Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The G string of my 4003s buzzes when played open, sounds fine at the first fret. I suspect the nut slot has worn down too low.

Can I build it up with something?
If so, what? Glue?

There are a few ways to do so. On my former '67 4005WB I did it the cheap and cheerful way with pieces of paper that I Sharpied black. Never had any problems doing that way.

I would like to do something more permanent.

syncop8r wrote: Sat Sep 14, 2024 7:30 am I would like to do something more permanent.

I agree; this was a temporary solution that worked so I didn't bother doing anything more. It was a vintage instrument and I didn't want to permanently mess around with the original 1967 nut.

What material is your nut made of? To build the slot up, you want to use a mixture of CA glue and powder of the same/original material as the nut. Fill the slot in higher than needed, then once dried/cured, file it down to where you want the height to be.

Rub the lead from a pencil on a piece of sandpaper until you get a small pile of graphite powder. Mix some of the powder into a little bit of epoxy resin (hardware store) to make a rather thick liquid. Put a drop of it into the slot. If need be, you can contain it temporarily with masking tape on either side while it hardens. Once it has hardened for about a day, you can file a new slot for the string. This mixture is strong enough that you could even make a new nut from it, as shown here.

I put this on my 4003. Much better than dealing with regular nuts:
https://goldtonemusicgroup.com/zeroglid ... W-EALw_wcB

Here’s when and how I did it:
viewtopic.php?t=417584&hilit=Zero+glide