cut, bus, does, butter, hut

I can not pronounce this words correctly. I can not pronounce that particular vowel sound. I usually pronouce it as if it were a short A. Can you tell me where to place my tongue to correctly pronounce theses words. I have tried many times to find a way to corredctly produce that vowel sound.

Let your tongue lie relaxed and supine, unused, on the floor of your mouth-- the tongue is not involved in making this sound. It is the most neutral and undifferentiated of our vowel sounds: simply drop your relaxed jaw enough to allow air to escape, and utter a voiced breath.

Additionally, the vowel sound in cut, bus, does, butter, and hut is called a wedge, and it's represented by a phonetic symbol that looks like an upside down "v". That sound shares a similar place of articulation, or pronounciation with the vowel in the word "the". Try,

the cut
the bus
the does
the butter
the hut

The sound represented by the letter "u" is pronounced like "e" in "the", but your jaw should be slightly lower, as MM suggests, but not much lower though, just slighty. :-D