Tapered nut?

[DWPC]

I'm making a new nut for experimenting with string height and discovered that the nut on my guitar is slightly tapered, with a flat surface on the lower side (FB side) and angled slightly on the upper. The thicker edge is at the strings. I'ver haven't really paid attention to this on other guitars. Is this taper common? (The slot is tapered too for a very precise fit.)

[jeremy]

If I read your post correctly, you are saying that the nut is wedge shaped, ie.it is tapered with the thinner edge against the guitar neck. The front surface, next to the fretboard is straight, but the taper is on the back edge.

This is unusual as it means that the nut may not fit down against the neck wood well unless the slot was just slightly wider than the nut itself. This "fit" may indeed vary from day to day, depending on the humidity. As the wood expands, the slot would get narrower and the nut would be forced up and out of the slot. This would not be good for the sound of the guitar.

Most guitar nuts are square at the bottom and then about half way up, they taper (thinner). This is so the string ramp is not too wide at the top, and it also looks better. Any taper that runs all the way to the bottom will make correct fitting very difficult. Reverse taper such as you have will allow a snug fit between the fingerboard and headstock cover, but not necessarily a good fit on the bottom, where it is important.
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[DWPC]

I haven't miked the nut but looking at it more closely, I see my reverse "taper" is an optical illusion due to the angle of the nut to headstock, fingerboard and the string relief angle on the nut. When I remove it for final fitting of the new one, I'll mike it out of curiosity.