String spacing issue on replacment nut on my old S-500

[anotherjonesy]

Hi G&L Folks,
I am lucky to own an early G&L S-500 with the Leo signature. After problems with tuning stability and reading about Graph Tech replacements on the forum, I installed the Graph Tech TUSQ XL nut (Product #: PT-5000-00).

Measuring with a Stew-Mac Radius Gauge Set, the G&L neck closely fits to the 7.25 inches Radius Gauge, and the Graph Tech Nut radius matches closely to that.

My problem is with string spacing. The ‘E 2 E’ string spacing on my guitar nut is 33mm (1.2969inch), but the pre cut Graph Tech nut is 35.18mm (1.385 inch).

The outside strings are now approximately 1mm closer to the edges of the fret board which I’m not enjoying. I don’t see any closer matching dimension nuts on the Graph Tech web site.

Short of having to cut a nut to original spacing, does anyone know of any low friction nut solutions that I could buy? I did see Earvana mentioned on the forum threads(http://www.earvana.com/fender_retro.htm).

Thank you in advance for your thoughts!

-Chris

[Philby]

Hi Chris,

If it were me I'd buy an unslotted Graph Tech blank with the same radius as your pre-slotted nut and get the string slots cut to match the original spacing. If you don't have a set of nut files a luthier shouldn't charge too much to do the slotting.

Once you get a Graph Tech nut right you won't have to buy any low friction nut products.

Cheers,

Phil.

[anotherjonesy]

Thanks for the feedback Phil.

-Chris