So: I have nut-slotting files for the bass strings, but not the octave strings. I could invest in a new set to also do my guitars, but (i) I'm quite happy with their setup, and (ii) the octave strings are a tiny bit thinner than the nearest matches on my preferred guitar string gauge. Is there an easy/cheaper alternative to investing in decent-quality tools for the job?



Bonus question: anybody ever rewired a Hagstrom HB-8 before? I like the 6-way pickup selector, but I'd prefer to have control over the individual pickup volumes, instead of one master volume. Your thoughts, please, on whether it would be easier to gut it and replace the controls with:
VVT, including push/pull coil tap in the tone pot, or
Replace the master volume with a concentric stacked one, leaving the rest as it is?

Ta!

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For a one off job and assuming that the nut is not brass and that you don't need to remove much material, then I would probably use an old string of the right diameter as a file. Jewellers files work well enough, or even the cheapo welding tip cleaners, available on Ebay for a couple of quid.

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[quote name='gary mac' timestamp='1502118798' post='3349408']
For a one off job and assuming that the nut is not brass and that you don't need to remove much material, then I would probably use an old string of the right diameter as a file. Jewellers files work well enough, or even the cheapo welding tip cleaners, available on Ebay for a couple of quid.
[/quote]

Cheers, that's a really good idea - I didn't think a string would be abrasive enough but then the nut's only plastic, and I've seen what they do to my fingertips! Hoping if I can get a bit more give out of the neck pocket, I won't need to file down more than a mm or two.

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