zero fret ?

Hello...new to UU forum and have enjoyed getting up to speed on the website....lots of good stuff.

Search through archives for 'zero fret'...could not find anything....

Looking for Pro's and con's of Nut versus Zero Fret from builders and players perspective;

I recently modified a tenor to zero fret and enjoyed the benefits. Ditto on most recent build. I'm heading down the 'zero fret' path...anything amiss or to look out for????

Zero Fret; Low and equal action at 1st position guaranteed. Cannot adjust intonation at the nut, but who does?? Loss of Sustain? negligible. Constructibility?..4 string seemed okay....6 string may be more difficult to get string alignment...

Would be interested in comments from anyone who has built and/or played zero fret tenors, 4 or 6 string (or 8!). or can direct me to archives on subject. thanks

Call Bill Thompson, he's the local "peghead" tuning machine distributer. He seems to know quite a bit about zero frets. His business phone is 503-364-0854. He also has great prices on pegheads!

Zero fret is just a matter of taste. Most people still use a nut to keep the strings aligned. Maybe you can get away with no nut for a 4 string flat fretboard, but probably not for a 6 string.
For building pro's and con's?....nothing really major. I still would say its a matter of taste.
Pro: The nut is less critical. Setting the action at the 1st fret is already complete during the fret job
Con: Setting the action at the 1st fret is already complete so you better do a good fret job. (no room for errors)

There's no reason why the action should be better with a zero fret. A properly done nut can give you any action you like.

I can't find it now... but there was a recent thread that Rick Turner mentioned a new nut style which has an integrated Zero Fret - the result is a fairly easily implemented nut for replacement or original use.

Found the other thread - its a product called "ZeroGlide" - quite interesting...

http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?68634-Bone-saddles-and-nuts&p=1012757#post1012757

Fluke & Flea ukulele;s utilize a Zero fret & Boat Paddle ukes use something close in its "pinned nut" that though it doesn't have the zero fret, results in a nut that doesn't have to be changed for new strings.

Here's one older thread:

http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?60835-Zero-frets

Mahalo

Gmoney- thanks for the archive link.....that is the discussion I was looking for....

Seems to be more 'tradition'......with various opinions on sound or looks...thanks again.

powdrell said:

Gmoney- thanks for the archive link.....that is the discussion I was looking for....

Seems to be more 'tradition'......with various opinions on sound or looks...thanks again.

Click to expand...

Anytime! And... the regular "search" function of the forums often yield surprisingly few legitimate answers, so most of us resort to using one of the "big guns" search engines to do the heavy lifting. So plugging this into your search engine of choice:

"zero fret" site:ukuleleunderground.com

Will often give better results!

I just ordered one of the ZeroGlide nuts to try out on a couple of ukes I bought for nut & saddle repair & replacement.

Mahalo!

Here is one of my postings on zero fret....http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/f...mana-Custom-Ukuleles&highlight=Lymana+Ukulele