How to Upgrade Your Guitar With a New Nut - Easy and Cheap Mod

One of the easiest and cheapest mods you can do to a guitar is replace it's nut. Graph Tech makes a great "Preslotted" nut that is pretty easy to install and makes a difference in the quality of your guitar. In this video I show how I installed a new Graph Tech Tusq nut on my Stratocaster.

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Please watch: "Guitar Neck Shootout: Fender vs Squier vs Mighty Mite"
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[JG-uxof]

Great video, I find that the easiest way to get the right radius is to cut a piece of sandpaper and tape it to your fretboard and sand the nut on your fretboard. By doing that you will sand it down perfectly to the radius of your fretboard and you wont have those annoying little gaps that probably don't effect the outcome but bother the hell out of you when you're trying to do a good job.

I didn't make that technique up, I can't remember who I learned it from but it was from someone on YouTube. Also Tightbond or even Elmer's glue works well with gluing the nut.

[marktwain]

Every vid you make shows that you are experienced, honest and a man of integrity. You show you care about guitars and guitar players, and man--we respect you for it!

[mrgooddeeds]

I suggest to diy’rs to leave the nut unglued for about a month or so depending on the area you live .. temp/humidity etc. then glue it once action is to their liking. Hope that helps.

[iamanovercomer]

I just put tusq nut on my fender player telecaster and it's so much sharper, clearer and louder ‼️ I sand it and got the bottom stub off .
Next my 🇺🇸 stratocaster ‼️

[mattb]

You got a love how you said you’ve never done it before but didn’t talk like you’re a Lucier for 20 years back on your plywood set up

[thysdreyer]

This is handsdown the BEST upgrade one can do on a stratocaster . No more g-string or tuning issues EVER . Also improves the tone drastically .
Just do it, you wont regret it .

[GraphTechGuitarLabs]

Great video man! Yea, that nub in the middle is there so it works on a guitar with a flat slot. And if it has a curved slot, like yours, sand it off!

[MisterGuitarItalia]

I cannot believe you're doing this with the strings on...

[tracyc]

I have a few mods I do on a guitar when I decide to use it for gigs. Number one on that list is replace the nut with a TusQ XL nut if the guitar has a plastic nut. The tuning stability you gain with TusQ XL is a must for gigging.

[PsyMongazoid]

Make sure you buy a pre-shaped nut. I just spent 2 hours shaping a bone nut from Amazon supposedly made for a Strat but the only thing right was the distance between string grooves.The nut slot is not flat cut but curved. Anyway, once the nut was the right height, width, and _radius_ it was easy.

[Secretarian]

I replaced the cheap plastic nut in my Squier Tele with a Tusq nut. Massive tone improvement. Only drawback was that because my Squier had a narrow neck at the nut, I had to sand the nut to shorten its length, i.e. the high E and low E on the Tusq nut are now just a bit closer to the edge of fretboard due to the Tusq string spacing. But one gets used to it. I've changed pickups, pots, bridge saddles, selector switch, and this mod makes the biggest single improvement in tone IMO.

[rwdplz]

Tried this part number for my 2002 Squier Affinity Stratocaster made in Indonesia, but the string spacing is WAY off holding them next to each other.

[Smannellites]

I have seen a luthier recommendation to use a few drops of PVA wood glue, diluted with water, to stop the nut from moving. This worked for me on a Fender Mex Jazz Bass a few years ago when I fitted a Tusq nut - a very great improvement in both sound and tuning stability, although it was necessary because the original nut had broken at the G-string slot.

[myleswoodlands]

really helped me out!!! couldn't figure out how to fix it myself but great video!!!!

[jess]

Excellent vid--clear and instructive as could be. Thank you.

[dontransue]

why with strings on ? why?? you can't wait till you need new ones?

[Tommyr]

Very timely video! I have to replace the nut on my 2006 Tele. Thanks for the video, this will help a lot!

[Arcturian]

I pull the nut out straight with a needle nose. Works great.

[joshfeatherstone]

Very informative. I'm going to try this on my '97 MIM Strat. I've already installed the Graph Tech String Trees and noticed a brighter tone.

[JohnLloydDavis]

Don't forget to use the Tusq string guides on the headstock as well. Belt and braces solution ;)