Help! Fretless Sabre Nut Problem

[alkal]

Hello everyone,

After removing the strings of the '91 fretless Sabre I recently bought, wanting just to clean the fingerboard and put a new set of strings on, I came across the problem you can all see in the following pictures (it's obvious that I didn't took the time to loosen the strings and examine the nut before buying it...).

It seems that the nut is so worn out and the grooves' bottoms have been lowered so much that the strings have created grooves on the upper end of the fingerboard! (Is what I'm saying making any sense or was this made on purpose? I have no experience on fretless...) There can also be seen a crack at the bottom edge of the A string groove. That's why I'll have to replace the nut, but how low should the action be set? I mean, which should be the distance between the bottom of the strings and the fingerboard, right before the nut? Does anyone know where I could find the setup specs for Sabre fretless, or generally for MusicMan fretless basses? (There are no such kind of specs in the ErnieBall FAQ section...)

Thanks

 

[bdgotoh]

Those grooves were made when filing the nut down that low, not by the strings. If both sides of the nut are still glued in place and the A string sounds fine, why worry about the crack?
If it plays and sounds fine I'd just string it back up and play it.

 

[strummer]

Those grooves were made when filing the nut down that low, not by the strings. If both sides of the nut are still glued in place and the A string sounds fine, why worry about the crack?
If it plays and sounds fine I'd just string it back up and play it.

what he said

 

[alkal]

The truth is that the bass sounds great, and you can't say that there is any problem when listening to it. And yes, the nut appears to be glued firmly on both sides.

So you think that having the nut set so low is normal, and there won't be any problems in the future?

 

[MrMusashi]

the nut should be that low and it is a good thing that there is no "other" contact point between the nut and the tuners, hence the grooves in the wood

MrM

ps: there is another thread about the same thing here:
http://www.ernieball.com/forums/music-man-basses/35843-need-headstock-pics-fretless-rays.html