Zero Fret Question

chappie

Does anyone know how the height of the zero fret affects the sound of the guitar? Clearly it impacts string tension.

Josh Hegg

If it's too high it harder to play. If it's too low your open strings will fret out on the first fret. There really is not a standard for the Zero fret hight but I find most new GJ guitars have a zero fret that is higher then it needs to be. The open string does not need to be more then about .5 mm over the first fret and can even be a bit lower then that depending on what you like.

Cheers,
Josh

chappie

What I am really asking is: Does adjusting the height of the zero fret (let's say lowering it without buzzing out) affect the guitar's TONE?

Bob Holo

Well, if it's too high it can keep you from fretting cleanly and that can affect your tone. Also, if it's too high it can affect your intonation because you're stretching the string just to fret properly.

The zero fret should be just a whisper higher than the frets - I mean a whisper... like a tenth of a millimeter... because that whisper combined with the string angle gives you the height Josh was talking about.

But as for tone? nah. You couldn't increase the height of the zero fret enough to increase down pressure on it significantly without completely hosing the intonation and playability of the guitar. Even if you did - the downpressure on the zerofret is sufficient because the headstock is angled back. Sometimes on electric guitars people use little devices to increase the bearing angle across the nut but that's because the headstock is parallel to the fretboard.