Now for the nut and tree fitting:
This step of course had me the most concerned after everything I read. But uhmmmm unless I missed something this was stupid easy? Maybe I just lucked out, I won't rule that out. I had to quickly put a little sanding drum on my dremel to remove the tab on the Graphtec nut I ordered which is made for flat or curved necks, silly easy bit this one. Then I had to sand the width of the nut to fit into the slot in the neck, I checked where I was going with my digital caliper and dived right in with a sanding block and some 200grid paper. I found steel sandpaper to deal better with the dust the nut was giving off. This was probably the hard part as you still want a snug fit, but not too snug either, take your time! It will still only take 20 minutes. The nut I got was pre-slotted so I grabbed an old set of strings and checked the precut slots for binding, nothing, bargain? Yeah thought so myself. Haha. Next was the height, this one got me sweating BAD. The nut was lower in the middle than the nut originally on the guiter that broke, however on the High E and Low E strings the height was the same. This nut now of course fitting much better into the neck slot being curved and all.
I had to contemplate my next move a little from here, my thoughts got around to "But why would they cut the nut too low/small to begin with and still recommend it for the average strat?". I can't shim the nut in the middle only as that would lift it off the neck on the sides, but the sides height was good to begin with? I made the call, the nut's going in as is for the first test run! Initially when the strings went on the first time I saw signs of worry as there was a definite buzz on the open strings from a slightly hard strum. Fear not! Of course I kept my marbles in check and remembered patience would be key here as the neck probably needs to get back in shape again...give it time.
I then proceeded to fiddle with the intonation on the bridge and see how that all works. I'm now pretty sure the saddles on this bridge probably needs replacing, adjustments didn't show much sign of adjusting as such?!? I had to really get the saddle moving around with the string completely relaxed to see some sort of change. I think I'll need to fiddle with this some more to really see what's going on. I got the intonation adjusted but as could be seen from the pictures their all over the place? O well, it works. I also need to get to learning how to adjust saddle heights and things now but it's all left as was rather, baby steps.
Fitting the string trees was easy as pie, I had to enlarge the holes in the headstock every so slightly for the Graphtec trees's screws. Obviously you need to adjust tree height as they come stock pretty high. I hope I was doing ok figuring I would match the heights of the original trees? The dremel again made quick work of this, walk in the park to be honest.
Now for the good news, my suspicions were correct! A mere hour later and the buzz in the open strings were gone, the action on the nut is oooober low from what I can see, the guitar plays VERY easy. I dropped a very small lick of wood glue on the nut when fitting it just to help keep it from sliding side to side. Turns out everything is good, I don't need to raise the nut at all. It's officially fitted and I'm happy as can be! ?
A final run of pics of the now end results, rust removed that I wanted to. Pickup fitted. Nut and string trees fitted. Pretty and great sounding guitar! What more can I say? LOL
First pic showing the results I was getting cleaning up the metal bits with the polishing bits. The old rusted tree on top and the cleaned one bottom, not a huge difference but it works for me.
Cleaned bridge:
Cleaned jack:
Few more:
