Ball Bearing Nut

[cF-something]

Hey guys it's me again. the youngin with the mexi strat. when i tune my last two strings high E and B they tend to be a little stubborn until you hear almost a pinch or a snap sound. then it finally starts to tune. it is annoying as hell. especially up on stage in front of people. and i saw on a buddy of mines anniversary stratocaster that it had a ball bearing nut to allow more "flow" and easier tuning for the guitar. i was thinking of replacing mine with one like it to try to eliminate my problem and to test it out. any suggestions?

[softmonkey]

The string is too thick for your nut at that point. Very common, particularly with a new guitar, and even more if the guitar came with 9s and you put on 10s. My Strat came with 9s and was doing the same thing on the G and B strings-- and with the 9s. Take it to a tech and have them open up the nut slots and lube them. It'll only take a couple of minutes. You don't have to change the nut.

[Strat-Talk]

Yeah, the nut needs to be opened up from a thickness point of view NOT depth. Don't try to do it without the proper tools you'll likely ruin the nut.

And it needs some graphite or "nut juice" to free it up from a friction point of view.

PS. When I said don't try it without the proper tools... I meant with something crazy like a knife, or aggressive file not made for the job. 800 Grit sand paper lightly pulled through the slot is OK.

[Nobster]

Sometimes a little playing in is all that's needed. As for lube, I use the little sticks of lipsalve lip protector stuff you can get at the pharmacy/supermarket/drugstore. It works great. I always put a tiny smear of it in the nut slots at each string change. Some folks do the same on the bridge saddles where the string touches it as it can help avoid string breakage at the bridge - I usually use a very light oil on saddles (just a tiny drop of it) like sewing machine oil, or "3 in 1" oil. I add a drop then wipe most of it off with a rag.

[cF-something]

awesome ill give it a try thanks guys

[Orlando Mike]

You are talking about a rollernut..right? They are fairly costly (30.00) and the install involves cutting, so its not really a do it yourself project...It seems like I remember that it costs 45 bucks or so to install, and then you have to get the guitar set up...Id go the file route first...but that's just me

[jmasin]

Expensive route: Buy some nut files from stewmac and you can tune the slots to the strings you have. Be careful, it's easy to change the depth and then you'll have to make a new one.

Cheap route: Get some very fine sandpaper from your local hardware store (like the 800 or more grit wet/dry stuff) and take a small piece, fold it, and run it through the slot once or twice. The fold creates outward pressure and if you don't push down you'll sand the sides just a bit without affecting the bottom.

Equally cheap but more cumbersome: Take it to someone and they will do one of the above.


Then lube as recommended earlier. This is a really fairly easy optimization and will be critical if you ever go up in size on your strings. Just my opinion, but these are good things to learn when you play. Saves you lots of time and money in the long run (mainly time).

[2Buck Chuck]

+1 on the 800 grit sandpaper - that works.

Check your string tree as well, I have a similar problem with one of my Teles that is relate to the tree.
I have the LSR roller nut on my Strat - it works great (no string trees either!) but it came stock that way.

[JKjr]

The files made for cleaning the holes in oxy-acetyline torches work great as nut files. You can get a set with 10 or 12 sizes for a couple bucks. Try your local auto parts store.