It Worked For Me: Nut Spacing

by Graham McDonald

Originally published in American Lutherie #127, 2016

Getting the correct string spacing at the nut on mandolin family instruments can be tricky. The nut width is often quite small and you need to fit four or sometimes five double courses of strings. It is not only the distance between the courses which is important, but also the distance between the strings of each course (the intracourse distance) which can make a real difference in the feel and playability of the instrument.

A friend who has an early Steve Gilchrist A-5 mandolin brought it to me a few years ago for a nut replacement. He was insistent that I duplicate the string spacing, as it was about as good as it was going to get. This mandolin had a 30MM (1 3/16") nut. I needed to document the spacings in order to be able to replicate the nut. The best thing I could think of doing was to slide a short steel ruler under the strings in front of the nut and take a photo. This was a few cameras back so the maximum resolution was only 1600×1200 pixels, but still, it clearly shows where the strings sit in relation to the edges of the fretboard and to each other. A printout at maximum resolution is a handy thing to have stuck on the wall above the bench.