Help! New Luke III, strings sticking in compensated nut.

[klegacy]

Hey there:

So, I have a brand new Luke III HSS in bodhi blue. It is a beautiful guitar and was set up with 10 gauge Slinkys from the factory and the tremolo in floating position with a great feel. Problem is, the strings are sticking at the nut like crazy causing the tremolo to be pretty much unusable to me right now. I am hearing a ting sound at the nut when I tune, bend or use the tremolo, and this is happening on the G, D, and lower strings it seems. I have been in touch with their support team, and they have responded. I sent pics and details, and am waiting for their suggestions. I thought I would post here as well in hopes of getting this machine playing the way I expected it to. Everyone I spoke with suggested it would perfect and deadly accurate floating right out of the case. Unfortunately I am not seeing this yet. Please help. I love this guitar, except for my tuning issues right now.

Thanks,

 

[klegacy]

PS: I put 9 slinky's on it, and the same issues.

 

[BrickGlass]

Certainly sounds like it is just binding in the nut slots. The "ting" sound you describe is a sign of this. You can have pretty much any repair guy worth beans smooth out the slots. They have files that are varying sizes to fit in the different string slots. It is usually a very fast and easy process. Of course follow the advice of customer service. This is a very common problem on guitars so it should be easily fixed for you. Some nut lubricant can often aid in solving the problem.

 

[xjbebop]

Lube and some use (playing time...) will free them up a good bit.
If still binding after a few days of this, it might need a light dressing.

 

[DrKev]

A little lube goes a long way. Vaseline, chapstick, pencil lead.

 

[mikeller]

..or Big Bends Nut Sauce. And play time