Filing a floyd nut

[guitorture]

The problem I have is a buzzing B string on an OFR-equipped guitar. It only happens when unfretted and the action is high so I'm guessing its the nut. I've seen the proper metal files on stewmac but I'm not sure what the "correct filing technique" is. Any tricks to doing it optimally?

[straycat]

Don't file the nut shim it.
If the string is buzzing it means the string is touching a fret as it vibrates cutting the nut lower will make it buzz more.
By shimming (raising) the treble side of the floyd nut that should clear up the buzzing issue.
If your action is is high by shimming the nut you can lower the floyd and get the action down a bit.
How hard are you plucking the B string when you get the buzz?
Can you hear the buzz thru the amp? If not don't worry about it.
I know my questions sound crazy but I need to know where your head is at?
Tip one never assume anything.LOL I have been a guitar tech for 20 years and when I assume something I'm not sure of I am generally wrong.

[straycat]

Oh another question how straight is the neck? Any up bow or back bow in the neck?
You may just need a small neck adjustment and nothing else.
Post a pic from the head stock looking down the neck and one looking up the neck.That would let me see whats going on with your guitar.

[darkside]

You said everything I was going to say and would have said Stray.

[84sups]

^ What Straycat said. The Floyd nuts don't need to be filed and if you do it messes the radius up and worse it can make the a sharp edge that will break strings.

[straycat]

I guess he didn't like my questions.

[TommyD]

I've never tried to do it,but if a real-deal Floyd nut is as "hard" as the specs for the baseplate (60-65 Rockwell C scale),a normal file won't do you any good other than wear your hand and arm out.

I've heat-treated stuff to that hardness,and a mill file wouldn't even knock the burrs off. Tommy D.

[straycat]

If your problem is a low nut filing only makes it lower.

[1337storm]

Could also be the imfamous "citar sound" you can get sometimes with Floyd nuts.
If the string is not sitting tight in the bottom of the saddle grove (can easily happen with hockey stick type headstocks) you can get a weird sound and it has nothng to do with the frets and only occur with unfretted strings. Try to keep the string centered in the grove when tightening the locking nut.
I have also come across Floyd nuts that needed to be tilted somewhat towards the headstock to let the strings come off Clean from the nut, easily done with a piece of a shim, you may have to shave a little off the shelf for the nut to avoid getting the nut to high which will get you in to worse intonation problems than necessary on the first frets.
But first, use a feeler gauge to rule out the possibility of a low nut.

[straycat]

I guess he didn't like our suggestions.

[Matt_B]

I had the same problem so I replaced the nut which fixed the problem. BTW, I bought guitar used.

[JACKSONFREAK]

Simple fix. Just replce the nut. Pull the old nut off and look on the bottom to make sure tou get the correct one.

[guitorture]

Well first off I apologize for the late reply. Thanks a lot for all of the advice, it really helped out. I finally fixed the buzz in a very unusual manner, which I suppose I can describe. I'll just start from the beginning...

So yeah I never tried filing the nut, after what was said here it seemed obvious not to. Also I had the truss rod in excess relief and the action raised stupid high to rule out fret buzz. I ended up deciding to go the "nut swap" route and ordered a new OFR nut from MusiciansFIEND.com since it seemed like a simple enough task. Now I want to briefly talk about this nut... here is the link to what I bought:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acces...nut-r-2/h77678
When I received it in the mail I immediately noticed some subtle differences between the new and old nut. I mean they both seemed to be genuine OFR parts with "R2" and "Made in Germany" stamped on the undersides. However the new nut was slightly odd compared to the other. On the underside of my original (old) nut it had what I would call a roughened/textured matte type surface. The underside of the new nut was more of a smooth glossy surface. The two main screws for the new nut were the same size but had slightly smaller heads. In fact the old screws which I tried to use at first would NOT fit with the new nut. The heads were too big and sticking out when screwed in all the way making it impossible to put the steel string pads onto the nut. So I used the new screws and luckily they fit in much better. Also the new nut seem slightly thicker than the old one from top to bottom... maybe anywhere from .3 to .6 mm thicker, hard to say exactly. But it ended up working out in the end.

So I finally got the new nut installed correctly using the new screws. The next problem I encountered was somewhat surprising. Well first I should say that after I put the strings on the guitar and tuned everything up to pitch, I noticed the B string's buzz was finally gone. It sounded completely normal for once, I was psyched! The new nut worked, I had finally fixed it! Right? Well sort of, but not really... I unfortunately noticed that the thin high E string had somehow acquired the EXACT SAME BUZZ. I was pretty discouraged at this point, but I wasn't giving up. I went back to this thread again and I noticed 1337storm's post about the hockey stick headstocks causing problems occasionally.

Well let me stop here and give some basic background on this guitar, as I probably should have in my original post. I am for the most part a Jackson guy, but this guitar is a Buddy Blaze Shredder Custom I purchased used from Ebay. Apparently it was made in the Dallas custom shop around 2011 for "Joey Concepcion" as that's what the back of the headstock says(he has a profile page on Dimarzio.com). It has a reverse Hockeystick headstock like most of the Shredder models, which puts the tuning pegs of the high B and E strings at a very sharp angle to the nut. Anyway, I'm not sure if it's the nature of the reverse hockeysticks to have this steep of a "tuning peg-to-nut" angle or if this particular guitar had its tuning peg routes done improperly, but this seems to be the main cause of the buzz.

So back to where I left off earlier... I saw how 1337 recommended to make sure the string was properly seated on the nut before locking down the pad clamps. Gave it my best shot, but I couldn't get it to sit right. The angle of the nut-to-tuning peg was so sharp that it was near impossible to make the E string sit correctly. I mean it was in there like 95% of the way... the string was just slightly climbing up the "v" of the nut slot, not quite in perfect. So then I thought of something kind of abstract. This is what I came up with:

I don't know if you can see it, but basically what I did was have the high E string go in around the left side of the string retainer's screw.(the right side screw, closest to the high E string). So yeah, having the string go in at that angle helped it sit in the nut slot much straighter than before. So that's it, finally buzz-free. Kind of ridiculous that a guitar which normally sells for between two and three thousand dollars would have this problem. Luckily I only paid $897.00 for it, but that even seems too much now.

Anyway I can't say I recommend Buddy Blaze guitars at this point, but I will probably keep this one since 24 5/8" Alder OFR-equipped guitars are insanely rare these days.
But yeah thanks again for your input everyone. Sorry for the long-winded post.
(BTW I still don't know why the B string's buzz was fixed and then transferred over to the E string, but whatever... it's fixed now)

[warlok]

Glad it's working for you but I'm not sure I'm grasping why you needed this type of fix. After you lock down the string pads, you should basically even be able to cut the strings between the nut and tuning pegs and nothing in front of the pads (fretboard side of the grooves) should be affected. If the buzz was coming from the strings vibrating behind the nut (between the nut and the tuning pegs), you could use anything to dampen them (tape, foam, etc..). And if the angle was making it creep up the V and buzzing on the back side of the nut, couldn't you just screw the string retainer down further to keep it tight in the slot?

[guitorture]

Glad it's working for you but I'm not sure I'm grasping why you needed this type of fix. After you lock down the string pads, you should basically even be able to cut the strings between the nut and tuning pegs and nothing in front of the pads (fretboard side of the grooves) should be affected. If the buzz was coming from the strings vibrating behind the nut (between the nut and the tuning pegs), you could use anything to dampen them (tape, foam, etc..). And if the angle was making it creep up the V and buzzing on the back side of the nut, couldn't you just screw the string retainer down further to keep it tight in the slot?

Lowering the retainer definitely sounds like the better solution. I think I'll have to drill the screwholes a little deeper first though. I guess I was a little harsh judging the brandname like that in my last post. It's an easy fix.