I am thinking of trying to fine-tune nut slots on cheaper guitars

ToneControl

I just bought a cheapie from Thomann, and don't want to pay for a Pro setup

I bought this tool set for £21 from Amazon in 2019, is it good enough for messing with the nut slots

(and also is that orangey-red block anything to do with worn frets?)

Funkfingers

How much fret material do you expect to need to remove? For levelling purposes, the abrasive surface needs to contact several adjacent frets simultaneously.

ToneControl

Funkfingers said:

How much fret material do you expect to need to remove? For levelling purposes, the abrasive surface needs to contact several adjacent frets simultaneously.

sorry, I was trying to ask about nut slots, and started thinking about frets

the new guitar needs the slots to come down quite a bit (like most new guitars)
do these files look good enough?

also recently I bought some used guitars, 2 have significant fretwear, but not enough for me to think of paying for a professional fret dressing - I don't know what half the tools are in this kit, but AFAIK you need a much bigger abrasive tool for levelling, then special files to shape the frets again?

what is that square block for in this kit?

ICBM

ToneControl said:

the new guitar needs the slots to come down quite a bit (like most new guitars)
do these files look good enough?

No - or at least not unless there's a round-edged flat file, and even that will only be suitable for the low E and maybe A string.

But you can make your own with a bit of ingenuity... start with a junior hacksaw blade. Snap the front end off (the end which the teeth point to), and then hammer it flat on a hard anvil to remove the 'set' of the teeth, especially at the broken end. Then draw it backwards through folded sandpaper to round off the corners of the teeth. With that, and a bit of care when you use it, you should be able to cut narrow string slots *reasonably* well - but it actually needs a lot more skill than proper nut files to do a great job, you need to develop the right kind of 'rolling' motion so you produce a smoothly rounded slot of roughly the right width.

I did actually use several of these successfully for several years even after I'd started doing professional tech work, but I have to say that proper files are one of the better investments you can make. I recently replaced an old worn-out set - you don't notice them wearing of course, since it happens so slowly - and the difference was huge, well worth what they cost.

ToneControl

ICBM said:

ToneControl said:

the new guitar needs the slots to come down quite a bit (like most new guitars)
do these files look good enough?

No - or at least not unless there's a round-edged flat file, and even that will only be suitable for the low E and maybe A string.

But you can make your own with a bit of ingenuity... start with a junior hacksaw blade. Snap the front end off (the end which the teeth point to), and then hammer it flat on a hard anvil to remove the 'set' of the teeth, especially at the broken end. Then draw it backwards through folded sandpaper to round off the corners of the teeth. With that, and a bit of care when you use it, you should be able to cut narrow string slots *reasonably* well - but it actually needs a lot more skill than proper nut files to do a great job, you need to develop the right kind of 'rolling' motion so you produce a smoothly rounded slot of roughly the right width.

I did actually use several of these successfully for several years even after I'd started doing professional tech work, but I have to say that proper files are one of the better investments you can make. I recently replaced an old worn-out set - you don't notice them wearing of course, since it happens so slowly - and the difference was huge, well worth what they cost.

how much is a proper set?
that sounds great as a one-off, but if I buy some more cheaper guitars I'd like to be able to do this myself more often, so could be worth getting the right tools

ICBM

Actually I just had a look on Ebay and Amazon, and sets of cheap ones aren't at all expensive - I'd probably start with some of those and move up to proper StewMac etc ones if you can justify it later.

Kittyfrisk

ToneControl said:

Funkfingers said:

How much fret material do you expect to need to remove? For levelling purposes, the abrasive surface needs to contact several adjacent frets simultaneously.

sorry, I was trying to ask about nut slots, and started thinking about frets

the new guitar needs the slots to come down quite a bit (like most new guitars)
do these files look good enough?

also recently I bought some used guitars, 2 have significant fretwear, but not enough for me to think of paying for a professional fret dressing - I don't know what half the tools are in this kit, but AFAIK you need a much bigger abrasive tool for levelling, then special files to shape the frets again?

what is that square block for in this kit?

The square block is a foam pad coated in abrasive material to be used for fret polishing, using the metal masks over the fret to protect the fretboard. 

ToneControl

ICBM said:

Actually I just had a look on Ebay and Amazon, and sets of cheap ones aren't at all expensive - I'd probably start with some of those and move up to proper StewMac etc ones if you can justify it later.

I bought a set of StewMac ones

Now I need to be brave and try them out!

ToneControl

Kittyfrisk said:

ToneControl said:

Funkfingers said:

How much fret material do you expect to need to remove? For levelling purposes, the abrasive surface needs to contact several adjacent frets simultaneously.

sorry, I was trying to ask about nut slots, and started thinking about frets

the new guitar needs the slots to come down quite a bit (like most new guitars)
do these files look good enough?

also recently I bought some used guitars, 2 have significant fretwear, but not enough for me to think of paying for a professional fret dressing - I don't know what half the tools are in this kit, but AFAIK you need a much bigger abrasive tool for levelling, then special files to shape the frets again?

what is that square block for in this kit?

The square block is a foam pad coated in abrasive material to be used for fret polishing, using the metal masks over the fret to protect the fretboard. 

the orange square block is solid, not foam

the bigger black one is just a standard decorator's abrasive sponge 

Whistler

ToneControl said:

I bought a set of StewMac ones
Now I need to be brave and try them out!

Buy your self a hanful of plastic nuts, some precut, some blanks. Use them to learn on. You can make all sorts of mistakes, even attempted repairs of overcut nuts to raise your competence and confidence.