LeSpork Bass Prototype - Cuts Like a Knife

Now it cuts like a knife
But It feels so right.

While waiting for the weather to cool off again, I decided to order a replacement nut for this neck.  As the headstock is black, and I had already bought a set of black tuners for her, I thought a black tusq nut would look and feel so right.  So, I took some measurements and found one on eBay.  When the nut arrived, I was disappointed to find it was not wide enough to fill in the dado.

Although I could have filled in the gap, the dado is only about 3/32-inch deep into the headstock, so leaving even the slightest gap from side to side would result in a weak joint.  With the amount of tension carried in a set of bass strings, I wanted to be sure the the nut fit snugly into the slot.  So, back to eBay I went, only to find that no one was offering any black nuts in the size that fits this neck.  Instead, I ordered an ivory-colored plastic nut.  With some light sanding, the ivory nut fit the slot, as snug as a bug in a rug.

Since the crack along the back of the neck behind the lower frets did not appear to be very deep, a little bit of glue and some matching wood should be enough to fill it in.  I prepared a workstation by taping down a pair of furring strips to a scrap 2x6.  I intentionally left a gap between the two furring strips, to allow the neck to bend slightly from clamping pressure.

Using some more tape, I attached the neck to the workstation.

Using a hobby knife, I trimmed open the crack just enough to be able to insert some wood slivers.

After filling the crack with glue, I filled in the opening with wood.  The truss rod channel was a good donor for this material.

I filled the crack enough so that some wood stood proud of the area, to be trimmed flush later.

Using a caul with a pair of clamps, I applied some pressure to the repair and left the glue to dry overnight.