New strings broke my nut!

[Mornats]

I decided a short while ago to string my Yamaha TRBX 504 with Rotosound Tru-Bass 88 strings to give it a nice, different range of sounds to my P and J. I found time to put them on today but as soon as I tightened the E string it broke the end off the nut! See pics below.

So I'm gutted and rather annoyed. Surely this is a manufacturing defect in the nut? Reckon I'll have any joy getting Yamaha to replace the nut or should I just fork our for a new (possibly brass) one myself?

 

[BreadBin]

It looks like your new strings may be fatter than the slot in the nut, unfortunately this can happen if you don't open the slot with a suitable needle file prior to fitting new strings. 

[KiOgon]

Not Yamaha's nut fault - those phat b'stards were never going in that slot

[Mornats]

Damn, put this one down to bad luck / lack of knowledge then. 

[Grangur]

With a new plastic nut costing less than £10 it's not worth arguing. Parking outside a good  solicitors will cost you more than that.

[BreadBin]

You can get a Graph-tech for under a tenner on eBay 

[Mornats]

Yeah, and as it's my fault for putting fat-donkey strings on it without checking the nut size I don't mind forking out for a new one.

How easy is it to remove this and fit a new one yourself? Or is it something I'm better off paying a luthier for? I'm crap at DIY although I can do fret levelling, dressing and polishing ok.

[Grangur]

There are lots if videos on YouTube showing how to change a nut. It looks like yours is easy to remove with a hammer and a block of wood.

The harder part is getting the new one the right height and slots the right depth, but if you can level and dress frets, you'll be fine doing a nut.

[The59Sound]

That is a .115 E! 

Filing the nut was the only way that was going in. 

[Mornats]

Yeah, shame they don't mention that on the strings at all!

[mcnach]

On 4/21/2018 at 14:29, BreadBin said:

It looks like your new strings may be fatter than the slot in the nut, unfortunately this can happen if you don't open the slot with a suitable needle file prior to fitting new strings. 

 

Unfortunately I think this is the case. I used TruBass strings a while ago and they were FAT.

[mcnach]

On 4/21/2018 at 15:49, Mornats said:

Yeah, and as it's my fault for putting fat-donkey strings on it without checking the nut size I don't mind forking out for a new one.

How easy is it to remove this and fit a new one yourself? Or is it something I'm better off paying a luthier for? I'm crap at DIY although I can do fret levelling, dressing and polishing ok.

 

If you can do fret work, you can do nut work. Just be patient when filing, because if you over do it and the slots are too deep you'll need to do it again. But it's easy. Plenty of videos on youtube will help you. It doesn't take long either.

[BreadBin]

^^ what he said 

The trick is to make it wider, but not deeper... 

[Grangur]

The worst thing about filing a nut is the crazy-high cost of nut files.

Also, don't do what I did; file like crazy, then find you made the slot too low/wide.

[Geek99]

I have one to sell

[Mornats]

Thanks for the advice folks! I'm still deciding between doing it myself or trusting it to a pro just for convenience. Will let you know what I decide!

[LewisK1975]

If your going to do a replacement nut yourself, my advice is to buy 2 or 3.  And go file/sand a little / check / repeat when shaping the overall nut size & cutting the slots.

And yes, nut files can be very expensive.  It's actually quite rewarding when you get it right though!