A friend, J, needed to ship his guitar here and needed someone to receive it so I was elected. It is a Martin acoustic 12-string and it just happened to show up as I was putting the finishing touches to a couple of songs for The ICW Blues. He wanted me to unpack it and and try it out for him to make sure it did not suffer any shipping damage, so what better way to test it than to record a few tracks with it? So now it is immortalized on The ICW Blues CD.
He bought the guitar used a few weeks ago. It is in excellent shape and looks new, but like so many new guitars even from the Martins of the world, it needs to have the slots in the nut cut deeper. The action is too high on the first few frets which not only makes it hard to play, but ruins the intonation when you press the string down. In effect you are bending the string too far when you fret the string which makes it sound too sharp. A good test to determine if the nut slot is too high is to fret each string between the second and third fret and then see how much clearance there is between the string and the first fret. The string should just barely clear the first fret - a couple of thousandths maybe? Any more than that and you are fighting it.
I would probably be tempted to pay a pro to file the nut in this case. First it's a Martin which equals pretty expensive, and second, it's a 12-string which makes it hard to see what you are doing. I don't mind tinkering on a knockabout guitar, but this one is not! Scooter at Granville Guitars is a local tech who could be trusted with this job.
Anyway, you will be able to hear the 12- string on The ICW Blues some day soon.
Happy Halloweenie!
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3 comments:
Hey I'm immortalized in a blog!! How cool is that.
But don't think your going to get out of a little guitar surgery. Plus, worst case scenario.. Off to Scooter and he'll make a new nut
So the martin 12'er has had a bit of surgery. Not nearly as difficult as might be expected. The guitar now plays a lot easier.
I purchased a set of Norman nut files and slowly and carefully followed the instructions. These files are available on e-bay and frankly have a mixed bag of reviews. For someone who was going to be doing this kind of work a lot, probably not the best tool. For the occasional job, they worked perfect.
So the Martin has had a bit of surgery. Not nearly as difficult as you might think.
I purchased a set of Norman nut files. These are sold on e-bay and frankly have a bit of a mixed bag of reviews. For some one doing this kind of work a lot, probably not the right tool. For the occasional job, seemed to work perfect.
Easy to follow instructions. The guitar now plays a lot easier.
Thanks for the tip.
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