Nut height on Academy 12

[JimmieT]

Hi folks. I'm new to the forum and Taylor guitars. I just bought an Academy 12 and am very happy with it. Everything about it is a step up from my Martin 000-X1. Truss rod is set right and saddle height is perfect. The only problem is the nut.

There is quite a gap at the first fret when depressing at the 3rd and the infamous  F bar chord is pure torture on this guitar.

Two questions. First..is this typical for this guitar? If not, I always hate to return a guitar and have to wait all over again if I can fix it myself.

I have lowered a lot of saddles before but never worked on a nut. Based on my skills I know I can do this myself. Stew Mac has nut files for 20% off right now.

Here's the deal. The guitar comes with lights  12-53.  I use extra lights 10-47. The smallest file set is actually for mediums 13-56.

So the next question is will my 10-47 strings work ok with 13-56 slots? They say not to go more than few 1000s bigger and I'd be beyond that.

Thanks for your input.

[Earl]

This isn't something worth returning the guitar over.  It just needs a set-up tweak for your preferences, for best playing feel.  Factory set-ups are normally a bit high, because it is far easier to lower saddles and nut slots than to raise them.

Step one is to put a capo on the first fret and play it for a while.  This takes the nut out of the equation, and if the nut slots aren't deep enough the guitar will become noticeably easier to play.  There should only be really minimal clearance between the first fret and the string when you fret at the third fret.  It's a barely visible gap, but just enough to make an audible  "ping" when you tap the string vigorously above the first fret.

Filing nut slots is a subtle thing - I've ruined several while trying to tweak mine.  I now always leave the original alone and start with a new one, which is easy to buy (pre-slotted but not fitted).  And go slow.  It is very easy to cut too deep and make the nut slots too low.  Then you either have to shim the entire nut back up, or make a whole new one.  If the slot width is too wide, the string can roll back and forth a bit, but I honestly don't know how much is too much.  Finally I've used a length of the old wound string as a "file" to smooth nut slots out when they have worn grooves to match the windings.  It doesn't cut very fast - a good thing - and you know it isn't way too wide. 

Hope this helps, and maybe has convinced you to let a good tech do this subtlest part of the set-up.  You CAN do it, but there is a learning curve.

[DO18]

Here is the Taylor setup specifications.  Not sure how old this is.

Take a look at what the height above the first fret for your Academy 12e.  Hope this helps give you an idea of where you would like to be.  A friend of mine is an extremely well known luthier who works on about 200 high end Martins a year.  His measurement for string height at the first fret is:

Fret at 3rd Fret
You just want a sliver of daylight at the first fret.

Of course his judgement call is far better than me with a StewMac string height gauge or a set of feeler gauges.   

Hope this helps.

[JuanValdez]

As Earl mentions, patience is the key in working given groves deeper.  If you goof, there's always baking soda and CA (cyanoacrylate, aka Super Glue, Crazy Glue, etc.) and you can fill the groove and try it again. The filling is really easier done than said. And as above, you can always get a new one and try again. Good luck!

[jpmist]

Great stuff in this thread, just wanted to add my favorite web site on how to check the slot height

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/GenSetup/NutAction/nutaction.html

[beninma]

I have an Academy 12e as well.

I ended up buying the Stewmac nut files and adjusting the nut myself.  Before doing so I read Dan Erlewine's book.   

I forget exactly what the height of the frets measured out to on my Taylor, but I want to say it was around 0.045".  That's measured by setting the neck straight then putting a straightedge across the first 2 frets and then stacking feeler gauges under the straightedge. I did notice the fretwork on my Taylor (maybe all Taylors I've tried) seems very high quality.  It's noticeably better than my Fender, which is a similarly priced guitar also made in Mexico.

The clearance at the first fret stock on my guitar was at least 0.020" on the 6th string.  Quite high compared to the "push down just past 2nd fret and check for clearance."

I started a bit conservatively and stacked up feeler gauges at the nut to 0.053"... basically a 0.008" clearance instead of the stock 0.020".   Setup books tend to recommend 0.005-0.010" clearance.

In the end I lowered it down to more like 0.050" so a clearance of 0.005".   If you play a lot of slide maybe you'd want it higher, maybe not.  I'm not a good slide player.  A clearance of 0.005" is very close to the "push down between 2nd-3rd fret and look for sliver of daylight" test.

That F chord is super easy to play now, and the intonation at the first/second fret is quite a bit better.   The Micarta nuts & saddles Taylor uses are very very easy to work with.  They file very easily, you don't need to use any force, you can be very gentle and precise.

This was a scary process but came out fine.  I did my other guitar (a Fender Telecaster) as well and set the clearances the same... both guitars play incredibly easily now.  The only Taylors I've picked up in the store that tend to play as well as mine now are the Builder's edition guitars.   As far as I can tell the Builder's edition guitars that Andy Powers designs to his specifications have a different setup that I liked better than other Taylors.

If you're mechanically inclined I wouldn't be afraid to learn to work on the nut.   The only other thing I'd recommend is order another nut from Taylor first in case you screw it up.  They're cheap.   But it's not really very easy to screw up unless you're clumsy.   My understanding after visiting the factory is the nuts are pre-made at Taylor and they build the guitars so precisely that the final assembly techs do not ever need to file nuts or saddles.  The guitars are so perfect that they just set the neck angle and string the guitar up and it's good to go.   So you can always return your guitar to factory setup just by putting a new nut & saddle in.   (This is incredibly impressive really!)

Having a really good nut setup is a big deal.  I get to try a fair amount of guitars and a really nice nut setup is instantly noticeable and makes a guitar really pleasant to play.