I installed one yesterday on my Tele, after a year of indecision. If you are fitting it on a guitar that has a nut cut for normal setup, you need to deepen the slots(string guides for the zf) so that the strings go over the zero fret and not rest on the nut. But the end result in my case was excellent. The strings have more resonance with open chords in the first position, and the action is a little bit higher than normal, but is easily fixed by lowering the saddles. Great video. Glad I got the Sintoms and you made it pretty easy to do!
Gotta love that flat ground pencil. Be careful about that cattle bone dust, BSE (mad cow prion disease) is hopefully not in the system anywhere, but don't breathe the dust. Same with bone meal if anyone uses it in their garden
I've been playing guitar now for 15+ years and have in the past few years been researching building guitars. Only in the past few months have I even learned the zero fret exists, I think the first time I saw was shortly after Malcolm Young's death and looking at his signature Gretsch which features one. I really had no clue what the advantage was until your videos, Chris. Super interesting stuff! I play a lot of metal and my tunings (and in turn, string gauge) go all over the place. Recently when returning to my normal gauge after a period experimenting with very low tunings on a 6 string, my nut is completely ruined and needs to be replaced. It's already been replaced once and that was a nightmare. This seems like a really good way to counteract those issues, especially with the rise in popularity of stainless steel frets. I can't see why this isn't more common!
I fit zero frets on all my guitars. I cut part of the existing nut back that is 1/2 the width of the zero fret. The tang of the zero fret is then in the zero position, I then use a fret saw to make the grove for the fret tang at the end of the fingerboard between where the nut joins . It fits in perfectly. I put zero frets on all my guitars with trem systems, stabilizes the tuning. Also improves intonation.
I enjoyed the video about the installation of the zero fret. I’ll be looking into ordering Zero Glide kits for both my Gretsch G5420T and G5230T Nick 13 guitars. On a side note* I was riding my bike through the meadows here and ran into Klara36. She is slowly getting to grips grazing the fields on 3 legs. Just thought I’d let you know 🤗
Shifting the nut zero point slightly towards the first fret is now the Buzz Feiten system works. That makes the notes slightly flat to compensate for the notes sounding sharp near the nut.
After going through several nuts and not being able to get the tuning right on my telecaster I just ripped a Fret off of an old fretboard I had on a broken guitar and had some heat molding plastic moldable plastic and made my own zero fret and I don't know why the hell these aren't on every guitar
I want to do this to like 6 of my guitars, but with only 3 zero fret heights, I'm wondering if that's possible. I haven't really measured my fret heights well, yet. How do you determine which height to use? I get the overall picture, of course. I'm looking for tips/advice.
@@manningcustom A lot depends on your playing style as to whether the wound strings will act like a saw. If you do it, use stainless steel instead of nickel-silver.
For an existing Les Paul style nut, could I score the fretboard side of the nut (at the fretboard level), then remove the nut and carefully file/sand 1/64 of an inch off of the inside edge of the nut (the part above the fretboard) to mitigate the risk of the change in distance throwing off the notes at fretted positions? When I first saw these on Ebay, I wondered if that .02 inch would screw up the note accuracy. I've used ZeroGlide nuts before and they compensate in the nut design.
Hello. I'm considering installing a zero fret on my Hofner Ignition bass, (the ones made in Germany have it). The question is, will it be worth it or not? Thanks in advance.
por aca las guitarras con traste cero dejan unos 3 a 4 mm de madera entre el traste cero y la nut de esa forma podes usar un traste comun sin complicarte tanto la vida
Hi. While looking for other of your videos concerning the zero fret, I thought I’d ask a “simple” question. How much higher should the zero fret be than the other frets? I’ve installed many, flying by the seat of my pants. I’ve built many unconventional guitars, and keeping in mind I need to move the nut back, have actually slipped in a finishing nail snug against the nut, and it works. Of coarse I try different thicknesses, not very scientific. Thank you.
You press on a string at 3rd fret and look for clearance at the 2nd fret. You guage by that. An aggressive player needs more clearance. Start high and work down to where it feels right, and then check the 2nd fret gap with a feeler guage. That's how high you like the nut height
thanks for the info. you are really good at educating.. so, as far as I can tell if i wanted to make a nut with a shelf and add a zero fret I would only need to worry about the apex of the zero fret landing on the zero position. this is very doable and I'm skilled enough to do this. my main concern would be how to deal with the transition between wood and bone in regards to the tang barbs. any thoughts on this? my conclusion would be to file the barbs off the bone side and leave them on the wood side but I'm working with stainless soooo.......my other option, in theory, would be to file all the barbs off completely and use ca to adhere the fret in place into a predetermined slot designed specifically for the width of the tang. I'm not going to pay what is being asked for a "kit". any ideas of thoughts in addition to what I concluded would be great if you have the time. this is actually pretty interesting and challenging so I'm going to dive in this afternoon.
For a new guitar wouldn't you just put in a zero fret and the put the nut a 1/8 inch behind that? That way you can remove the nut when you do a fret level when the frets need re-leveling and just reinstall the nut after leveling is done. Seems the retrofit model would be hard to level the zero position to be the exact same height as the first fret. If the zero is too high, compared to the first, that it is not an easy task to grind the fret down to the same level as the first. And if the zero is to low, that makes it necessary to grind the rest of the frets down. My hope is now that Gibson is not using their zero fret they'll license the design for general use.
this is something i was concerned with and i have little experiance with 0 frets but, if i was to level and recrown my frets and i had a zero fret installed my hope would be that the 0 fret was not glued in and i could remove that prior to leveling. the strings downward presure is enough to hold the 0 fret in position. although when changing strings , if you remove all the strings for cleaning or what ever reason, the 0 fret may fall out and then all that would be need would be to put it back in place. before doing this i would definalty mark the 0 fret with an orientaion so that it would go back in the same positon. that could be a piece of tape or a tiny mark from a sharpie. so with the 1/8 setback, not a bad idea to leave some space but in the examples ive seen it's not really necessary. but im going to add a bit of space to mine, also I'm not going to permanently attach the nut either so it can be removed for leveling inr the future. gibson will never really be sensible fyi. the things they do baffle us all for reasons no one will ever quite understand.
The Nut itself, on a zero-fret application, serves mostly to maintain string lateral (side-to-side) position, does Nut material actually influence sustain, or intonation of the instrument? After all, the metal Zero-fret itself now serves to maintain first fret action height, sustain, and intonation(all of which are functions previously performed by a standard style bone/plastic/metal nut.) Is then there any need for a custom made bone nut (as in you made video)? There are zero-fret kits available on line and/or available at brick & mortar retailers with plastic nuts (color depending on your choice) and even wood nuts. Given the Nut itself, on a zero-fret application, serves to only maintain string lateral position, is nut material composition of any significance? A professional musician friend put me on to (recommended) the Zero-Fret idea. I am preparing to install one of these kits on my favorite Epiphone LP style guitar and am curious to know/find out. Pending that, I am also thinking about zero-nut kits on 2 or 3 other electric guitars.
Very interesting product, they'll last far longer than a regular shape. I know that you switched from several ways tang nipping/removing jigs/tools, did you ever try different methods to just cut them to length? I'm pondering to buy a new fret cutter, but I don't know which I should get. If I'm not mistaken you replace one from harbour freight whenever it breaks? I don't want any heat in the fretwire and I don't want deform it after I radiused it. Looking forward to hear it. Set the right light for that gorgeous finish. Enjoy your weekend.
If the strings don't bottom out in the nut slots then nut material isn't as important, so a brass nut would last longer and a fret slot could be machined in a wider nut a last a long time, just thinking out loud.
Wondering why my guitar have that extra fret...since I don't usually saw on most guitars. .thanks to you .. I thought that might be a problem but it's the opposite 😂
Unfortunate that you glue the zerofret firmly. Why not place it in a slot like a normal fret ? So it can also be adjusted when adjusting the other frets. In 1968 I had a decent (German) 5-string banjo with a zero fret. The head of the zero-fret is 0,5mm thicker (higher) than the normal fret. I have photos of it. But I don't know how to show them here on TH-cam.
So in a retrofit sitiation this doesn't mess up the intonation? Seems like any chords whith open strings would be slightly out of tune. Is it just so marginally small that you cant notice? Thanks for the videos Chris!
I didn't have any problems intonating my acoustic. Also one has to assume the original zero position was accurate in the first place. I could be and probably is off slightly on a lot of factory made guitars.
Chris, new subscriber and guitar enthusiasts, and love your vids.. thanks for sharing.. I have a Gretsch Jet with zero fret but most of my others are SG's with bone nuts. My question is the 1st fret action with a ZERO fret? Most players prefer the action to be about 0.020" for low E and 0.010" for high E string. How does the ZERO fret accomplish this feat? Do you have to start with the ZERO higher and file it back to adjust for the various 1st fret actions? I do like the fact that i can switch gauges of strings with ease as my Gretsch currently has 10's and could go heavier or lighter..
Interested to hear how it affects the tone- seems to me it would render the type of nut material used rather pointless. I like the concept, hoping to be sure it won't brighten the tone to harsh levels, especially with a maple neck/fingerboard.
I don't think it will really brighten the tone. I don't have a guitar with a zero fret, but I suspect it would just make open strings sound more like fretted strings, since the string isn't resting on the nut, but on the fret.
If it were me ,I would fill the nut slot with wood, then cut a fret kerf for a zero fret... the nut here is just to keep the strings separated and aligned . there is no point of installing a zero fret if the guitar has a nut already . But that is just my opinion but I have been playing zero fret, aluminum neck Kramers for over forty years .
The ultimate solution would be to have necks designed for a zero fret simply utilising the same fret wire as the rest of the neck but easy to replace. It might not need to be harder than the standard nickel if you could just replace it easily. The string tension would hold it in place without glue. Separating string spacing from nut height would make maintenance easy. Nuts are a complete nightmare to keep right especially since soft nickel frets wear down and need dressing and replaced and hence making the nut height wrong. I’ve never tried stainless steel frets but I’m about to fit Jescar nickel frets which have a slightly harder metal mix. The standard nickel frets are a terrible design in my opinion. Way too soft.
Actually, I did some research on bone dust and there isn't any conclusive data on whether it's any worse for you than wood dust. However, play it safe and wear a mask. Any dust in sufficiant quantities is bad for you.
you won't play in tune unless the nut is compensated. show me a compensated zero fret. can't do it. put an earvana shelf nut on and you will be in tune within one cent all up and down and across the neck. straight nut is only within five cents.
I installed one yesterday on my Tele, after a year of indecision. If you are fitting it on a guitar that has a nut cut for normal setup, you need to deepen the slots(string guides for the zf) so that the strings go over the zero fret and not rest on the nut. But the end result in my case was excellent. The strings have more resonance with open chords in the first position, and the action is a little bit higher than normal, but is easily fixed by lowering the saddles. Great video. Glad I got the Sintoms and you made it pretty easy to do!
2025 comment. Thank you for the amazing information! As a teacher at a vocational school I applaud your amazing communication skills.
Philadelphia Luthier Supply has them now. I just ordered one today for a Tele neck. Good video!
Gotta love that flat ground pencil.
Be careful about that cattle bone dust, BSE (mad cow prion disease) is hopefully not in the system anywhere, but don't breathe the dust.
Same with bone meal if anyone uses it in their garden
I've been playing guitar now for 15+ years and have in the past few years been researching building guitars. Only in the past few months have I even learned the zero fret exists, I think the first time I saw was shortly after Malcolm Young's death and looking at his signature Gretsch which features one. I really had no clue what the advantage was until your videos, Chris. Super interesting stuff! I play a lot of metal and my tunings (and in turn, string gauge) go all over the place. Recently when returning to my normal gauge after a period experimenting with very low tunings on a 6 string, my nut is completely ruined and needs to be replaced. It's already been replaced once and that was a nightmare. This seems like a really good way to counteract those issues, especially with the rise in popularity of stainless steel frets. I can't see why this isn't more common!
Burns guitars have zero frets.
I fit zero frets on all my guitars. I cut part of the existing nut back that is 1/2 the width of the zero fret. The tang of the zero fret is then in the zero position, I then use a fret saw to make the grove for the fret tang at the end of the fingerboard between where the nut joins . It fits in perfectly. I put zero frets on all my guitars with trem systems, stabilizes the tuning. Also improves intonation.
I was wondering about this.
Thanks!
😊
I enjoyed the video about the installation of the zero fret. I’ll be looking into ordering Zero Glide kits for both my Gretsch G5420T and G5230T Nick 13 guitars.
On a side note* I was riding my bike through the meadows here and ran into Klara36. She is slowly getting to grips grazing the fields on 3 legs. Just thought I’d let you know 🤗
Shifting the nut zero point slightly towards the first fret is now the Buzz Feiten system works. That makes the notes slightly flat to compensate for the notes sounding sharp near the nut.
Would it be possible to make this just by sanding a piece of Jumbo stainless steel fret wire and removing the tang?
You really need the tang to keep the wire in place. Glue might work, but not for long with all of the pressure from string tension.
Hello, I was under the impression that this type of zero fret requires NO modification to the guitar. Is that true?
After going through several nuts and not being able to get the tuning right on my telecaster I just ripped a Fret off of an old fretboard I had on a broken guitar and had some heat molding plastic moldable plastic and made my own zero fret and I don't know why the hell these aren't on every guitar
I want to do this to like 6 of my guitars, but with only 3 zero fret heights, I'm wondering if that's possible. I haven't really measured my fret heights well, yet. How do you determine which height to use? I get the overall picture, of course. I'm looking for tips/advice.
Thank you for these videos.. big help...
is it safe to assume that the negatives of the zero fret are lessened on a bass? seems like the larger strings wouldn't wear the same?
On the contrary, wound strings can act like a saw against the zero fret.
@@HighlineGuitars so I shouldn't do it?
@@manningcustom A lot depends on your playing style as to whether the wound strings will act like a saw. If you do it, use stainless steel instead of nickel-silver.
Chris, wealthy info as always! Just need to get some fretwire to do it right...thanx!
great video as always, thanks chris
For an existing Les Paul style nut, could I score the fretboard side of the nut (at the fretboard level), then remove the nut and carefully file/sand 1/64 of an inch off of the inside edge of the nut (the part above the fretboard) to mitigate the risk of the change in distance throwing off the notes at fretted positions? When I first saw these on Ebay, I wondered if that .02 inch would screw up the note accuracy. I've used ZeroGlide nuts before and they compensate in the nut design.
Hello. I'm considering installing a zero fret on my Hofner Ignition bass, (the ones made in Germany have it). The question is, will it be worth it or not? Thanks in advance.
If done correctly, it will be worth it.
por aca las guitarras con traste cero dejan unos 3 a 4 mm de madera entre el traste cero y la nut de esa forma podes usar un traste comun sin complicarte tanto la vida
Eso funciona bien en una guitarra construida para este propósito, pero ¿cómo lo harías en una guitarra existente?
Hi. While looking for other of your videos concerning the zero fret, I thought I’d ask a “simple” question. How much higher should the zero fret be than the other frets? I’ve installed many, flying by the seat of my pants. I’ve built many unconventional guitars, and keeping in mind I need to move the nut back, have actually slipped in a finishing nail snug against the nut, and it works. Of coarse I try different thicknesses, not very scientific. Thank you.
You press on a string at 3rd fret and look for clearance at the 2nd fret. You guage by that. An aggressive player needs more clearance. Start high and work down to where it feels right, and then check the 2nd fret gap with a feeler guage. That's how high you like the nut height
thanks for the info. you are really good at educating.. so, as far as I can tell if i wanted to make a nut with a shelf and add a zero fret I would only need to worry about the apex of the zero fret landing on the zero position. this is very doable and I'm skilled enough to do this. my main concern would be how to deal with the transition between wood and bone in regards to the tang barbs. any thoughts on this? my conclusion would be to file the barbs off the bone side and leave them on the wood side but I'm working with stainless soooo.......my other option, in theory, would be to file all the barbs off completely and use ca to adhere the fret in place into a predetermined slot designed specifically for the width of the tang. I'm not going to pay what is being asked for a "kit". any ideas of thoughts in addition to what I concluded would be great if you have the time. this is actually pretty interesting and challenging so I'm going to dive in this afternoon.
You need to remove the barbs and use CA glue. Look closely at the tang on a zero glide fret. No barbs.
Am I missing something? It comes as a set with a nut and various size zero frets.
For a new guitar wouldn't you just put in a zero fret and the put the nut a 1/8 inch behind that? That way you can remove the nut when you do a fret level when the frets need re-leveling and just reinstall the nut after leveling is done. Seems the retrofit model would be hard to level the zero position to be the exact same height as the first fret. If the zero is too high, compared to the first, that it is not an easy task to grind the fret down to the same level as the first. And if the zero is to low, that makes it necessary to grind the rest of the frets down. My hope is now that Gibson is not using their zero fret they'll license the design for general use.
this is something i was concerned with and i have little experiance with 0 frets but, if i was to level and recrown my frets and i had a zero fret installed my hope would be that the 0 fret was not glued in and i could remove that prior to leveling. the strings downward presure is enough to hold the 0 fret in position. although when changing strings , if you remove all the strings for cleaning or what ever reason, the 0 fret may fall out and then all that would be need would be to put it back in place. before doing this i would definalty mark the 0 fret with an orientaion so that it would go back in the same positon. that could be a piece of tape or a tiny mark from a sharpie. so with the 1/8 setback, not a bad idea to leave some space but in the examples ive seen it's not really necessary. but im going to add a bit of space to mine, also I'm not going to permanently attach the nut either so it can be removed for leveling inr the future. gibson will never really be sensible fyi. the things they do baffle us all for reasons no one will ever quite understand.
Looks awesome. Will you show us how to intonate guitar? I've seen other videos but, not sure I got it down 100% seems simple.
Great video very detailed thank you👍
Glad it was helpful!
The Nut itself, on a zero-fret application, serves mostly to
maintain string lateral (side-to-side) position, does Nut material actually influence
sustain, or intonation of the instrument? After all, the metal Zero-fret itself
now serves to maintain first fret action height, sustain, and intonation(all of
which are functions previously performed by a standard style bone/plastic/metal
nut.) Is then there any need for a custom made bone nut (as in you made video)?
There are zero-fret kits available on line and/or available at brick & mortar
retailers with plastic nuts (color depending on your choice) and even wood
nuts. Given the Nut itself, on a zero-fret application, serves to only maintain
string lateral position, is nut material composition of any significance?
A professional musician friend put me on to (recommended) the Zero-Fret idea. I
am preparing to install one of these kits on my favorite Epiphone LP style
guitar and am curious to know/find out. Pending that, I am also thinking about
zero-nut kits on 2 or 3 other electric guitars.
Very interesting product, they'll last far longer than a regular shape.
I know that you switched from several ways tang nipping/removing jigs/tools, did you ever try different methods to just cut them to length? I'm pondering to buy a new fret cutter, but I don't know which I should get. If I'm not mistaken you replace one from harbour freight whenever it breaks?
I don't want any heat in the fretwire and I don't want deform it after I radiused it.
Looking forward to hear it. Set the right light for that gorgeous finish.
Enjoy your weekend.
If the strings don't bottom out in the nut slots then nut material isn't as important, so a brass nut would last longer and a fret slot could be machined in a wider nut a last a long time, just thinking out loud.
Wondering why my guitar have that extra fret...since I don't usually saw on most guitars. .thanks to you ..
I thought that might be a problem but it's the opposite 😂
Bessie had it coming.
Good tips!
Unfortunate that you glue the zerofret firmly. Why not place it in a slot like a normal fret ? So it can also be adjusted when adjusting the other frets. In 1968 I had a decent (German) 5-string banjo with a zero fret. The head of the zero-fret is 0,5mm thicker (higher) than the normal fret. I have photos of it. But I don't know how to show them here on TH-cam.
So in a retrofit sitiation this doesn't mess up the intonation? Seems like any chords whith open strings would be slightly out of tune. Is it just so marginally small that you cant notice?
Thanks for the videos Chris!
I didn't have any problems intonating my acoustic. Also one has to assume the original zero position was accurate in the first place. I could be and probably is off slightly on a lot of factory made guitars.
Chris, new subscriber and guitar enthusiasts, and love your vids.. thanks for sharing.. I have a Gretsch Jet with zero fret but most of my others are SG's with bone nuts. My question is the 1st fret action with a ZERO fret? Most players prefer the action to be about 0.020" for low E and 0.010" for high E string. How does the ZERO fret accomplish this feat? Do you have to start with the ZERO higher and file it back to adjust for the various 1st fret actions? I do like the fact that i can switch gauges of strings with ease as my Gretsch currently has 10's and could go heavier or lighter..
thanks for the great video man!
Interested to hear how it affects the tone- seems to me it would render the type of nut material used rather pointless. I like the concept, hoping to be sure it won't brighten the tone to harsh levels, especially with a maple neck/fingerboard.
I don't think it will really brighten the tone. I don't have a guitar with a zero fret, but I suspect it would just make open strings sound more like fretted strings, since the string isn't resting on the nut, but on the fret.
If it were me ,I would fill the nut slot with wood, then cut a fret kerf for a zero fret... the nut here is just to keep the strings separated and aligned . there is no point of installing a zero fret if the guitar has a nut already . But that is just my opinion but I have been playing zero fret, aluminum neck Kramers for over forty years .
The ultimate solution would be to have necks designed for a zero fret simply utilising the same fret wire as the rest of the neck but easy to replace. It might not need to be harder than the standard nickel if you could just replace it easily. The string tension would hold it in place without glue. Separating string spacing from nut height would make maintenance easy. Nuts are a complete nightmare to keep right especially since soft nickel frets wear down and need dressing and replaced and hence making the nut height wrong.
I’ve never tried stainless steel frets but I’m about to fit Jescar nickel frets which have a slightly harder metal mix. The standard nickel frets are a terrible design in my opinion. Way too soft.
The zero fret wire is traditionally larger than the rest of the frets as per the EROS and EKO guitars from Italy in teh 60s and 70s
old Bessie?? Really, like really??
Lefty!!!
Oh, apologies, I thought you were using a Zero Glide product. You are doing it the old way. Good info anyway as always, thanks
Just install a brass nut and get better results easier
Göldo: www.goeldo.de/werkstatt/zero-glide-nut-system/
Man you damaged the fretboard 12:04 Just use tape
No I didn't. There's this stuff called sandpaper which works wonders. You should try it. Much faster than tape which won't do anything anyway.
@Highline Guitars Oh I thought it was clamp marks
ZeroGlide: goldtonemusicgroup.com/zeroglide/
Ace amundo ..😁till the cows come home ..
Poor Bessie
Wear a mask when sanding bone. That dust is BAD for you.
Actually, I did some research on bone dust and there isn't any conclusive data on whether it's any worse for you than wood dust. However, play it safe and wear a mask. Any dust in sufficiant quantities is bad for you.
you won't play in tune unless the nut is compensated. show me a compensated zero fret. can't do it. put an earvana shelf nut on and you will be in tune within one cent all up and down and across the neck. straight nut is only within five cents.
Compensated nuts only work on open strings.