"If you really start to think about it, it's a totally logical way to do a string nut. If you want exactly the same tone on an open string and a fretted string there's nothing quite like putting a zero fret there. Wayne Rogers figured out how to take advantage of the zero fret concept and then make it easy to install on any fretted instrument."
Rick Turner, Celebrity Luthier and CEO of Rick Turner Guitar Company
rickturnerguitars.com
"I'm using a Zero Glide Fret that Wayne of Gold Tone is promoting. I tried it, and agreed it was an improvement on my banjo. I found it was a fuller sound. I'm a fan of that."
Béla Fleck, 16-Time Grammy Award Winning Banjoist
belafleck.com
I was having a very hard time finding the right nut replacement for my mandolin. Finally found this one at StewMac. Have never used the zero glide before, but this one works great. Had a good deal of sanding to do for a perfect fit, but it works great and sound is super on my mando. Thanks guys!!
I have a Yamaha F310 and the nut was cut real high. Looking around on the internet I came across the ZerO Glide and decided to give it a try. It was less expensive that having the nut cut or purchasing the tools to do it. Printed out the sizing chart and found the ZS-5 had the correct spacing. In less than an hour my guitar felt and sounded great. This is one hell of a product and glad I made the purchase.
Just put one of these on an old beater of a cheap strat-clone kit that I use to experiment with "creative" wiring. Suddenly its in tune up and down the neck and stays that way after using the trem as well. It cost half the price of the kit but it has significantly improved the value of the instrument to me. It required a little sanding of the back of the nut but nothing drastic. I dont have many dedicated luthier tools so the fret wire is not trimmed perfectly (but the look is in keeping with the overall "relic'd" appearance of the guitar). The question now becomes can I get a discount if I order these in bulk?
I have 3 instruments with a Zero Glide nut that I play regularly on shows and in jam sessions. My Gold Tone OB 150 has one as standard equipment from Gold Tone. Next is my Martin D custom Acoustic and next is my Washburn M3SWK F body mandolin. I did the install on those last 2 instruments. YES, you WILL have to do some fitting. Follow the instructions to the letter on this. YES, you may find it to be a pain but the gain is more than worth it. Once the Zero Glide is installed and once you start playing a few tunes, you will wonder why you have not installed a Zero Glide nut a lot sooner.
No more string binding issues, no more graphite in the slots or any grease either. You don't need that stuff anymore. No need for nut slot files either with a Zero Glide unless you get one un-slotted. You will still have to fit the Zero Glide nut so you can make it a part of your instrument. No getting around that. It is all part of the fun so enjoy the pain and take your time with the fitting. Once that is done, the action at the first fret will be perfect. Your tone will be better. You will get some sustain you haven't had before. The Zero Glide nut should be the ONLY nut to go on your instruments. I like what it does for playability and tone.
works like a charm for the stuff I do at weekend gigs,from flutter trem to dive whammy , but most of all, I no longer hear that creaking sound by the nut when using my tremolo and it stays in tune well along with my Wilkinson VSVG Tremolo.
Easy to install for me cause I work for two guitar shops on a on/off basis and am use to making bone nuts from scratch,so if you've never done guitar nut work before I suggest taking it to a well trusted guitar shop with a good tech. It does take patience if you want it to look like a pro and function the way its suppose to. Highly recommend it along with a Wilkinson VSVG and a high gear ratio tuners.. Be buying more soon for my other guitars....
I wrote another review about Zero Glide and my Gold Tone OB 150 banjo. As many already know the Zero Glide Nut is standard equipment on the OB 150 banjo. Gold Tone has this nut on other instruments too. I like this nut system for a lot of reasons. I installed a Zero Glide nut on my Martin D custom and I even installed a Zero Glide on my Washburn M3SWK F body mandolin. Those stock plastic nuts on many of the entry level pro instruments just does not cut it. You are cheating yourself and your audience out of a lot of tone and sweetness that ears should be hearing. The Zero Glide nut does a world of wonders for my instruments. Do yourself a favor and get one on your axe. You may love it. I know I do. I am addicted to Zero Glide.
i HAVE ONE O TFHE NICER IMPORT JOHNSON ACOUSTIC ELECTRIC CUTAWAY GUITARS . SOLID SPRUCE TOP. INDIAN ROSEWOOD BACK AND SIDES. SOMETIME BACK I WAS ADJUSTING THE TRUSS ROD AND THE END BROKE OFF. LUCKILY THE ACTION WASN'T TERRIBLE. THE REAL PROBLEM I WAS HAVING WAS WHEN I PLAYED AT CHURCH I SWITCH BACK AND FORTH FROM CAPO TO NO CAPO DEPENDING ON THE SONG CHOSEN. WHEN I TUNED MY GUITAR STANDARD IT WAS FINE AND SOUNDED PRETTY GOOD BUT WHEN I USED THE CAPO THE GUITAR WOULD BE SLIGHTLY OUT OF TUNE. i JUST HAPPENED ACROSS TE ZERO GLIDE AND FIGURED I HAD NOTHING TO LOSE SINCE I COULD RETURN THE NUT BACK TO ORIGINAL WITH NO PROBLEM. I GOT THE CORRECT NUT BY USING THE STRING GUIDE PRINT OUT. TOOK MY TIME FOLLOWED VIDEO INSTRUCTIONS AND MADE MINOR ADJUSTMENTS UNTIL I WAS DONE. I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW PLEASED I AM. NO MORE OUT OF TUNE WITH CAPO. CONSISTENT BRIGHTER SOUND AND MUCH BETTER ACTION. I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT TO ANYONE I AM EVEN THINKING OF PUTTING ONE ON MY 1963 GIBSON LG1 SINCE THERE IS NO PERMANENT CHANGE TO THE GUITAR. THANKS ZERO GLIDE
Works as described but installation was a pain. I have a warmoth tele neck that I installed it to. I had to cut back the nut slot a little to fit the new bone nut and fret in place. I thought it would just drop in.. I wasn't anticipating that but my skills didn't let me down. I filed the nut and fret down on both sides a little, added some super glue and now it works great. i have a bigsby so tunning is a breeze now!
The ZerO Glide Nuts are everything they say they are,.. and more. I just started playing guitar about 3 years ago, but I've worked with wood and restoring antiques all my life, so those skills and knowledge have been bleeding over into guitar maintenance.
This so to speak, was my first nut job. But the idea was clear from the start - remove & replace. Now the guitar nobody thought was worth fixing, is playing hotter than it ever was. Many thanks to StewMac for suppling quality from and for craftsmen.
I play fingerstyle guitar. My favorite guitar is a Gretsch 5420 Electromatic . For some reason the designers at Gretsch moved away from the zero fret. When You string up with 10's or 9's I guess it probably doesn't matter much because the first position will be easy with light gauge strings. My touch and style of playing requires .012's. With heavier strings while the 5420 is beautiful to see and hear the first position was challenging to play. I installed the zero glide following the instructions in the package and to my amazing pleasure the 5420 played like my '66 Nashville used to. I couldn't be happier. Thanks to the people that designed this product. The tone is great the tuning is improved and the first position action is second to none.
My circa 1997 American Standard Strat always had a problem with staying in tune after whammy bar use. I tried pencil graphite and different string sizes with not much luck. I put this nut on and a set of Gotoh locking tuners and now it seems to stay in tune very well.
I recently custom installed a ZerO Glide on my 40 year old 12 string guitar and it really has done the business. There has been a marked improvement in volume and sustain tuning is much smoother and the intonation is spot on.
I bought a Gold Tone OB 150 Masterclone banjo that is equipped with a Zero Glide nut. This nut is amazing. YES it will help with tone. No more string binding with Zero Glide. Ever notice on a new instrument how when you are tuning up and on occasion you hear a sound like a string is catching in the slot You will not have that issue with Zero Glide. Once you actually play an instrument with a Zero Glide nut you will notice some differences. You may want to outfit all of your stringed instruments to Zero Glide. No need for slot files to set the action at the nut side of the neck. No more smoothing out string slots with high dollar files that snap really easy. No more using graphite or grease on the nut. Zero Glide takes care of that. Might be the first healthy choice for a nut for your instrument. Get one and install it. You will love it.
I purchased a '97 Squier Vista MusicMaster Bass locally. The stock plastic nut needed replacing or filing. I had already pulled the nut off of the MusicMaster and had all measurements noted before replacing the stock nut temporarily. The Zero Glide ZS-17F Precision Bass Precision Bass model specs matched up with the MusicMaster specs. Cool. After my Zero Glide arrived I pulled the stock nut and lightly sanded the nut slot on the fretboard with fine sandpaper to remove any debris or adhesive residue used on the stock nut. Next I slid the Zero Glide nut onto the fretboard. Nice snug fit. The width of the Zero Glide was perfect. My next step was to make sure that the top / flat surface of the nut was flush with the fretboard. This is crucial to allowing the fret to seat correctly on both the fretboard and the zero fret nut. On my MusicMaster this required a very thin shim under the Zero Glide nut. Once the nut was seated properly it was just a matter of selecting which of the fret sizes provided is required for the instrument. In my case this was the longest installation step time-wise. Once you have selected the proper fret, mark the fret and cut with the proper tool. Examine the cut end of the and correct any imperfections due to cutting on the tang of the fret by filing. A small bench top vise with padded jaws and high quality file makes this step a snap. Installation time in my case : - shimming me the nut, less than 10 minutes - selecting the correct fret size, 45 minutes - all filing on the fret ends and top corners of the nut, less than 15 minutes I'm very pleased with the results. The open string notes sound like fretted notes of course, and I was able to achieve noticeably lower action without fret buzz after a setup. I'm especially pleased with the improved note definition of the open E and A strings. I did not check the intonation with the stock nut on the 1st five or so frets before I installed the Zero Glide, but the intonation is fine on the lower frets. My order was processed and shipped promptly and Gold Tone customer service is excellent. Thanks for a great product !
I've used this for over a month and I'm more happy now than when I first installed it. The intonation on my acoustic is better than it ever was...you can fine tune the saddle almost dead on for intonation. One suggestion.....be sure to glue in the zero fret with a few drops of glue once you get the guitar right. I was working on my guitar on and off for a month and didn't glue in the zero fret. I was taking the strings on and off. Every time you reinstall the zero fret it will be in a slightly different place. String against fret will cause a slightly different indentation in the zero fret. You want the string to stay in the same spot on the zero fret.
I m impressed with this. Easy to install. I m not a luthiar but I have refretted a few guitars and made some nuts and saddles. This is a pretty incredible system. I was going to cut a new nut for an acoustic guitar I just bought. I tested it and it was not sliding perfectly through the nut even though there was no ping while tuning. The way I test a nut is to strike a note then smack the string between the nut and the machine heads. behind the nut I put a tuner on the head stock so I can watch the note go up and come back. It simulates a good bend and you can watch the quality of the nut you have on the guitar. Most guitars will stick at about 6 to 10 cents above the tuned note unless you have a really well cut nut. At least the wound strings will....steel strings will usually drop back to the tuned note if the nut is decent . The nut I had on this guitar was pretty good....no pings while tuning yet it would still catch occasionally which effected tuning.
I just put the Zero Glide on my guitar. Very impressed. This is as close to perfect as I can get. I can bend all over the guitar and 95 of the time the notes come back to the original pitch....the few times they don t it s so minimal most people wouldn t notice it....I really believe that it s probably the tuners....they re decent low grade tuners. Nothing special. Amazing considering this is a 300.00 guitar. I checked the space between the 1st fret and the E and B strings fretted at the third fret...distance between 1st fret and bottom of string .....they looked like they were less than a thousandth and the guitar was not buzzing on an open string. The action is very low with extra thin strings on it. This made the guitar play even easier. I had the strings set at about 4 thousandths from the first fret while fretting at the third. This took them lower....especially on the first 5 frets. Good job on this I do wish they would have sent me a smaller fret.
Had tuning stability and buzzing issues after ten years on my first bone nut. Also have always been bothered by open string vs. fretted string sounds. I play mostly flat picking/crosspicking styles and Travis style picking. The consistency of the note makes both more enjoyable for me. No buzzing lower action smoother tuning smoother playing easier bending etc... Have all been a result. Took me about two hours to get height and width of nut and fret correct. Had to get a smaller get shipped from gold tone and their customer service was the easiest I have ever experienced. Had part in two days and I am satisfied.
I received and mounted the custom made Rickenbacker 12 string nut yesterday.
WOW! I have been playing guitar for 40 years, and it is not often I experience anything improving my instrument like your Zeroglide nut did.
Tone was greatly improved, playability is much - much better with lower action and wider stringspacing (perfect), intonation is better (had to change my earlier settings a bit) and it stays in tune.
You have a very happy Norwegian on the other side of the pond with this product.
Just a little note. I had to sand off approx 2-3mm from the back (thickness) of the nut. Mayby make it 2mm thinner?
I had a Zero Glide Zero Fret Nut installed on my 68 Epiphone SG Clone by the luthier who does ALL of my guitar work Scott Thompson at String Craft - here in Memphis . 1st off I have to say that this guitar is one of my go-to guitars the others being my 1964 handmade Mosrite Celebrity Prototype and an early 80 s Mexican Telecaster. Upon getting my guitar back with the new Zero Glide installed I plugged it into my 65 Blackface Deluxe Reverb with a JBL D120f and I was IMMEDIATELY blow away by the improvement in the TONE of this guitar... It was pretty good before BUT now it is piano like ... The tone blew me away not to mention the improvement in ACTION... You see I am a BIG proponent of Zero Frets due to my Mosrite which is the standard by which I judge all others but I was not ready for the massive improvement that was realized by the installation of the Zero Glide Zero Fret Nut on this guitar. I have used this guitar now on a couple of gigs and am STILL blown away. OH tun
I've owned guitars with zero frets and always wondered why the idea never really caught on...For me,It improves the feel,tuning stability and playability..I was interested when I saw this device and wondered if it was something I would be capable of installing without risk to my acoustic... it turned out to be easier than I'd hoped..with just a small amount of sanding I had it installed in less than an hour...I'll be ordering at least one more to try out on one of my electrics..thanks Bob M.
I installed this on a fender for my friend, he loves it.s like using a capo I recent bought a 12 string zero fret and installed it on my Kirk Sands classic nylon and It truly makes a difference in tuning. No slip and holds well. William clamp
I bought the mandolin version and fitted it to my Gibson. There's a lot of extra material to remove, but the result was great. Easier tuning (the old nut had tight slots for the A strings), better intonation. Later I used one of the extra frets in the package to fix a tenor guitar. For that, I simply filed the necessary ledges in the existing nut and widened the string slots. It would be nice if Stew-Mac would also sell the offset tang frets separately, for retrofitting to an existing nut.
I installed this on an old Alvarez acoustic that used to belong to my Dad. The strings had started to buzz badly and the bridge height was maxed out so I knew it must be the nut. Took about an hour to cut down the new nut and shape with the Drexel tool; sided/polished the frets and installed glide nut with the tallest feet wire. Worked like a charm and no more buzzing. Even lowed the bridge down to a reasonable height as well. Great product and easy to install.
I've got a '67 Gretsch Country Gentleman that has what they called the zero fret. I had always wondered why didn't anybody else do this. I put this on my 2010 Gibson Lucille and it solved the nut drag problem. I'm also going to put it on my '76 Les Paul Deluxe. A great solution to an on going problem.
Have you ever seen one of these? It's a ZeroFret nut. My new Strat was yummy, but had a buzzing G string when played open. I know G strings have caused problems the world over, but still? I took it back to ________, where the setup guy initially said he couldn't hear it, then asked 'what difference does it make'? He futzed with the neck relief and finally 'put some more material' (crazy glue?) in the G string nut groove, but it didn't resolve the problem, and the B string developed the same issue. So, I ordered a ZeroFret nut from Stewart MacDonald.These have a small shelf on the neck side of the nut, onto which you fit the appropriate sized fret wire. After some cutting, filing and sanding, the problem is solved, and the guitar has much purer tone and better sustain across all of the strings. I added some GraphTech saddles, locking tuners, and voila! My new favorite guitar.
My old nut was too high. And I didn't want to buy 6 nut files. This Zero glide was much, MUCH cheaper, and it was an easy instal. I taped some 400 grit sandpaper to a plank I had laying around. Sand sand sand, check the fit, repeat. I tried each fret it came with and chose the jumbo. I consider this a major upgrade to my home built super strat.
One for Fender Telecaster, the other for Breedlove acoustic. Both of these guitars are top 10 instruments. The Zero Glide nut improvement came through as described on Youtube demos. So much better string action (lower with out any fret buzz) Clarity in open string tone chords and pulloff plucking, faster tuning to pitch, using electronic tuner, remaining in pitch once strings stretch has settled in. I took my time to install on both guitars about 2 hours for each instrument. Have new custom Guitar that I will 99% sure I will add this improvement to soon. I see this becoming a standard upgrade to many popular manufactures. Lastly the sustain in open chords on all strings cant be described.
An inexperienced guitar tech worked on the nut of my Guild M75 Aristocrat electric and I ended up with a "sitar" sound on my high E string and a dead G string and bad intonation. A friend recommended Zero Glide and that company recommended this particular nut.
Installation was not particularly difficult for a handy guy, but took two hours and involved sanding nearly 1/8 inch off the bottom of the new nut and 1/16th plus off each side while being careful to keep it even. The video on the company website helps. Once fitted correctly you decide how big of a 'zero fret' you want. There are four of different sizes in the package. I tried them all and found that the smaller ones provide very low action at the nut (which is nice), but require a higher action up the neck to clear the first fret where the strings can rattle. I ended up using the largest fret provided as it allowed me low action where I need it. Once you have it figured out you trim the zero fret to length and glue it
I bought two of these, one Gibson-style and one Fender-style for two of my favorite project guitars, an Epiphone LPX and my Jazz-O-Caster parts guitar. The Gibson was a near drop-in, needing only some trimming and shaping for a perfect fit. The Fender was slightly more challenging, as the neck on the Jazz-O-Caster never saw the inside of any Fender-approved factory! It required a 1/32" shim underneath for a proper fit, and some sanding to make room for the tang. There was a marked increase in the brightness of tone for both instruments, as well as improved intonation. This is MUCH easier than installing a traditional nut, and nearly foolproof IF you follow the instructions. Thanks, Stewart-Macdonald, for stocking such a well-engineered product.
The bone nut was easy to install. I sanded the length and depth with a table sander. The instructions are complete and easy to follow. Four zero frets of different sizes are included in the banjo kit--you try the smallest and work your way up until you have no open string buzz. Use medium viscosity cyanoacrylate (available from Stewmac) so you have time to set the nut and fret properly. I'm pleased with the results, improved tone, and hammer-ons and pull-offs are more defined.
I just installed a Zero Glide Nut on my '14 Les Paul Studio. I was having trouble with the traditional *tink* and tuning issues often associated with Gibsons. Initially, I was going to try the new titanium nut made by Gibson but was told that it would not fit my '14 Les Paul. Keep in mind, I have never installed a nut before on a guitar where I needed to remove the old one. I had only fixed broken nuts in the past. I say this because I had a little anxiety when I decided to install the nut myself. The first thing I noticed was how much extra material must be sanded to get a perfect fit. For my application, I had to sand the bottom of the nut as well to get the fret to seat properly against the fret board. This may sound bad, but it is a good thing! It means that the folks at Stew-Mac realize (as I hope you do) that although these are precision instruments, there are many parts that are finished out by hand. The extra material allows for those minor variations and with a little work,
Wow, what an innovation! This product eliminates the critical process of nut filing completely disappear to be replaced by a zero fret which enhances the sound of your guitar. It is not without some challenges in installation, but once completed your guitar just sounds and plays better.
Great product, Makes a lot of difference in sound and play ability. To say nothing of staying in tune. I put one on a Ovation Legend made in 1972. The guitar always sounded good but was a little tough to play. This made a world of difference. It is now amazing. I have a friend who can't keep his hands off of it. He likes it better than his Rainsong.
This is one of those things that you ask yourself why has no one thought of this before, but it likely would have been very difficult to produce on a volume scale without CNC machines.......I put the ZB4 on a Washburn parlor guitar and was amazed at the difference in tone clarity, sustain and definition as well as tuning stability and the lowest possible action.........What more could you ask for for one single mod??.....Zero Glide makes several different sizes etc to fit just about any guitar, so be sure you get the right model for your instrument. The unslotted ZB4 requires slotting, so it does require some skill and proper files. I would recommend letting a tech install if you have no experience or tools. I do predict that some of the major instrument makers will be using this in the near future. Why did'nt I think of this. JB/Texas
The Zero Glide performs like the manufacturer claims it will. It took less than one hour to complete the installation and have the guitar playing. The nut I removed was cheap plastic and the thin wires had cut down into the nut to the point that there was severe fret buzz on the open strings. The Zero Glide cured that and has all of the strings at the same level. I used a disc sander to shape the nut to length and height in a few minutes. About five more minutes and the nut was polished. The installation looks good. I suggest a person view the manufacturer's installation video before doing the installation.
Let me start by saying I love this thing and would have rated it as 5 stars but for the fact that installation was difficult. I installed on a Fender Strat. The main installation problem is that the combined thickness of the nut part and the fret part was much thicker than my existing nut. The secondary installation problem is that once you get the nut part sanded down correctly, you need to somehow "hammer" the fret part down into the crack you have between the nut part and the fret board. You need to force the fret part down without bending or mangling the fret part. Because the nut part is behind and above the fret part it is hard to force into the crack without mangling something.You have to be careful not to over sand the nut part - the final fit needs to be snug. So, lots of sanding and trying. BE PATIENT!
Once installed, it is PERFECT. When you play, the open strings are "fretted" the same as the fingered strings. Tuning is easier, in my opinion. It is a wonderful mod
Installed the Zero Glide ZS-5 on a Yamaha FG730S. It wasn't difficult, just takes a little time to sand down the width, length and height to get it to the proper level of the fretboard. It makes a minor sound improvement now that the strings are riding over a fret instead of the nut. It made a bigger difference in playability, since the nut height is lower than the stock nut that came with the guitar. And, it's totally reversible. Just knock off the Zero Glide and reinstall the original nut. Overall, it is worth the $23 to try it out. It can make a slight improvement.
Update: March 22, 2015 After using the Zero Glide for about 2 months now, I can say that the sound improvement is more noticeable than I originally stated. open notes have a nice ring to them.