Zero fret?

Here’s a new(ish) feature to my guitars that will become permanent! After working on a number of vintage instruments with zero frets and making a few test instruments, I’m a convert.

It’s not a particularly common thing to see, and there seems to be some strange opinions about it. But before I get into some of those, let’s talk about what a zero fret is and what it does.

As the picture shows, it’s an extra fret very close to the nut. It actually sits at the point that a nut otherwise would, marking the start of the instrument’s scale length. A nut would normally do a few jobs - mark the start of the scale length, set the height of the strings at that end of the neck, and provide a guide for the strings to pass through. By adding a zero fret, all the nut has to do is guide the strings.

This is good, because you can focus on getting the nut slots just right - not too tight that they’d grab the strings and cause tuning issues, and not too wide that the strings might rattle in their slots. Of course, you can do this with a regular nut, but it can be a bit trickier to make the adjustments without affecting the string height.

By giving the other two jobs to a zero fret, you’ll get some benefits. When it comes to setting string height, a fret is much easier. You just level it with all the other frets, and make sure it has a clean crown. But it seems to sit lower without causing fret buzz, making that end of the neck feel a bit easier to play. Tuning is slightly improved too. Another benefit is that you open string notes will sound more consistent with your fretted note, because they are effectively fretted too. Bone (or plastic) and fret-wire impart a different sound to your notes, with the harder frets giving a bit more brightness.

One final benefit is durability - a bone nut will eventually wear out as strings move back and forth during tuning, effectively filling the slots lower. It’ll need to be replaced at some stage. But fret-wire, being a harder material, will wear much slower. But here’s where the strange, negative opinions come in.

By some people’s thinking, a zero fret will wear out much quicker than the rest of the frets, and is more difficult to replace than a bone nut. The reasoning is that a string is always in contact with the zero fret, whereas the other frets might not be played as often. In theory this seems true, but I disagree that this has any meaningful impact on fret wear significant enough to cause frustration for the owner.

While a string may always be resting on the zero fret, it’s not alway vibrating - that only happens when you play an open string, which is not all the time. So I don’t think the zero fret is subject to more wear than the other frets, or at least not enough to worry about, unless you play lots of open strings. As I mentioned at the start, I’ve worked on a number of vintage guitars that had zero frets, some 60+ years old. They all had the original frets, and while the zero fret was well worn so were all the other frets, requiring a full re-fret. The nut was still perfectly usable though…

That brings me to the other point - if you’re getting your guitar worked on, it should be by someone who is experienced in fret work AND nut work. The difference in the amount of work replacing one fret vs making a new nut is negligible. Both require experience and a detail-driven mindset to get a good result.

All up, I think the benefits outweigh the cons, both from a builders and a players perspective. The use of the much more durable Jescar Evo Gold fret-wire in my instruments should relieve any concern about the need for fretwork in the foreseeable future - it lasts for ages.

That’s enough geekery for now. Let me know what your thoughts on zero frets is in the comments below!