Half Pencil

Is it possible to buy such a thing?

I don't have the facilities for making one myself.

What I mean is a pencil split in half lenghtways so that even the lead is cut in half, which can be used for scribing.

Reply to
Bren
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If you sharpen one of the ends (either of the short sides) you can use whole pencils for scribing. So why do half a job?

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

I'm guessing you want this to mark off a guitar nut or saddle blank for sanding down or notching?

You just need a penknife blade or stanley knife, to split the pencil, and a bit of sandpaper to sand down the graphite core afterwards.

It's terribly easy - if you think you 'don't have the facilities' to do this, I recommend you think again about the project you're engaged in...

J^n

Reply to
jkn

To get half marks, of course :-)

Reply to
Frank Erskine

You hit the nail on the head! That's exactly why I need it. From your description it should be easy enough to make my own. Thanks.

Reply to
Bren

Then you wouldn't have enough lead in your pencil surely?

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Now you've got me? I made a guitar - well almost: term wasn't long enough to finish it! - when I was at school, and since, I've refretted; nutted and bridged, other guitars occasionally, but I cannot imagine why I would ever need a half pencil (although, I dare say, that if one was to hand it might end up getting *used* as a nut or saddle...)?

S
Reply to
spamlet

You can use it to make sure the string slots in the nut are the correct height. If you place it flat along two or three frets you can make a line on the nut which tells you the depth they should be cut to. Obviously it would not be possible to do this with a 'full' pencil as the lead would probably be above the top of the nut.

Reply to
Bren

Buy a 2mm mechanical pencil from Steadtler (blue and chrome) - wonderful things. Better balance than the dark green Faber-Castell ones.

Use a spare lead, bare.

It's thin enough for precision, thick enough to be usable without snapping if you breathe on it.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

I guess you mean 0.2 mm? I regularly put a 0.5 mm lead "in shot" in macro pictures to provide a scale, but being a hairy arsed engineer I find 0.9 mm the best for actually working with!

Reply to
newshound

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Reply to
Dave Osborne

If your arse is that hairy, get a 2mm one (a shade under 1/12th of an inch). Doesn't snap, still accepts a decent point, can be used for sketching and comes in grades from 6B to 9H

Reply to
Andy Dingley

"Dave Osborne" wrote

0.9mm? Anything above 0.7mm ceases to be a technical implement and falls into the realms of impressionist art!
Reply to
TheScullster

Perhaps I should have explained, this is not for drawing but for calculations. Pencil for rubbing out mistakes. For most of the sums I do (in tribology) a factor of 2 can be described as accurate.

Reply to
newshound

Ah, I see.

I think my technique to now has been to cut the slots, and then sand the bottom of the nut until I had a comfortable fingering and minimal buzz. I've tended not to have slots in saddles, but to let the strings make their own - bridges usually being adjustable. Yes it would be handy to have another fixed point at the nut, before going on to the angles and curves of the neck and fretwire. Is there a 'correct' above fret height to aim for, or is this a matter of string and tension personal preference? The oft used 'zero fret' would indicate not much clearance at the nut at all.

Interesting, and unusual question.

S
Reply to
spamlet

Ah. Oily fingers and stopwatches: that takes me back. Took ages to get rid of the dermatitis!

S
Reply to
spamlet

I am assuming you are talking about an acoustic guitar which normally has a much higher string/fretboard clearance than electrics. If you go to the Fender website you can download setup guides which give recommended string clearances at various points on the fretboard for Strats and Teles etc. For example, if you put a capo on the first fret and hold down the bass E string at the last fret, the distance between the bottom of that string and the top of the 8th fret should be about .005" - roughly the thickness of a business card. I'm in the process of setting up a cheap Strat copy I got on eBay as a project and have managed to get the string clearance at various parts of the fretboard in the 'ballpark' of the distances recommended by Fender. The problem is that open chords such as the open D or G sound out of tune compared to a fully fretted G (F shape) played at the 3rd fret. This seems to indicate that the nut slots are cut too high which leads to undue pressure fretting strings near the nut. I would rather not go down the route you use of filing down the base of the nut as this would involve removing it - it's probably glued down - cleaning up the leftover glue etc and getting the correct camber on the bottom of the nut. That's assuming I could remove the nut without breaking it!

If all manufacturers were to put a 'zero fret' on their guitars we wouldn't have this problem because they would be forced to set them up properly before they left the factory. Unfortunately most of them have dropped this option years ago - probably to save costs.

Another problem I have is to locate files of the correct diameter for cutting the nut slots. These should be just fractionally wider than the width of the respective strings so, in theory, I would need six different files to cut the nut slots for the six different diameter strings. What I am using is junior hacksaw blades. For the plain strings I have hammered out the offset so they cut perfectly straight and I'm using ordinary blades for the wound strings which I twist slightly to get a wider slot as appropriate. It's not an ideal solution but guitar setup tools are very expensive and most have to be imported from the US.

Reply to
Bren

That pretty much the way I watched Jim Burns do HIS guitars.

Hacksaw, and needle files.Out of solid brass..

I've always done it by ear, eye and fret buzz.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Haven't done any of this for a while, but nut replacement is a common requirement and I seem to recall it only took something like a hot iron to warm them up and slide them off. I'm sure you used to be able to buy them with the slots already in over the counter along with your latest selection of picks.

My experience of others using electric guitars is that they tend to have the strings almost touching the frets: which we'd never get away with on acoustic. Your nut might indeed be unusually high if you are going out of tune even on the third fret. If you have the variable length type bridge assembly you may be able to take some of this difference out by lengthening the thicker strings... However, as you have the G s on the first and sixth strings in common whether you are using the bar chord or the 'full' version, you do at least have two notes you can count on as a reference, and it would probably be the ones in between that may need to comedown a bit. However, there is always a bit of a compromise, and you may find if you get 'G' 'right', you can't quite get another key right without minor adjustments as you go: which is why, I've noticed, that a lot of guitars have the strings locked down at the machine head end, and have small screws for making minor adjustments as you go at the bridge end.

Also, are your frets all evenly worn, or are you having to push some strings harder than others to reach them: too low frets can be almost as painful as too high in their own way (especially if you have finger nails...).

Another thing that may come into play is the neck may be twisted. If you take the strings off and peer down the neck, do the frets all look parallel and in the same plane? Best to make sure frets and neck are at optimum before going on to the finer adjustments - but I expect you have already done that.

S
Reply to
spamlet

Wow, you knew Jim Burns - he's a legend!

Reply to
Bren

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