How to sand a nut to accommodate nylon strings

[Austin]

Lost out on the white laydie, but now I have my sights on something else, an acoustic electric CC100+ with a rolled brass tone ring. I just have one question, I bought the nut files with the sandpaper, but how should I go about adjusting the width of the slot. How much wider do you think it has to be to fit labella 17s?

[Joel Hooks]

The bigger problem is neck angle and large frets.  You have to overcome this with a very tall bridge or you get buzzing and fret slap.

[Austin]

Gotcha

[Austin]

5/8ths or taller?

[Jody Stecher]

I have never had a problem with the nut slots when putting nylon and gut strings on a modern banjo or an older banjo built for steel strings as some Clifford Essex banjos were. For instance when I had a CE Regal model I sometimes played with steel, sometimes nylon, sometimes gut and sometimes Nylgut. Same slots. Sometimes  (not always) the same bridge. No  slippage out of the slots.  No buzzes. No problems.  Same for a friend of mine who had a Paragon. Same for Bart Reiter 1990s banjos. Zero problems.

If,  I for some reason needed or wanted to change the nut slots I would not attempt it myself. I would probably get it right. But not before permanently ruining 3 or 4 good nuts.  I'd bring the job to a qualified luthier. Anyone with a good reputation for working on guitars or mandolins etc. Or banjos of course.  Widening the slots is only part of the job. Experts at nut filing master a file stroke that goes downward on the headstock side. It's not difficult but it takes practice. I've done it on some cheap mandolins. It sounded good but looked.....um... not so good.

 

[Trapdoor2]

For many years, I cut bridge and nut slots with an Xacto knife. I just used V notches and never had an issue (other than the occasional blood loss).

Now that I have a full set of nut files, I still do not worry about getting the notch width exact. The most typical technique involves using the nearest size smaller than the string and rocking the file from side to side to enlarge the width of the slot. Like anything else, it takes time, trial, error, learning how to fix mistakes and repetition. 50 yrs on, I can do it in my sleep...

The original ebony nuts (like on my CE banjos) look like they were cut with axes. I'll eventually replace them...but they're still doing their job even if they look like a dog's breakfast (as my Dad used to say). Both were suffering from very tall slots...which I've fixed.

[Austin]

I'll try it on my Banjola

[Jody Stecher]

Yeah, I've done bridge slots with an Xacto tool, a saw actually. If I mess up a factory bridge it's no big deal. 

Re CE ebony nuts: some were done with axes, some with dogs, some with rats, some with beavers.

Trapdoor2 said:

For many years, I cut bridge and nut slots with an Xacto knife. I just used V notches and never had an issue (other than the occasional blood loss).

Now that I have a full set of nut files, I still do not worry about getting the notch width exact. The most typical technique involves using the nearest size smaller than the string and rocking the file from side to side to enlarge the width of the slot. Like anything else, it takes time, trial, error, learning how to fix mistakes and repetition. 50 yrs on, I can do it in my sleep...

The original ebony nuts (like on my CE banjos) look like they were cut with axes. I'll eventually replace them...but they're still doing their job even if they look like a dog's breakfast (as my Dad used to say). Both were suffering from very tall slots...which I've fixed.