Martin Zeroglide Nut Installation & Bone Saddle Upgrade

A much loved Martin was brought into the workshop for some TLC, the customer wanted a Zeroglide nut installed along with an upgrade to a bone saddle. This work breaths new life into the acoustic by giving a much brighter tone.

The Zeroglide nut was supplied by the excellent people at www.btnmusic.co.uk

The first step in fitting the new Zeroglide nut was removing the old nut and cleaning out the nut slot, ready for the new Zeroglide to be fitted!

Once the nut slot was prepared, the ZeroGlide was thickened down to an exact fit into the nut slot, then the nut was cut to the precise width of the fingerboard 

As this Martin was a non standard string spacing nut, the slots were cut out of the Zeroglide blank, using the existing nut as a template. Once this was done, the fretwire for the Zeroglide was determined, with the string height being set as low as possible without any string buzz or rattle. The correct fretwire profile chosen, the wire was glued into place with the wire cut to size.

The final stage of the installation was a cosmetic one that we like to do. This involves filling the small gap at either end of the Zeroglide with a bone/glue mixture, giving a much neater, more factory fitted look,

Next the upgraded bone saddle was made, the old saddle had been adjusted down at some point, and had been over done. It then was bodge fixed by thick paper shims being put under the saddle to raise it up.
The new saddle was cut and shaped from a bone blank, matching the profile exactly of the existing one, including the compensation for the intonation. The height was then set, setting the action in the process.
With all the work done, the guitar was restrung with a fresh set of strings ready for the customer to enjoy his guitar again!