The Electra Forums

With a zero fret.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Project-Gui ... 4cf753e2a8

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JD's Electras

What is the purpose of a zero fret? The nut slots have to be high enough to clear the fret on an open note and when fretted the string rests on the 1st fret. My first electric guitar had a zero fret and sounded and played the same as any other guitar. Most zero frets I have saw come from around the early to mid 70'. I have never quite found the answer to a zero fret. Accidental maybe? Looks?

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SlmGuy

Here's the Wiki on zero fret. It explains it better that I care to.




Function

The zero fret is positioned at the location normally occupied by the nut. On a guitar having a zero fret, the nut is located behind the zero fret and serves solely to keep the strings spaced properly. The strings rest atop the zero fret, which is higher than the other frets. This provides the proper clearance as the strings pass over the fretboard.

[edit] Purpose

The zero fret is primarily used to reduce production costs. The zero fret was commonly (but not exclusively) associated with cheaper instruments, since the cost of the labor involved in making a nut with slots carefully filed to the correct height is greater than the labor required to install a zero fret. Some manufacturers that frequently use(d) a zero fret are MTD (Michael Tobias Design), Gretsch, Kay, Selmer, Höfner, Mosrite, Anderson, and Vigier. Now very few manufacturers use this design and those who do list it as a feature.

It is claimed that with a zero fret, the sound of an open string more closely approximates the sound of a fretted string as compared to the open string sound on a guitar with no zero fret. Countering this claim are musicians who feel that a bone or even synthetic nut will enhance the overall tone of the instrument regardless of the string being played open or fretted. Since tone is so subjective, the two claims are likely to continue perpetually.

Steinberger uses a zero fret with their headless guitars. Strings are mounted in place where the head would normally be, so there is no need for the string guides that the nut provides.[1]

[edit] Drawbacks

The zero fret presents a problem for guitarists who use string bending techniques, which are very common in blues, rock and some jazz styles. When the frets are new, there is no problem, but the strings quickly wear narrow grooves in the zero fret.

Wow! Sounds like a lot of high tech thought went into saving a buck. My guitar had the zero fret, floating bridge (adjustable height, rose wood), hollow body slim line , chrome tremolo and tail stock assembly. For what it was it did have suprisingly good tone and sustain. The trem was for very very light virbrato. If you took a dive on it, you had to pull up a chair to tune back up(LOL). Ive' seen a few on bay but they never go for more than 50 or 60 bucks. The neck how ever, was one of the most comfortable necks I ever had.

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SlmGuy

If the nut (or saddles for that matter) is not cut right a zero fret won't help with a vibrato tailpiece. This is the time to plug "Nut Sauce" again - the stuff flat out works. I never could tell if there was a benefit to the extra fret and kind of just ignored it.

Lots of guitars had a zero fret. I had a great little Magnatone with the zero Fret, and Mosrites had them too. So, it's not necessarily a budget guitar trait.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

I have a '72 Yairi acoustic with a zero fret. Great sounding guitar. Baffles me why there is a zero fret as it is otherwise very much a copy of a Martin 000-18, which of course did not have a zero fret.

I don't think I recall ever seeing an acoustic with a zero fret let alone a Yairi. Their Martin copies are almost always exact replicas. I have an '81 Yairi D35 copy that seems exact except the volute behind the headstock is just a little different.