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Got a client who has lost the retaining screw for the titanium zero fret nut on his 2017 Gibson Les Paul standard HP.
I've contacted Gibson who say they can't help with either the supply or specs of the screw. (can't believe they don't have at least the thread specs somewhere, so much for customer service)
Just on the off chance, can anyone help?
It's the one in the middle of the nut.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Sheesh WTH Gibson....

Colin my friend I think I have seen maybe two of these they are not all that common and I remember one of our client's telling me they were big sellers in Japan which has a collector's market for Les Pauls perhaps larger than the US.

I don't recall ever seeing this zero fret on anything else or available as an after market product but someone had to make it for G*bson.

It's a long shot but the "zero glide" product was purchased by a couple of brothers maybe 8 years ago I know because they called me and if anyone was likely to have made this for Gibson my bet is it was them or they would know who made it since they make zero frets and push the concept.

Maybe contact them and ask for assistance if nothing else pans out?

I know the part you are speaking of and remember thinking to myself it's very well made and likely expensive. I don't like zero frets but this one has the ability to adjust height on the various sides and that elevated it figuratively and literally in my view.

Good luck

This is news to me.

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

Colin I thought of you this morning at work when I encountered a more common type of nut on a Fender a roller nut.

These are just as useless as zero frets for the same reason no height adjustment at all and certainly no individual string height adjustment.

But it occurred to me that since Fender sold many more guitars with this nut on them this may be who made the nut you are dealing with for Gibson. It would be a two stage deal but perhaps contact Fender and see if they can tell you who made the roller nut pictured here in my post and then contact that entity and ask them about your nut.

Chris they are very uncommon I think I have seen two out of maybe 16,000 guitars they also went on a Les Paul that is highly collectable and often not even played so a closet queen if you will.

Beautifully made though and your other industry, aerospace since this is titanium probably had a lot to do with the knowledge base that made these something that could be manufactured.

Thanks for the info, Hesh. The roller nut you posted is a Wilkinson.

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

Oh cool that may be a big help to Colin in finding the source of the zero fret. Thanks Chris!

Could you take a tap and die set and gently, carefully, try to thread the taps into the nut until you found one that just threaded in easily?

Gibson doesn't service the bits and pieces they buy, they just install them. I would not expect them to worry about this detail.

I infer that there's two retaining screws and one is lost. If the other one is available it is possible to find a match (forget titanium. stainless steel would work). I'd be talking to somebody who deals with tiny precision fasteners, like a repair shop for microscopes/cameras/optics/telescopes.

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Peter Havriluk

Check your local ACE hardware. You might be surprised to find what they keep in stock.

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

Colin this Thread Detective set from Stew Mac is one of my most used tools in my shop:

https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-a ... r-guitars/

If this were my repair I'd remove the remaining screw and find it's thread with this tool, then buy replacements from AliExpress or a local hardware store.


Edit: never mind!

I just realized I completely misunderstood your photo - I thought the nut was missing two of the three retaining screws, but now I see that there's just one retaining screw in the middle and the other two positions are for height-adjustment set screws.

My suggestion is completely useless.


Edit again: On third thought, if the retaining screw left enough thread in whatever it was threaded into (wood?) the Thread Doctor might still work as it's able to thread to either male or female threads.

Colin, if you haven’t tried Peters suggestion about checking with a camera or optics repair person, it was a great suggestion!! Also, you might check with any jewellers that specialize in clock repair, hopefully you have some in your area

Cal

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Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers!