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A zero fret is a fret placed at the headstock end of the neck of a banjo, guitar, mandolin, or bass guitar. It serves one of the functions of a nut: holding the strings the correct distance above the other frets on the instrument's fretboard. A separate string-guide (often a regular nut) is still required to establish the correct string spacing when a zero fret is used.
The zero fret is positioned at the location normally occupied by the nut. On a guitar having a zero fret, the nut is located behind the zero fret and serves solely to keep the strings spaced properly. The strings rest atop the zero fret, which is generally at the same height as all the others. Some people prefer and feel more comfortable with the zero fret slightly taller than the rest of the frets. The zero fret functions as all other frets do.
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.
Some manufacturers that frequently use(d) a zero fret are Gretsch, Kay, Selmer, Höfner, Mosrite, Framus, Vox, Vigier, Harley Benton and bass guitar manufacturer MTD. Now very few manufacturers use this design and those who do list it as a feature. Steinberger uses a zero fret with their headless guitars but omit the nut; strings are mounted in place where the head would normally be, so there is no need for the string guides that the nut provides. [1] 2015 model year Gibson guitars incorporate a zero fret in order to accommodate a brass adjustable nut, which the manufacturer claims causes better sustain and intonation. The British acoustic guitar manufacturer Fylde Guitars uses a zero fret as standard.
Low string action (distance between string and fret wire) results from a non-elevated zero fret when using the same fingerboard fret wire size. On some guitars it may be necessary to raise the bridge saddle height by a small amount.[ citation needed ]
A large number of different gauges of strings can be used. Strings reside on top of the zero fret regardless of thickness, and have the same distance travel down to the first fret. If you have cut the grooves into the nut for thick strings, it may be necessary to change the nut out completely in order to go back to lighter gauge strings. On zero fret, this isn't needed.
A conventional nut made of relatively soft plastic or bone will easily clamp the string and make fine tuning difficult. The clamping effect does not only result from too narrow nut slots, but notably more from the impression of the string windings into the nut material at the bottom of the slot. That effect is more prevalent with wire wound nylon strings than with steel strings. Using a zero fret relieves the pressure from the nut material and the nut serves only to center the strings sideways. Tuning is smooth and without sudden movement and intonation jumps. There are only a few manufacturers making metal (bronze) conventional nuts which avoid the string clamping effect.
When the zero fret is viewed as an extension of the fingerboard by adding one more fret wire before the nut, then the luthier would fit a fret wire of identical dimensions. This will decrease the string action at the lower fret positions. To avoid this effect, luthiers often use a thicker fret wire at the zero fret position. While the straight and level zero fret improves the tuning accuracy along the lower frets (from fret 1 to 3 mainly) the elevated fret keeps the string action higher and helps to avoid string buzz.
The term "guitar intonation" denotes to what precision the ideal equally tempered musical scale can be produced by a guitar, while "piano intonation" refers to the setup procedure of the individual hammers in the piano keyboard. A conventional nut or an elevated zero fret will cause pitch errors on the lower frets due to the increased pressure on the strings. The fret distances would have to be corrected for that increased tension effect, but with guitars that is not common.
On the contrary, the "level" zero fret will have no pitch errors on the fingered notes. This can be demonstrated by measuring the pitch deviation of each single note on the fingerboard. Players who frequently use the lower frets from 0 to 5 will benefit most from a zero fret. Using mainly the upper range of the fingerboard neutralizes the advantage of the zero fret and conventional nuts are equally suited. Those players usually avoid playing first and second fret positions because of the pitch problems there. For beginners a zero fretted guitar is preferable.
Most guitars nowadays are manufactured with rather high string action and high conventional nuts. The user is expected to adjust nut height to their personal playing style. Unfortunately, sales personnel in music stores do know about that, but lack the skill, extra time and/or cost to properly set up a guitar in what has become a very price competitive, low profit product. Guitars with zero frets would be helpful in that situation.
The photograph shows a high conventional nut on a factory-made Japanese concert guitar and may serve to illustrate the necessity for evaluating the advantages and the drawbacks of modern guitar manufacturing. The high string tension makes the instrument almost unplayable for beginner students, especially for children, and additionally serves to spoil the ear training for harmonies and tone intervals due to intonation errors. Luthier intervention is required in such cases.
High string action at the nut is often preferred to avoid string buzz with heavy playing style. The lower fret area is therefore out of tune. A partial solution is to apply nut corrections by reducing the distance from the nut to fret one for a small amount and then re-tune the now shorter string. That procedure lowers the tuning of all the other notes on the complete string and compromises have to be found. It may no longer be feasible to tune the open string to its base tone. Some manufacturers suggest tuning at the third or fifth fret using electronic tuners.
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities from that of an acoustic guitar via amplifier settings or knobs on the guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz, rock and heavy-metal guitar-playing. Designs also exist combining attributes of the electric and acoustic guitars: the semi-acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars.
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted and typically has six or twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A guitar pick may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically, by means of a resonant hollow chamber on the guitar, or amplified by an electronic pickup and an amplifier.
A fret is any of the thin strips of material, usually metal wire, inserted laterally at specific positions along the neck or fretboard of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck. On some historical instruments and non-European instruments, frets are made of pieces of string tied around the neck.
A capo is a device a musician uses on the neck of a stringed instrument to transpose and shorten the playable length of the strings—hence raising the pitch. It is a common tool for players of guitars, mandolins, mandolas, banjos, ukuleles and bouzoukis. The word derives from the Italian capotasto, which means the nut of a stringed instrument. The earliest known use of capotasto is by Giovanni Battista Doni who, in his Annotazioni of 1640, uses it to describe the nut of a viola da gamba. The first patented capo was designed by James Ashborn of Wolcottville, Connecticut year 1850.
The fingerboard is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The strings run over the fingerboard, between the nut and bridge. To play the instrument, a musician presses strings down to the fingerboard to change the vibrating length, changing the pitch. This is called stopping the strings. Depending on the instrument and the style of music, the musician may pluck, strum or bow one or more strings with the hand that is not fretting the notes. On some instruments, notes can be sounded by the fretting hand alone, such as with hammer ons, an electric guitar technique.
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings, originally played in the Appalachian region of the United States. The body extends the length of the fingerboard, and its fretting is generally diatonic.
The Red Special is the electric guitar designed and built by Queen's guitarist Brian May and his father, Harold, when Brian was a teenager in the early 1960s. The Red Special is sometimes referred to as the Fireplace or the Old Lady by May and by others. The name Red Special came from the reddish-brown colour the guitar attained after being stained and painted with numerous layers of Rustins Plastic Coating. The name Fireplace is a reference to the fact that the wood used to make the neck came from a fireplace mantel.
A multi-scale fingerboard is an instrument fretboard which incorporates multiple scale lengths. This allows each of the strings to have a different string tension and thus, balanced tonal characteristics.
Steinberger is a series of distinctive electric guitars and bass guitars, designed and originally manufactured by Ned Steinberger. The name "Steinberger" can be used to refer to either the instruments themselves or the company that originally produced them. Although the name has been applied to a variety of instruments, it is primarily associated with a minimalist "headless" design of electric basses and guitars.
The Russian guitar (sometimes referred to as a "Gypsy guitar") is an acoustic seven-string guitar that was developed in Russia toward the end of the 18th century: it shares most of its organological features with the Spanish guitar, although some historians insist on English guitar descent. It is known in Russian as the semistrunnaya gitara (семиструнная гитара), or affectionately as the semistrunka (семиструнка), which translates to "seven-stringer". These guitars are most commonly tuned to an open G chord as follows: D2 G2 B2 D3 G3 B3 D4. In classical literature, the lowest string (D) occasionally is tuned down to the C.
A nut, on a stringed musical instrument, is a small piece of hard material that supports the strings at the end closest to the headstock or scroll. The nut marks one end of the vibrating length of each open string, sets the spacing of the strings across the neck, and usually holds the strings at the proper height from the fingerboard. Along with the bridge, the nut defines the scale lengths of the open strings.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to guitars:
A headstock or peghead is part of a guitar or similar stringed instruments such as a lute, mandolin, banjo, ukulele and others of the lute lineage. The main function of a headstock is to house the tuning pegs or other mechanism that holds the strings at the "head" of the instrument; it corresponds to a pegbox in the violin family. At the "tail" of the instrument the strings are usually held by a tailpiece or bridge. Machine heads on the headstock are commonly used to tune the instrument by adjusting the tension of strings and, consequently, the pitch of sound they produce.
The truss rod is a component of a guitar or other stringed instrument that stabilizes the lengthwise forward curvature of the neck. Usually, it is a steel bar or rod that runs through the inside of the neck, beneath the fingerboard. Some are non-adjustable, but most modern truss rods have a nut at one or both ends that adjusts its tension. The first truss rod patent was applied for by Thaddeus McHugh, an employee of the Gibson company in 1921, though the idea of a "truss rod" appears in patents as early as 1908.
In music, intonation is the pitch accuracy of a musician or musical instrument. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously.
The action of a string instrument that is plucked, strummed, or bowed by hand is the distance between the fingerboard and the string. In keyboard instruments, the action is the mechanism that translates the motion of the keys into the creation of sound.
Tune-o-matic is the name of a fixed or floating bridge design for electric guitars. It was designed by Ted McCarty and introduced on the Gibson Super 400 guitar in 1953 and the Les Paul Custom the following year. In 1955, it was used on the Gibson Les Paul Gold Top. It was gradually accepted as a standard on almost all Gibson electric guitars, replacing the previous wrap-around bridge design, except on the budget series.
The 3rd bridge is an extended playing technique used on the electric guitar and other string instruments that allows a musician to produce distinctive timbres and overtones that are unavailable on a conventional string instrument with two bridges. The timbre created with this technique is close to that of gamelan instruments like the bonang and similar Indonesian types of pitched gongs.
A third bridge can be devised by inserting a rigid preparation object between the strings and the body or neck of the instrument, effectively dividing the string into distinct vibrating segments.
A bridge is a device that supports the strings on a stringed musical instrument and transmits the vibration of those strings to another structural component of the instrument—typically a soundboard, such as the top of a guitar or violin—which transfers the sound to the surrounding air. Depending on the instrument, the bridge may be made of carved wood, metal or other materials. The bridge supports the strings and holds them over the body of the instrument under tension.
The Guitarrón Chileno is a guitar-shaped plucked string instrument from Chile, with 25, 24 (rarely), or even 26 strings. Its primary contemporary use is as the instrumental accompaniment for the traditional Chilean genre of singing poetry known as Canto a lo Poeta, though a few virtuosi have also begun to develop the instrument's solo possibilities.
