Most new guitars arrive from the factory with the nut just barely playable. Elder guitars could have the nut filed or worn down so much that fret buzz cannot be eliminated by neck or string height adjustment. In case you have a fresh guitar, or that you’re replacing the nut having a new one, here’s another method to file and adjust the nut material in making your guitar play such as professionals guitars play.

Before adjusting anything, be certain your guitar is strung up correctly and that your neck is straight and never bowed or warped. In case your neck is bowed you initially need to adjust the truss rod. If the neck is warped it would force a more extensive repair. For all-time low possible action or to avoid fret buzz all across your finger board it can be required to have your frets leveled and crowned first.

You’ll need a set of nut files (available from Stewart MacDonald), and a good set of feeler gauges as well. Different grades of sandpaper are very useful too.

Fret each string individually, starting when using the High E, between the second and third fret, use your feeler gauge to test the amount of space between the underside of the string and the first fret. You should have approximately .005″ of space between each one, when using the string barely touching the 2nd fret. If this measurement is close or dead on then move on to the next string right up to the Low E string. You may want to record the gap on a scrap piece of paper as you progress across the fret board, to see the nut slot’s height in relation to the fret board as you do so.

For most players a string height (also known in guitar slang as “action”) of 3/64″ of an inch is considered normal. Some players choose a higher sting height for example 4/64″ of an inch while players which tend to have a light touch and want the fastest action possible strive to lower the action as close as possible to 2/64″ which in many case’s is very hard to setup and maintain without fret buzzing somewhere on the finger board.

Of course, you can use the traditional method to set your string height in relation to the nut, by using multiple feeler gauges below the nut, and filing down to the factory depth and width. However, I have found using this method to provide a better and more consistent feel while playing near the nut.

Knowing how to tune a guitar properly is quite possibly more important than actually knowing how to play the guitar. This may seem trivial at one point or another, but knowing how to tune a guitar really helps. Your friends, teachers, or whoever won’t always be there to tune your guitar for you. So it’s important that you know how to tune a guitar.

Well start with something pretty simple: naming the six strings of the guitar. They are named the 1st string, the 2nd string, the 3rd string, and so on. But it’s the keys that these notes represent that you should also remember. The 1st string, the thinnest of all strings, is found at the bottom of the strings, and 2nd is above that, 3rd is above that, etc. The 1st string is the string with the highest pitch. Here’s the keys associated with each string:

* String 1 – Higher E
* String 2 – B
* String 3 – G
* String 4 – D
* String 5 – A
* String 6 – Lower E

When tuning a guitar, you should a reference instrument, like a piano. Pluck the 6th string, and it should match the key of E, or Mi, on the keyboard. When you have that, then you can move on to the other strings. Go for the 6th string at the 5th fret. Then compare it with the 5th open string. The tunes they give out should match. If they don’t, then adjust the bottom string accordingly. Repeat this step as you go down each string. But when you get to the 3rd string, then it should be played at the 4th fret, rather than the 5th. Compare the 3rd string with the tune given by the 2nd open string. After than, go to the 2nd string back at the 5th fret once again. Compare the tune given to that of the 1st open string.

This is just the basics when you want to learn how to tune a guitar. When you first learn how to tune a guitar, adjusting strings and comparing tunes can be a bit difficult. However, just as practice helped you play better, the more tuning you do, the better you’ll be.

If a lot of this seems too confusing, you can always cheat a bit and go with a digital tuner. These are small electronic devices that have all the keys labeled on them. There is an input and an output on them, just plug in the amp and the guitar, and it will tell you how you need to tune it. Pretty cool. Here’s some to check out.