I've learned my lesson on home-spun luthery

[DWPC]

I made my own nut thinking it was a no-brainer. The bone was hard to work, but finally got it to look and fit like the original (I thought). I succeeded in lowering the upper action, but have utterly slaughtered the tonality of my guitar. Just shows how much the nut and neck DO influence overall sound. I'm headed for the luthier to get a properly fitted new nut with my humility suitably retuned.

[MWA]

Just lowering the action should not have that much detrimental effect on tone. Is the bad sound on just the open strings or on the fretted ones too? If only on the open ones check to be sure you cut the slots for the strings properly. If the slots are not fitted right, you could get all kinds of overtones and a generally fuzzy tone on the open strings. Also be sure it fits the slot between the head plate and the fingerboard properly.

[DWPC]

If the slots are not fitted right, you could get all kinds of overtones and a generally fuzzy tone on the open strings. Also be sure it fits the slot between the head plate and the fingerboard properly.
All of the above!

[Pepe Vergara]

I advise my customers NOT TO MESS with the nut, because I set it up the way it should be. I do not know what factories do about the nut, so I am not responsible for recommending anything on factory-made guitars. If the action needs to be changed, the saddle should be the only thing I recommend my customers to change. Even then, I always send two or three extra saddles for them to try, normal, low and high action by just replacing the saddle. The nuts has several aspects to keep in mind when you do it: How the nut fit in its slot, proper contact with string, restriction set by an improper cut, height of the cut and its influene on buzz, glue or not glue it to the neck, distance between the strings, slant to fit the slots, degree of polishing, quality of material (did you know that not all the bones are good for nut?), etc., etc.

[MWA]

Another thing occurred to me. If you made the action too low at the nut you will get bad sympathetic buzzes between the fingers and the nut when a string is fretted. This is especially true on the base strings. But don't give up. In lutherie, its not easy to get it right the first time (but then again, it's not rocket science). Just save the original one.

[DWPC]

I put the original nut back on and things have returned to normal. I think it was combination of the string grooves and contact with the slot; my open basses went from lucious depth to a thump, and I was having trouble tuning the G and B. I had no fret or back buzzing problems. I got the bone blank from Madinter in Madrid, so I think the problem was the maker (me) not the material. This all started because I have difficulty with my fat middle finger buzzing on the adjacent D or G when playing thumb rest strokes.

I'll continue experimenting as I think its something a musician should be able to do for himself but will have a luthier lower the upper action initially. When I played bagpipes years ago, learning to trim and wrap your own reeds was a vital skill.

[jeremy]

Reading your post and description of the sound after the new nut was inserted makes me think that all you have done wrong is the angle at which the slot is cut - from front to rear of the nut.
The slot should (must) be on an angle that ensures the string is cut off (read break) at the very front of the nut. The angle will need to be somewhere close to the angle of the headstock. If the nut slot us deeper at the front than at the rear, the string will not get a clean break at the front and the sound will be dead, thumpish sort of on the open string. Leave the nut in place and file the slot at the same angle as the headstock and it will improve dramatically.
If you think of the nut as another saddle and the angle of the slot as the break angle you will understand what you have to do to fix the problem.
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