Looking for an electric guitar with a zero fret...

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Sat May 23, 2015 6:43 pm

Preferably solid body, and without a Gretsch price tag.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sat May 23, 2015 8:19 pm

Burns, baby, Burns.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Sat May 23, 2015 8:24 pm

benecol wrote:Burns, baby, Burns.

Do they all have it?

George · Post by **George** » Sat May 23, 2015 8:49 pm

Also danos have an aluminium nut

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Sat May 23, 2015 9:13 pm

Nearly certain I saw something with a zero fret in a local pawn shop. I'll have a gander on monday for you.

Weirdly (and I really ought to have taken a photo of this) they had a Japanese acoustic with a locking nut, but obviously not a floyd rose. Such a weird addition to a guitar.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Sun May 24, 2015 10:12 am

http://www.zeroglide.com

This system may be of interest.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Sun May 24, 2015 12:08 pm

Gabriel wrote:http://www.zeroglide.com

This system may be of interest.

I was looking at this yesterday, not sure I'd want to take a chance with it on one of my good guitars.

sunshiner · Post by **sunshiner** » Sun May 24, 2015 12:46 pm

Old Czech Iolanas have zero fret. And they are super odd and at the same time cool guitars. The major cons though are that they are super heavy (maple or birch bodies) and a lack of original hardware to replace broken parts.

Fakir Mustache · Post by **Fakir Mustache** » Sun May 24, 2015 5:34 pm

A lot of East European guitars had zero frets: Bulgarian, Romanian, Polish, Soviet, I think even Yugoslav.

By the way, some Jolanas are small and light like the Galaxis:

I agree with sunshiner that they are often in not that good condition.

Also a lot of the cheap 1960s and 70s Japanese guitars have zero frets.

pumpkin · Post by **pumpkin** » Tue May 26, 2015 3:57 pm

http://www.hallmarkguitars.com/

westtexasred · Post by **westtexasred** » Tue May 26, 2015 5:27 pm

The new Les Pauls have a zero fret

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Wed May 27, 2015 5:13 pm

dezb1 wrote:
benecol wrote:Burns, baby, Burns.
Do they all have it?

I think the Marquee does, the Cobras don't.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Wed May 27, 2015 5:19 pm

THIS is a great deal if it stays low. It's actually a higher spec Shadow model not a Marquee, with tri-sonics and Burns hardcase.

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Wed May 27, 2015 5:33 pm

What is actually the benefit of having a zero fret?

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Wed May 27, 2015 5:52 pm

None imo. It acts as a nut and the nut itself just holds the strings in line. Brighter sound maybe?

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Wed May 27, 2015 6:30 pm

Wikipedia wrote:The zero fret is primarily used to reduce production costs.[disputed ] The zero fret was commonly (but not exclusively) associated with cheaper instruments, since the cost of the labor involved in making a nut with slots carefully filed to the correct height is greater than the labor required to install a zero fret.[disputed ]

It is claimed that with a zero fret, the sound of an open string more closely approximates the sound of a fretted string as compared to the open string sound on a guitar with no zero fret. Countering this claim are musicians who feel that a bone or even synthetic nut will enhance the overall tone of the instrument regardless of the string being played open or fretted. Since tone is so subjective, the two claims are likely to continue perpetually.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Wed May 27, 2015 8:18 pm

Freddy V-C wrote:What is actually the benefit of having a zero fret?

The open chords sound different, as they sound fretted. Like if you had a capo on

Post by **Doog** » Wed May 27, 2015 9:35 pm

dezb1 wrote:
Freddy V-C wrote:What is actually the benefit of having a zero fret?
mojowomantones

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Wed May 27, 2015 9:38 pm

dezb1 wrote:
Freddy V-C wrote:What is actually the benefit of having a zero fret?
The open chords sound different, as they sound fretted. Like if you had a capo on

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Fran · Post by **Fran** » Fri May 29, 2015 7:39 am

Well, that Burns went dirt cheap, did you check it out dez?