New nut for saga cigano

jorri

Where can I find a new nut that would fit a saga cigano gj15?
It has broken on the high E side, and the string spacing was pretty bad anyway.
I need it pre-slotted preferably, hopefully this won't matter as its got a zero fret and its just to hold in strings.
Hopefully the string spacing is good, as i like the low E quite close to the side of the board and it really matters on such a wide gypsy guitar neck.
Looked on stewmac and graphtech sites, but couldn't find them specifically for zero frets of this kind: Do i need to diy this?
Or is it technically not a nut: such as just a string retainer, and i'm searching for the wrong thing?

Jeff Moore

Can't answer any of your questions. I assume you've hunted on this site.
I don't know what you call them, but I like the descriptor - "string tree" to differentiate them from a nut as as with most guitars.
The width, length and to a much smaller extent the height will have to be right, so it's likely only available, if at all, through Saga.
If your not particular, you can make it of anything hard. Plastic, wood, of course bone. It has nothing to do with sound, so you needn't be to picky except that it fit (not rattle) and separate the strings properly.
If I were you, I'd make three (just the rectangular block) out of wood. The first will be your mistakes in getting the spacing wrong, and your second will be just right!, or maybe the third. It's a little tedious but DIY doable with minimal tools. Even a soft wood will do, cuz there's not much stress at all from a structural point of veiw, as long as you don't bang it while handling the guitar.
At a min, you need a very thin saw blade for E,B,G, and a medium thick blade for D,A.E.
Think about cutting the slots first on a peice of wood large enough to hold with a clamp or vice, or in your hand if these aren't available. Cutting slots by hand while holding a piece as small as a "nut" won't happen.

pickitjohn

@jorri

Here is the Contact page for Saga, been helpful for me.
Good Luck

http://www.sagamusic.com/contact-us.aspx

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jorri

Thanks to both replies. I would not call it a string tree personally, as those are little metal brackets like on fender strats designed to push the string downward. This is more of a string guide and is basically a regular nut with deeper slots.

Can't find anything here or anywhere, such as stewmac, graphtech, google. Its a job to cut all those slots and the proper tools are expensive, or time consuming. Found a 'fender 7 string' nut was exact dimensions, but has 7 strings unforunately and is not available unslotted. As well as many classical nuts are almost right but i'd need to take off 1/16" width...as well as deepening the slots.

Saga's best bet like you say. Hopefully they can provide it slotted.

For now i've used plastic glue, and i'm happy to do this since its not a proper nut, but think it will break soon enough as its much weaker. I also wanted to correct the string spacing, so i removed it, snapping it in half as it was really glued in there. Well the plastic glue fixed that fine too, it also has the advantage of not adhering to wood. But with corrected string spacing its got a definite 2mm or so overhang: doesn't affect playing but at some point in the future i think i'll need a new one just for perfections sake or reliability.

Jazzaferri

You could also try StewMac luthier supplies

AndrewUlle

It's not really a big deal to make one out of a bone blank - since the height isn't critical, it would be hard to go wrong. I made a true nut (height mattered) for an Epiphone acoustic many years ago with zero knowledge and minimal tools - small file, hack saw, box cutter, sandpaper, etc. and it came out fine. I also made a bridge to replace the adjustable metal/plastic stock bridge out of a piece of oak flooring. Just take your time and use your common sense.