Zer0 Glide Nuts

[copacetic]

Any thoughts on the Zer0 Glide Nuts for electric bass guitars? (My) Hofners have the zero nut and sound pretty even across the board. Rick Turner likes the idea. He did one on one of my Starfires 40 years ago , but I forget now. The bass was Alembicised....so I got rid of it. The zero fret was the least of my dislikes back then.

[Alanko]

Is it a nut with a zero fret built in? Sounds like quite a smart design. I think zero frets get a bad rep because they were used on budget instruments at one point in time. Definitely a nice way of getting open strings to sound the same as fretted ones.

[4stringer77]

http://www.zeroglide.com/

[Granny Gremlin]

Seriously, nobody's busted with the lubed up testicles jokes yet?  Y'all are off yer game yo.

Also, I feel as if these have come up before.  In theory I'm a fan, but I ain't gonna pay fix something that ain't broke.

[Dave W]

More expensive to buy one and have it properly installed than to have a skilled tech install a properly cut and setup bone nut.

I'm not against zero frets in general, but if you have a problem with your existing setup, such as worn out nut slots that have become too low, IMHO it's better to just have it replaced with a new nut.

[dadagoboi]

More expensive to buy one and have it properly installed than to have a skilled tech install a properly cut and setup bone nut.

I'm not against zero frets in general, but if you have a problem with your existing setup, such as worn out nut slots that have become too low, IMHO it's better to just have it replaced with a new nut.

Yeah, and that intonation chart is misleading.  A properly cut nut with the correct slot depths and leveled frets won't be sharp on frets 1-5. 

[Dave W]

Yeah, and that intonation chart is misleading.  A properly cut nut with the correct slot depths and leveled frets won't be sharp on frets 1-5.

Wow, that is definitely misleading.

[copacetic]

Totally agree with that about properly cut and correct slot depth. There might be some attributes to the zero fret on some instruments depending on their construction and perhaps headstock, bridge, harp etc. Bruce Johnson incorporates them in all his basses but maybe because he mostly likes to make fretless. The luthiers here might have a better insight on the plus/minus or just preferences on their overall designs.

[Granny Gremlin]

The biggest advantage is you don't have to modify or replace your nut as you change string gauges.

[Dave W]

Totally agree with that about properly cut and correct slot depth. There might be some attributes to the zero fret on some instruments depending on their construction and perhaps headstock, bridge, harp etc. Bruce Johnson incorporates them in all his basses but maybe because he mostly likes to make fretless. The luthiers here might have a better insight on the plus/minus or just preferences on their overall designs.

I'm sure a lot of it depends on builder preferences. There's no right or wrong. I wouldn't let a zero fret keep me from buying a bass, the one I once owned with a zero fret worked fine (and it wasn't cheap).

But as a replacement for a standard nut, IMHO it's a solution to a problem that can be better solved by properly fixing or replacing the regular nut.

[BTL]

It's a "one-size-fits-all" solution, and their options are very limited for bass, like no flat bottom "F" nut, no P/J differential, etc.

[Alanko]

The intonation graph may well be true, but I don't see how replacing the nut with a zero fret somehow cures the issue. I thought the Buzz Feitin nut, and the even crazier just intonation fretting some makers experiment with, would cure the intonation, purely by changing the string length between the nut and each fret for each string.

Will intonation of the first frets also not change with string gauge?

[dadagoboi]

The intonation graph may well be true, but I don't see how replacing the nut with a zero fret somehow cures the issue. I thought the Buzz Feitin nut, and the even crazier just intonation fretting some makers experiment with, would cure the intonation, purely by changing the string length between the nut and each fret for each string.

Will intonation of the first frets also not change with string gauge?

Too high a nut (or zero fret, for that matter) causes the first few frets to be out of intonation.

Think about it or do some research, it's fairly common knowledge.  Dan Erlewine, among others, explains it well.

[Alanko]

I have Dan Erlewine's book, and I've read about the issue elsewhere as well. I've also cut a lot of stock nut slots lower to correct the issues that arise from nut slots being generally too high from the factory, namely the first few frets being sharp and tricky to fret.

There is a bit more at play than simply attributing all intonation issues with badly cut nuts. Pythagorean mathematics used to locate frets does not take into consideration the 'stretch' induced by pivoting the string over the fret then pushing it down to the surface of the fretboard. This is actually stated in Dan Erlewine's book, in the section where he provides a description of the Buzz Feiten system, and the thought process behind it.

Straight frets and conventional nuts are a bit like equal temperament; a compromise that to most folks is acceptable.

[dadagoboi]

Straight frets and conventional nuts are a bit like equal temperament; a compromise that to most folks is acceptable.

Yep.