Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi,

Just a general question or two. What is the purpose of a zero fret? In a bass with a zero fret should the srings rest on the zero fret for correct tuning and intonation? The reason I am asking is because my son has been given an old bass (no name ... I think it is actually homemade. The bass has a zero fret and as I need to fabricate a new nut for it I was wondering if the presence of the zero fret would mean I have to cut the slots in the nut quite low ... seems that the action at the nut end of the fingerboard would be very low. My son wants to use the bass as a back up to his 4001 so I am keen to get it back on the road. The nut is last part to do to get it playable now that I have fitted a decent bridge and rewired the electronics.

The zero fret is the nut, in effect. What looks like a nut behind it is only a string guide, and the slots in the string guide must be lower than the zero fret for everything to work.

Having a zero fret means that the open strings supposedly sound more like the fretted strings, plus you don't have to cut exact nut slots. Personally, I'd rather have a properly made nut than a zero fret.

If the zero fret is worn down to the point it isn't useable, then repalce the zero fret. If you want to replace it with a nut, you can't use the location of the existing string guide. You would have to pull the zero fret and put the nut there.

And if you do that, remember that the "zero point" of the zero fret is the crown, which theoretically means the center of the nut slot. But with a real nut, the zero point is the front edge of the nut. You will be off by half the fret slot (1/2 of about .023") so you may or may not want to compensate for that.

Hope that isn't too confusing.

Thanks Dave, that clears it up for me.