Zero fret

[BradDonaldson]

I know Jay, have conversed with him on occasion and have seen his work. He is an extraordinary luthier. But in this case, I am going to quibble about a couple of his statements. Other than sloppy nut work, there is no reason why a zero fret should intonate any more accurately than a standard nut. I will admit that many times that is not the case, but that falls totally on the accuracy of the set up, not the particular method. In fact, to achieve the ultimate in accurate intonation, you need to compensate the individual strings at the nut as well as the saddle. This can be accomplished relatively easily on a nut, I have never seen it done on a zero fret. I can and have set the clearance of the first fret lower than you typically have with a zero fret. And yes, if you strum or pick very hard you are going to get buzzes, but all that is up to the player’s preference.
Brad