Thick nut for '60 450 Combo

[fabgear]

Mark,

Perhaps you or someone else might know and can advise me.

I'm just about done "restoring" my 1960 Rickenbacker 450 Combo. All that's left to do is put the new Kluson Single line tuners on it and get a new nut made for it to replace the monstrosity they had on it previously.

Here's where-in my question lies...

John Williams and I compared some of the pics of the '60 and '61 450s, and they all seem to have a thicker nut. John's '61 450 does, and by looking at where the remnants of the fireglo is I can see that mine had that too.

Any idea where I can go to find one of these?

The current Ric ones are about 1/8" thick I think, and the one that John's has and mine would have had was 3/16". I'd even just make my own, but I'm not sure what material I'm supposed to be looking for. I'm guessing it's the same as they're using now, just thicker.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks-

Jeff

[markthemd]

I don't know where to suggest you buy a single nut ,however I buy sheet stock of a similar material and do one of two things to get it to dimension ,I either mill the section to the thickness or (and some of the older guitars did this if you examine them closely) glue together two blanks and then mill that stock to size .

I measure every thing using dial calipers ( I think like a machinist ,work like a wood worker)in thousands of an inch .I have several dial indicators that allow me to reproduct parts extremely accurately .

A case in point are the black nuts on Ricks and old bridge saddles on Ricks .These were made with NO consistancy , and many wobble or don't fit very well .Some are worn out ,modified or just plain ******** and need replacing .So what do you do ....I make a set of new ones to fit the screwy chassis they go into .

Sorry ,but the old bridge tooling was a joke .This has been completely fixed ,when JH took over .The new bridges are a wonderful thing to work on .
BUT!!! the saddles are NOT interchangeable ,and the 4005 bridges have NO replacement.

Nuts ......well I make them to fit .

email me at ........ [email protected]

These are really pricey ,and I need some dimensions or send me the original and I'll copy it (or fine tune the thing ) .

[markthemd]

about $10.00

and that may not have slots in it .

[fabgear]

Actually Mark, the original was long gone when I got the guitar. It had a LP style one glued on, and that was tipped on an angle towards the fretboard using Seal All or some similar flexible glue. I removed it and clean out the nut slot completely. I've done quite a bit of work to the guitar to get it back to some assemblance of it's former life, and the saddles on it now are fresh new uncut ones that I fabricated for it.

I only have the image in my head of the one that was on my '57 1000 combo before I sold it, so I wouldn't be able to actually provide a piece to make it from, but thanks jsut the same.

I'm fully adept at making the piece, since I make all the FabGear parts(used to work in a machine shop quite a while ago, so I know what ya mean) but really I'm unsure what to use for it. I know that if worse came to worse, I could do the two layer thing, but since it originally had a one piece nut I was kinda hoping for that.


Thanks though!!

[markthemd]

Try using a black phenolic material ,that is what was stock .Rick does not use it any more ...they use Delrin .

That works fine but they have precut material ...you can't get the spacing that you may want or need .

The blanks are also cut for the new necks and many are short of the sides ...this is even on production models ( I think this is odd )

[jwilli]

Jeff, actually my '62 420 has a 3/16" nut. I have two '61 450s and each have 1/8" nuts. Your '60 450 could have originally had a 3/16" nut. Sorry about the mixup.

[fabgear]

John and Mark,

Thanks.

I don't think my '60 had a 1/8" one, just even going by the remains of that fireglo. It has the markings of a 3/16" one.

I've got Delrin here, but I'll pick up some phenolic material.

Thanks again to you both.