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Ok, they added a digital dial. What I want to know is if it can slope the string heights. I’m not putting low e as close as high e. They make a big deal about not having to search for feeler gauges to achieve desired height. Mine are pretty dang good. If this gauge can’t do loped heights, not interested.

I have a set of heights Hesh gave me. They have helped me do flawless setups.

If it’s the gauge here - https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-a ... ing-gauge/

You place it over the 1st fret, zero it, and press the string down. That gives you the current height. File, check, repeat until you’re at your target height.

You can make it any slope you want.

My experience with it is, I used it a lot on the beginning but like anything you start to eyeball it and not need it. If you’ve been using feeler gauges and have a set of heights you like, this might not offer a lot of help.


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Very cool I'm smiling here so thanks for mentioning this Mike.

Just to be clear we never measure anything those measurements are to quantify for others. I was taught to eyeball it and that's all we have ever done.

So no tools other than slotting files are really required.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Another product improvement that wasn't... the highly legible analog dial gauge was swapped for a ridiculously oversized, limited viewing angle, non-backlit/low contrast LCD. When we started seeing issues with the smaller size analog dial gauges they were using on the relief gauge, nut action gauge, and whatever else, we anticipated a change to a higher quality supplier and a price bump. What we got instead was the price bump and a lower-quality digital gauge that is not suited to use.

Unlike a fixed viewing angle installation on a jig or fixture, nut gauges need to be read from a wider range of viewing angles. Current OLED and similar display screen technology has gotten us to legibility out to 75 or even 80 degrees off axis from the screen, but LCDs - a good low power consumption choice for a dial gauge otherwise - lag behind.

The fix is to junk the bulky, unbalanced LED dial indicators in favor of a quality Japanese or US-made 1.5" indicator with 1/4" range. We went through several iterations of 'made in mainland China' junk before just giving up and using Starrett and Mitutoyo indicators. I found a pair of Mitutoyo indicators on Ebay and rebuilt them after using the ones Mr. Morelli sourced for about $30 each that received the same treatment. I think Mr. Stock is using a pair of Starretts that he repurposed. In any event, a nice tool that can confirm what feel and look initially suggest.

I do agree with Mr. Breakstone on the value of a indicator as a calibration tool (and early on, training), but I also note that repeatability is very highly prized by customers... the ability to measure a current instrument and duplicate that nut action across multiple instruments to 0.0005" supports return customers. Finally, eliminating the 10-15 minutes of tweaking at pickup means a premium indicator pays for itself over 3-4 instruments.

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solution looking for a problem

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
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Think I will stick with my easy to use feeler gauges. Do not know they mean by complicated.

Unfortunately, we do see customers that can feel a 0.001 change at the nut... let alone something ridiculously huge like a 32d or 64th change at the 12th. I've seen quite a bit of variability across what people consider acceptable re: accuracy and repeatability in setup work, so clientele will likely determine how a shop does business as much as the Luddite/Techie split.

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We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)

I use the old SM gauge on every guitar. Every. Single. One.

While I’ve done hundreds, I don’t see how anyone’s eyes can match the precision, given the variation in frets, fingerboard colour and light. Just my opinion.

And I’m not sold on digital indicators. No need to “zero” a dial indicator — eyes can easily assess the amount the needle moves.


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On repeatability... when I was at Greenridge pre-pandemic, we had a few West Coast-based artists that maintained a stable of instruments here in the East for their yearly festival and tour schedules. It was fairly trivial to duplicate the numbers (all the numbers... not just the gross 12th fret action that constitutes a 'setup' by Guitar Center) for similar guitars. It felt quite nice to have the rather gruff gentleman pick up his East Coast-stored Santa Cruz artist model and grunt his version of approval after a riff or three from an iconic 2009 movie soundtrack. Given the artist's status as a notorious curmudgeon, that seemed like high praise at the time.

A few week after the East Coast leg of the tour ended, we got a call from the LA repairman that handled the maintenance chores there requesting the digits on a Strat setup that was favored over the West Coast instrument. Useful to have those numbers, and more useful to be part of an extended team supporting a very interesting gentleman and performer.

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We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)

We have never had a single client hand a guitar back to us and indicate that the nut slots were too high OR that they do not match what we already did for them on other guitars. Never.

Instead clients like my friend Mike who I've set-up 18 guitars for including Martins and Suhrs and vintage 335's he wants them, the slots low and that's what he gets.

I suspect that without measuring anything my own spectrum of repeatability is likely no more 2 - 3 thou and likely not even that. For reference a Post-it note is around 0.003" thick. So I'm suggesting that my variance from job to job likely is not as great and less than the thickness of a Post-it note. With this said the thousands of set-ups that I've done and still do averaging over 600 annually likely do vary within that mentioned spectrum of error that I produce.

But is it error? No it's still very low and WAY lower than others in our region ever do and there is no target spec for nut slots beyond what we do for our clients which is simply very low.

There is a time to leave them higher too for heavy handed, alternate tuning sorts and some nuts are softer than others and I would leave this several thou high on purpose too so the slot does not wear prematurely and be problematic for a client.

With this said 0.001" of variance will not matter to anyone I've ever worked for and if it did we would suggest that they go elsewhere because they are an unreasonable pain in the arse. I can't feel that level of difference and it's never mattered for us.

No tool required to quantify nut slot height in our shop it's in my opinion a purely academic capability and a waste of time for us since we always, with the exceptions listed above and a few more such as classical guitars are set higher, we always shoot for as low as possible.

What is a far more useful tool in my opinion and I don't have a pic but have posted before is the the Collins nut slot depth gauge. It can spot a low nut slot immediately at triage which is where you want to catch it if you want to ding the client for getting out the light cured dental fillings.

I can also with this tool statically set a Floyd Rose nut to near perfect (which is a contradiction of terms in Floyd speak...) by setting the high e at 0.001" and the low e at 0.005".

This tool makes us money and I use if frequently but the StewMac string height gauge we've never wanted to add to our shop.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Sounds like a good plan. I wanted to add Mike that I rely on a 6" Starrett engineer's scale in 64th" for setting action at the 12th. Works great and easy to use. This rule and a string lifter are my most used tools.

Another thing we do is how we verify relief.

When I cut nut slots I want the side of the neck with the least relief very nearly straight. When all is said and done it can stay there so long as there is some relief or if I start to hear a low nut slot sizzle and there is no budget for repairing the nut (fill or shim) adding a bit more relief can help that sizzling string clear that fret crown it wants to be in contact with.

So can back filing the nut slot increasing break angle and exploiting the arc of the string to gain clearance over the first fret. For those reading this I am speaking of when you are sub 0.001" from being too low with the slot. This suggests a high level of precision in the 0.001" area.

So how do I verify that I have some relief I don't care how much at this stage I just want to verify that I have some. Using both hands I fret and hold in the area of the 2nd or 3rd and the 14th or so. Then I tap the string (with my right hand thumb) in the middle of the fretted span. I want to hear and even see some string movement and I don't want the string in contact with the frets in the middle. So a tink sound is what I am hoping to hear and then I know I don't have the neck in slight back bow or dead straight. This is not unlike finding planets by tracking shadows..... It it tinks we have relief.

What I am doing here and this was taught to me is using the string itself as a natural straight edge and it works great. I also don't require any other tool.

With this said there are tools that measure relief and also verify it too. We spend money like drunken sailors and have the best of the best of anything we really think we can use. We invested over $10K in a Collins Saddle mill because it was the best tool for the job and we wanted one.

Some of these Stewmac tools are really solutions looking for a problem OR much more of academic interest to the folks who have the time to learn the concepts with the help of these tools. Neck jig is another one, we had one, we hung our coats on it, Dan is our friend and we love him, we parted it out and now it lives as other tools and we have to hang our coats on the wall.

But you guys do whatever you want someone has to help StewMac get rid of this stuff.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Just learned that Dave Collins did a new video on how we approach nut slots which should include the whole nine yards of what I have been offering here for years.

He doesn't like the video and is going to do it over but expect to see a nut slot and everything you never knew about them video from Dave soon on his YouTube channel.

By the way he is diving back into YouTube so expect to see many new videos from our studio.... er.... shop.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

That is awesome and will be so useful for many people. I have never seen an in depth explanation like what you guys showed us in the fretting class available on youtube.


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Dave and his methods are pretty special as you know Brad and I certainly like to tell the world so too.

He has an unusually ability to put on blinders and have a laser focus on what he wants to investigate. A natural skeptic but with the ability to push back in manners that I wish I had, he does not offend people when he does.

I would liken that most of what I know came from him and I will always be grateful.

Back in the day I was very fortunate to find a pro who would put up with me all these years and even more fortunate that it was Dave Collins. I'm getting ready for work it's 5:00 AM and there is a Nast Jazz bass with a rubber neck waiting for me I'm told....

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Ann Arbor Guitars