• Ernie Ball
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Soul 24-7

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
52
Location
Germany
I recently bought my first MM ever: a beautiful SR Classic V in black with maple fretboard. Although I am deeply impressed with the overall craftsmanship, the handling and - of course - the sound there was a slight issue that kind of bugged me.

At our last meeting cellkirk74 showed me his Bongo V which has a really low action and plays like butter. He suggested that I lower the action on my SR a tad. When I tried to do so I realized that I could adjust the neck almost to the point of being dead flat without any buzzing or rattling - except for the d-string...

After several attempts to adjust the problem (I even temporarily installed a smaller string retainer to increase the pressure on the string) I came to the conclusion that the d-string only rattles when not fretted. Plus the string rattles when fretting around the 12th fret - but only the part of the string on the fretboard (towards the headstock), not the part that runs over the pickup. So I assume that it's not a problem of the frets being not properly adjustet but rather that something isn't right with the nut. This assumption is supported by the fact that the rattling stopped after I stuffed a little aluminum foil into the nut - problem solved! :)

I contacted the seller and depicted the problem. He is a really great guy who tried everything to solve the issue via remote diagnosis but finally he came to the same conclusion that there might be a problem with the nut. Since it is only a minor issue and I'm not too fond about sending the bass to GB because of this the seller agreed to send me a replacedment nut at no charge.

Yesterday it arrived and it proved to be a Bongo compensated nut. He told me that he checked the compatibility and that it came from the official distributor for MM in the UK so it should fit a ok.

It is not that I distrust the seller but I would like to make sure there won't be any problems when replacing the original with a compensated nut.

BTW: What are the advantages of a compensated nut compared to the standard SR Classic nut?
 

MrMusashi

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Messages
2,840
Location
69 degrees north
the compensated nut will not fit in a classic nut slot.

see for yourself:
stingray%20classic%20musicman%20coral%20red%20white%20black%20white.jpg


ts


if youre in germany i would suggest contacting music meyer about the problem. i am sure they will give you first class service like eb themselves would do ;)

MrM
 

Caca de Kick

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 29, 2006
Messages
1,363
Location
South Seattle
Having to build-up a nut slot so the string doesn't sit too low is a normal task that a repair shop should be able to do for you.

Simply swapping a nut isn't exactly going to fix a problem becuse you still have to set the slots for your given instrument anyway. So that's extra work for nothing.
 

cellkirk74

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 14, 2009
Messages
1,345
Location
Germany near Frankfurt
I think Mike is right.

I think it would be a good idea to contact a good repairshop. I know that bauschi knows someone who can defenitly do that. He fixed a broken bone nut for me once.
 

Soul 24-7

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
52
Location
Germany
What is wrong with Simply leaving the foil under the string. ?

Now that you ask...
Well...
I guess I actually could just leave it that way...

:)

But I think I'll contact a repair shop some time in the future just to make sure that absolutely everything is perfect with the instrument.

Thanks for your replies!
 

phatduckk

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 25, 2004
Messages
8,145
Location
San Mateo, California, United States
ist its a standard nut & your instrument is used your cheapest solution would be to see a good repair person.

you could contact your distributor for a replacement nut and take that to the repair shop too
 

MattOfSweden

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Messages
355
Location
Sweden
Had a very similar problem on one of my non-EBMM's recently - the problem went away totally just by lowering the string tree slightly, thus increasing the pressure over the nut.

But as been said, a repair shop would fix it for you.
Good luck, and congrats to your new SR5!
 
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