P Bass Nut Question

[Old Music Guy]

I have a Yamaha BB-25 4 string that I've had forever. It was lent to me by a friend who forgot about it. Nice guitar, but, not my style.

I just bought a 2014 MIM P Bass. First thing I did was straighten the neck, and put on a set of LaBella flat wounds. (see pic). 

The first thing that I noticed that the open D buzzed. No other string did that. D#? no buzz. Interestingly, the intonation was WAY better with the string change. 

THEN, I started looking at the nut. 

The E sits way up on the nut, as does the A. But the D is somewhere in between and the G is set way down. 

I'm a Motown, Stax/Volt kind of guy, and dropped a nice mute under the strings on the bridge. (No picks, just a "hook".)

My question is, looking at the pics, is this the way strings should sit on or into the nut? If it's correct, why the buzz?

I really don't want to take it to my tech guy (who is awesome) if I don't need to. 

I've never had this problem with my other Strats and Teles, but this bothers me. 

Opinions, please?

 

 

[Mark Schmieder]

See my response in the Guitar Forum, as I saw that post before this one.

[KuruPrionz]

From the photo, it looks like the nut was cracked under the D string at some point, and possibly not repaired correctly. I could be wrong.

If it was my bass, I'd just replace the nut and get the slots all cut correctly, none of them are cut to fit your preferred strings. With flat wounds you'll only have to do it once. 

I like D'Addario flat wounds too but I use the Chromes. I like a bit of brightness on top, they do thump like thunder. 😇

[Old Music Guy]

On 8/23/2023 at 11:31 PM, KuruPrionz said:

From the photo, it looks like the nut was cracked under the D string at some point, and possibly not repaired correctly. I could be wrong.

Definitely NOT wrong. I bought a Tusq nut for it. Indeed, the nut was in two pieces, broken directly under the D string. 

Great call, and thanks!

[KuruPrionz]

26 minutes ago, Old Music Guy said:

Definitely NOT wrong. I bought a Tusq nut for it. Indeed, the nut was in two pieces, broken directly under the D string. 

Great call, and thanks!

You're very welcome!!! FWIW, I've been tweaking and/or building guitars for 45+ years. 

In Fresno, I did guitar repair work, was an authorized Gibson warranty station for one music shop and authorized Fender station for another. 

I had access to Dad's awesome woodshop so I didn't work at any one store,  just picked stuff up and brought it back. 

I just do bits and dabs now but I've replaced or repaired more than a few bass nuts.