Update on this Tele build:
After playing the guitar for awhile, I noticed two things that weren't quite right: The high E had a distinct "plink" to it when plucked open, and I could hear some intonation issues on chords with open strings. I decided that both problems were likely due to problems with the nut slotting. Since it was a brand new neck, I had no idea if the slots had been properly cut and angled--I suspected that the neck had just had some "guide slots" cut into it to hold the strings at the proper spacing, since the strings were sitting pretty high up off the fretboard.
StewMac recently sent out some holiday coupons by e-mail to previous customers, and I received one worth $15. So I checked out their
nut slotting files and bought the "medium" sized set (0.010 - 0.046") for $55 after applying the coupon. Not cheap, but all their stuff is top quality, from what I've seen, and this file set certainly seemed to me to be worth having on hand, since I have a bunch of electric guitars and nearly all of them are strung with "10's."
Without going through the full process of measuring and cutting the slots to the optimum depth, I just filed each slot gently, maintaining the initial depth at the front of the nut but angling the file back to cut the slots deeper at the rear. This insures that there's a single contact point for each string and that it's at the very front edge of the nut.
Holy moley, what a difference!! This simple 15 minute job completely cleared up any audible issues, at least to my pedestrian ears--no more "plink" on the open high E, and chords with open strings sound sweet and true. At some point, I'll go through the more detailed filing process to optimize the depth of the slots, but for now, I'm just enjoying the tonal improvement.
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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)
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Looks real sharp!! 
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