Zero Fret Guitars


Hi Gman, I enjoy your site and am slowly working my way through all the content there. I had a topic you might consider adding to your info pages. Zero fret guitars. I've got a no-name one that I just picked up a couple weeks ago dirt cheap and pretty beat, but strangely full and vibrant - even though the intonation was waaaayyy off. I took a chance on it because at the price, i would either cure it or kill it. So I started experimenting on it. From what I had read on your site I was certain it needed a new nut immediately. The one on it was homemade poorly out of what appeared to be ebony, with wide, irregular spacing and depths. When I took it to the guitar shop, the guy took one look and said "oh, that's a zero fret, you don't need a nut, that's just a spacer. The strings are supposed to rest on that zero fret". Now, I had never heard of a zero fret before, and maybe others havn't either. Let me tell you what happened. I sawed that nut down further to let the strings contact that zero fret wire and man-o-man, my intonation cleared up about 90%. A little fiddling around with the truss rod and saddle height, and darn if it doesn't play pretty sweet.

Thanks for the informative site,
Joe Rees
Guitar With A Zero Fret



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