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Well I'm finished with my electric and quite happy as to the results, but I do have a question.

I am just beginning to teach myself serious slide . . . blues, jazzy stuff etc. . . .(and I have a far way to go) I want to get off on a good footing. The distance between under the string and over the first fret is 1/16 and at the twelve fret is 1/8 . . . now this is a wee bit to high, but what do you guys who slide a lot think? There won't be much real metal fireworking on this guitar so . . .

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http://jimwaltersblog.wordpress.com/

Hi Jim.
Welcome to the wonderful world of slide.
I don't play bottlenack, but lap.
The best you can do is shim up your nut until you have it right,
then measure the heighth and make a new one.
It depends on how much fretting you'll be doing.
Lots of slide, little freting, higher.
Lots of fretting, little slide, lower.
Open E, or open D are good tunings for me.
Standard tuning works as well.

If you were playing steel guitar or dobro, then a high nut would be fine. But for slide guitar(bottleneck), I'd set the nut up similar to a standard set up on guitar and just raise the action at the 12th.
This will allow you both options, chording and slide. There's really no need for a high nut to play bottleneck slide. A slightly higher action at the 12th is, however, helpful.

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Mike

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