Zero fret height

[J_Mac]

Can anyone with a set of vernier callipers and an instrument with a zero fret do me a favour and measure their zero fret and another fret please? I wish I had done this before I sold my Strandberg! I fancy a zero fret on an upcoming build, I like the sound and it seems to make a lot of sense in terms of construction precision (to me, anyway).

 

[ElysianGuitars]

I've always installed the zero fret last, leveling and crowning the rest of the frets first, that way it's a little bit taller. Has worked well that way.

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

On my build I leveled it with the other frets (same height) and it worked perfectly. The same height makes sense if you think about it, since that's exactly what you get when you play anything but an open string.

 

[Thrashman]

As my friends above me said - just level it with the other frets.

If you want to you can leave it like 0.010mm higher or something if you want by just sanding it SLIGHTLY less than the others so that you assure that it won't start choking since zero frets, even stainless steel ones, wear quicker than the rest of the frets on the fretboard.

 

[J_Mac]

Epic, thanks fellas!

Did you carve your own nuts? Lol. Seriously though.

 

[Thrashman]

Depends, I usually swap them out on my guitars if they're not already graphtech nuts and if so I just buy a blank and carve/shape it to fit

 

[LiveOVErdrive]

Epic, thanks fellas!

Did you carve your own nuts? Lol. Seriously though.

Tried. Failed miserably. Tried again. Still failed. Gave up and bought one for 10 bucks. Sanded the bottom to get it low enough. Worked like a charm.

 

[HighPotency]

To me the more important thing would seem to be the nut height- too tall and your strings will clear the zero fret, too short and they'll press down harder on it and wear grooves into it faster. Oddly enough I spent a lot of time contemplating this dilemma in the past but never realized it until now.

 

[marcwormjim]

Did you carve your own nuts? Lol. Seriously though.

As with the above poster, my first and last results weren't pretty LOL - Pics were up on the BME forums for years!

 

[KR250]

I buy the Black Tusq XL nut blanks and use those, about $10-$12 each. I use the FretFind printout for my string spacing, going equal distant from the centers, then carefully cutting the slots just deep enough for desired action. Once that's done I just shape it to make it comfortable on the fretting hand, then sand and polish it (doesn't get too shiny, so stop about 2000 grit).