Nut question - to tamper or not...

MooseAboot

This is something i haven’t encountered before...

Guitar in question is a Furch baritone.  And it is a bit rattly.  Even when played lightly.

Being new to baritones  I had initially  put this down to the longer scale and heavier strings.  Then having had a closer look at the relief and saddle height I was surprised to learn that the source of much of the rattle is actually the nut... even when playing barre chords up the neck.

if I put a capo behind the nut, increasing the down force a bit like a string tree 90% of the buzz disappears...

I know if I were to add a few winds on the strings at the next change, this would likely solve the issue by creating more downforce.  but potentially causing stretching/tuning issues to appear.

So should I be looking at modifying the nut in some way?  Thinking ramping the slots or something. Happy to give this a go if it will solve the issue.  But don’t want to go there (and potentially mess up) if it isn’t  going to make a difference.

munckee

After getting away with modding most things myself I had a stab at installing and setting up a nut myself on an electric recently.

After the cost of £7 for a new bone nut after I had muffed it up it only cost me an additional £90 to get a luthier to install it, set it up and polish it.

VimFuego

yeah, with a nice acoustic like a furch, I'd stump up the money to get a pro to do it. Be fair enough to do it yourself if you know what you're doing, but I'm guessing by the fact you asked that it'll be the 1st time you've tried.

ICBM

It's possible it's not the grooves themselves that are the problem, but that the strings are rattling in front of the nut - pulling them down behind the nut will actually raise them very slightly over the fingerboard, since the strings aren't perfectly flexible and 'see-saw' over the nut slightly.

Try winding the strings further down the posts. It may well cure the problem without needing to do anything else. I'm normally a big advocate of using the minimum amount of wrap on the posts to avoid tuning issues, but there are some you can't do this with - especially the G string on a Fender-style headstock with no second string tree.

MooseAboot

Thats a great point that i hadn’t considered that the buzzing maybe still be in front of the nut.  Thanks.  I will try increasing the winds.  

MooseAboot

Just by way of an update...  @ICBM was spot on.  It was buzzing in front of the nut.  But strangely, it was a sympathetic buzzing on the low E string when fretted at the 5th.