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Im curious as to what some other people's techniques for this are. I set my table saw at a low depth and use a crosscut fence to carry the fretboard across the saw blade and a 90 degree angle (after running a few test cuts of course). Im curious in particular about how some oh you do the non fender-style nut slot (like gibsons, acoustics, ect.) I cant think of a good way to do this other than a dremel with an end-milling bit and a dremel stand.

"gibsons, acoustics, etc" don't use a nut slot- they chop the fretboard off and the nut butts up against that terminus. most stringed instruments throughout the ages are that way

The peghead veneer will act as the other end of the slot.

I use a Japanese style saw to square up the peghead veneer then fine tune it with a chisel.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I have a dummy nut that I was very careful to size to exactly .180", dead flat and square. When I glue on the fingerboard, I sandwich the nut between the fingerboard and the head plate. Instant nut slot.

Sometimes I cut the fretboard off at the nut ans use that as the nut slot in conjunction with the head plate. I use a fret slotting handsaw for this. For a fender style nut, after slotting the fretboard on my table saw, I make another kerf 1/8th past the zero fret kerf in the direction of the tuning keys and chisel the wood in between out with a sharp micro chisel.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Clever fellow.
I wonder if that's how Gibson does it on some of their stuff?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Don't know. I know that other builders do it like that, though no one ever seems to talk about it because I don't know anyone who "got" that from someone else. It always seems like it's something we just started doing one day out of laziness. When this batch of 2 guitars is done, I'm going to try dumping the nut slot entirely and just sticking the nut back there flat. The whole nut slot thing just kind of seems like a complete waste of time and energy, both for me and for whoever needs to replace the nut later.

Works for me.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince