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Burns of London was using zero frets on their guitars and basses as
far back as 1962, perhaps earlier, but I haven't seen any pictures
of guitars built before that. The new Burns repros also use a zero
fret.
-- In , "unlunf" <unlunf@y...> wrote:
>
> Marty,
>
> Semie Mosely's infamous obstinance notwithstanding, I included
> Mosrite because it was in the original message. But beyond that,
> the fact remains, many manufacturers listen to their customers,
> though certainly not all of them listen with the same enthusiasm.
> Plus, some companies listen to only few 'trusted' souls, or so
> it would seem. Rex Carson comes to mind when Leo was designing
> the Stratocaster. Nonetheless, the fact that a particular company
> may or may not have had a zero fret because of customer request
> does not in anyway negate my general statement.
>
> As for intonation itself.... you certainly can take care of
> many of the usual problems by adjusting only one end of the
> string. However, if you have a improperly cut nut right from
> the get-go, then that job becomes much harder. The problem
> lays in the fact that the gap between the break-over point
> in the nut and the first fret must be accurate, or else the
> open string will be either sharp or flat compared with the
> notes on the rest of the string. No amount of sliding the
> saddle back and forth can take care of that gap problem.
>
> A comparable scenario is that you can always add distortion
> to a clean signal, but you can never clean up a distorted
> signal to the point where it sounds as though it had always
> been clean. If you have an incorrect gap between the nut
> and the first fret, you can't make that problem go away by
> positioning the saddle differently - you simply must move
> the nut to a more accurate position. Simple physics.
>
> Marty, folks, please. I know my memory is getting old, but
> by an odd twist of fate, or as luck would have it, it's a
> known fact that the older one gets, the easier it is to recall
> one's more distant memories, and usually they are more accurately
> recalled than more recent ones. I'm no different in this respect.
> For this reason, I'd like to remind you all that I was there (make
> that in all capitals for emphasis) when all of this zero fret stuff
> was going down. How many of you can make that same statement? Are
> you sure you can persuade me that my memory is really that far off
> the mark? <g> Is it worth the hassle of trying? <double grin>
>
>
> unlunf
>
>
> --- In , "Marty Tippens"
<mctippens@e...> wrote:
> >
> > I question the source of your information, unlunf. I don't know
> > from the Guild organization, but Semie Mosely did not do design
> > tweaks at the request of collective group of musicians. He was
more
> > stubborn than Leo Fender. You got it his way or you didn't get
the
> > son of a b. In addition, the zero fret is not much of an
intonation
> > fix. Intonation is corrected by changing the length of the string
> > and a zero fret doesn't do that.
> >
> > -Marty
>
I found this link helpful to me in understanding exactly what a zero
fret is.
BN
