Preparing the Nut and Bridge for Strings

This is a fairly simple step, and one that won't take very long. It is still important to be careful during this process, however, as a mistake could ruin your nut or bridge.

We will only need a knife and a ruler, preferably a long one. There are a few ways of approaching this step, depending on how far apart you want your strings to rest from each other going across the fretboard. You can choose to line your notches in the bridge up with the string holes in the backside of the fretboard, or measure out your own equidistant notches on the bridge and nut. The key is just to remember to line the notches on the bridge and nut up in the end.

Once you've gotten the notches measured out, and hopefully marked, grab your knife. Press the blade into the marks and perform a sawing motion. Don't go too deep into either the bridge or the nut, or the strings will not catch in them and they will be useless. In fact, make the notches very small to begin with, and wait until the next step to deepen them if needed. We will talk about stringing the cigar box guitar up in the next step.