Nut files is it worth spending £80 for very infrequent use?

Tall_martin

Hi,

I sorted the nut on a guitar last night. I'd bought some nut files so I thought the job would be easy.




They were rubbish. I counted 100 strokes of the file and it made no difference to the height of the nut.

Is it worth going for these for the next time? £15 to £20 ish on eBay and Amazon

Or straight to £80 for a set of hosco files?


 I've only ever cleaned up a nut with the files before, but another of my guitars could do with having it's nut lowered

Thanks for any suggestions 

Headphones

This very question has been circukating in these parts too!

Flink_Poyd

https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/241084/filing-nut-slots-cost-effective-tools-for-the-job/p1

steamabacus

The first aren't really nut files at all, they're for cleaning gas nozzles I believe. They became a trendy 'DIY solution' on the internet some years ago (never believe the internet!) and so you'll now find them advertised as 'nut files' although they're pretty useless. You could maybe wrap some wet/dry paper around them for minor polishing of the nut slots.

I can't comment on the quality of the second (but strongly suspect the quality to be poor at that price).

The third Hosco set is really the minimum you need to do a proper job.

A possible zero-budget solution is to remove the nut and sand away the bottom of the nut little-by-little, refit, check, do a bit more ... etc. A bit fiddly and long winded - only for emergencies or if you really can't scrape together the £80 (or £76 at the moment at Northwest Guitars where I bought mine -)

BillDL

DO NOT buy those yellow handled ones from eBay or Amazon.  Look how rough the edges are and compare that with a close-up of the Hosco ones.  they are made to resemble Hosco ones and some even mimic the handle colour.  Read the reviews of them.  The cheap ones will not be accurately sized either.  The round files for cleaning out the nozzles of welding torches can work for rounding out a slot in the nut, but are useless for deepening slots.

How much would it cost you to get the nut slots done professionally and know that they will be done right?  At most you MIGHT get 2 guitars done for the price of the files.  If you watch a few videos and learn how to do it properly using the proper tools, it would be worth buying the nut files if you need to get 3 guitars adjusted over a couple of years. You can always sell them here after you know you are finished with them.

roberty

I've made some very very fine adjustments to nut slots with sandpaper wrapped around a guitar string, taking them down a fraction of a mm

thermionic

If you’re going to use them regularly, £80 is peanuts for a decent tool to do the job. I don’t understand why people try to skimp on this. Either take the guitar to a tech, or buy the proper tools and learn how to do it. Nuts are cheap to practice on if you have to (unlike say, fretwork).

I can see me buying a set of those Hosco files in the future, they seem to be reasonably priced for what they are.

Tall_martin

Thanks all!

I did the guitar yesterday with a combination of sand paper and needle files. It's works, feels good and sounds great, but its not pretty!

Had a search, but didn't sport that thread, thanks

@flink_ployd!

Last time I went to a tech it got a bit expensive as the guitar felt so good I took two more back to him. So no idea what he charges for the job, as he ended up doing loads of jobs all wrapped into one.

I'll give it until payday and see if I'm still keen enough to go for the hosco ones

Tall_martin

Yes, I agree @thermionic . But as I said, I've only ever done one nut and I'm very much hoping after this round of guitar buying and selling I'll not be buying nay other guitars for quite some time 

rze99

If you are going to get guitar nuts altered more than 3 or 4 times - and crucially you are good with your hands and are careful - it’s worth it. I only realised it was worth it after having a few guitar nuts altered. 

thermionic

Tall_martin said:

Yes, I agree @thermionic . But as I said, I've only ever done one nut and I'm very much hoping after this round of guitar buying and selling I'll not be buying nay other guitars for quite some time 

That’s the thing isn’t it - I have several guitars but none of them have problems with the depth of the nut slots, so probably not worth investing in the tools at the moment. One of my guitars recently had a problem with nut slots - they were the right height but a couple were sticking because they were too narrow. A few passes with a folded piece of wet & dry was enough to fix it.

Sarge

Buy the Hosco files, use them then sell them minus the value they've brought to you in terms of use.
there'll be plenty buyers here who'll take a set of files used only a few times. 

BUT I suspect you'll want to keep them once you've used them and appreciated the ease of use and quality results.