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@Dooks-Fatberg
It was far too nice of a day to work today so I decided to bunk off and do some gardening and guitar fettling. Those of you with long memories for inconsequential post about cheap guitars may recall that I put together a "Scroungeocaster" (70s style Strat) with gumtree and gifted parts last summer. The main objective was to teach myself how to finish a guitar in nitro. It came out better than I had any right to expect although with some enduring issues, not least of which:
the truss rod on the ebay neck didn't work (the nut just spun without tightening) rendering it significantly bowed and therefore "good for slide" (aka borderline unplayable)
the nut height was similarly high, and string slots inconsistent (despite a tinker with the cheapest set of nut files on Amazon)
The pickup switch works backwards (neck is bridge etc)
After almost a year of it mainly languishing on a hanger, I decided on a whim to sort it out today. On establishing that the bullet style nut definitely wasn't tightening the rod and was just spinning in either direction, I brought the pliers out and sure enough, the nut just pulled out. Happily it looked like the issue was only that an overly thick washer was preventing the nut from engaging with the thread on the rod and nothing more serious. I spent a happy half hour poking and prying, levering, tweezing and jiggling trying to get the washer out. Eventually I reverted to enthusiastic banging and the washer flew out and disappeared down a gap in the floorboards.
This was annoying because I couldn't see how thick it was, but I knew I needed something in there to prevent the but bearing against raw wood, so I used a set of drill bits poked into the nut to establish the rough diameter I needed, and headed off to search for washers. Long story short, M5 split washer, which was the smallest one in Homebase, turned out to be perfect fit. That is after I put it on and gave the bullet a healthy bang with a hammer to seat it in there. This did make me wonder perhaps a bit of a whack might have fixed the issue with the original washer.
Truss rod now engaged and working, I gave it half a turn, established that we had a very very slight back-bow with no strings. I performed a small victory dance moved on to the nut.
I've watched enough twoordford vids to know that to remove a nut without breaking it you score around the edge with a scalpel to break any finish then tap it out sideways. There was quite a lot of finish over the ends and edge of the nut but the technique worked an absolute dream and the nut slipped out leaving a clean slot and undamaged nut. I was on a work call at this point and managed to mute the tapping without anyone noticing. Unfortunately I then ran my finger along the slot and the sharp lip of finish that had been left against the front edge of the nut sliced the pad of my right index finger open. Fucking ow.
There followed some minor first aid involving superglue and kid's plasters. Some nut fettling involving sanding, filing, bit of fettling and superglue. Then there was quite a long time swearing at trying to untangle and re-attach the strings, more action tweakage and I think... we have a drastically improved playability situation. It's such a hunk of junk but I swear it's super resonant and now plays great(ish).
The electronics can wait for another day tho. I'm taking the win for now.
Current soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18hEmAnnfAA