Slotted ZS-1 Guitar Nut System for Gibson

The nut slot for the low E string on my Epiphone Sheraton was too low causing a buzz at the first fret. Since I had to replace the nut, I decided to try this idea and it worked great. It allows you to easily set the action at the first fret to the right height for your playing style. The result is all of the strings are positioned properly and there are no problems with intonation going out. Unlike a standard nut, with the strings resting on the zero fret, you don't have to worry about the strings working themselves into the nut slots and making it necessary to replace the nut again. When the zero fret does wear down (would take a long time I would think) you can just pop out the worn zero fret and pop in a new one. With proper first fret action, it also makes it much easier to fret bar chords at the top of the neck. Since the nut slots on the zero glide nut are only for string spacing, the strings don't get stuck in the slot when tuning, so tuning is smoother. Lastly, it also adds clarity to open position chords because now all strings are playing against a fret instead of some of them sitting on the nut. If you have to replace a nut, this is a great option. If you don't think that you do, you might want to check! Once I put this on one guitar, I realized that another guitar had high action at the first fret, so I replaced that one, too, with one of these nuts. It does take a bit of careful work to install if you do it yourself - just don't rush it.

Finally, all the chords in the first position near the nut all sound good and I can concentrate on playing instead of tuning and trying to make it sound good. With a traditional nut, unless you have a perfectly set up guitar, which is expensive work to get done, or if you *try to* do it yourself, both difficult and expensive to achieve, you cannot get the kind of nice sounding chords this system delivers. It took about two hours of work to shape the zero fret nut and cut and smooth the fret. The only tools I needed were a set of calipers, a file to use as a sanding plane, and a fret cutter. If you take your time, have these three tools, or a sanding block instead of a file, and select the right fret of the four they give you and put it in with the correct orientation, you will end up with your guitar sounding super sweet. Would I say it's perfect? Like another reviewer, I would say it's almost perfect. Finally, I have a guitar that sounds sweet enough to record and really get to know.

Have bought numerous zero glides from this seller and they alway ship super fast. Thank you for the great service! I am a huge believer in these zero fret nuts having installed them on 3 guitar so far. I was highly skeptical, but they absolutely work great, especially for anything with a tremolo. Super smooth with zero drag. The string hight at the first fret is absolutely perfect now, it’s like having an expertly cut nut setup by a master, but I do it myself in about 30-40 minutes. The instructions are super easy to follow. I do recommend having or getting some basic guitar specific tools to make the install as easy as possible. A set of fret nippers and a basic crowning file will go a long way here. A few grades of sandpaper and a few drops of super glue and your all set. I did have to a add a string tree to the b&e strings on the fender types to eliminate open string buzz, so be mindful of that.

I installed this nut into a USA Gibson SG Standard with P90's hoping to get better intonation during lead playing. Gibson's have a horrible reputation when it comes to tuning stability. This is due to the headstock angle as well as the string break angle for the strings from the nut to the tuning peg. As for installing it yourself I would not recommend that you take on this modification on your own unless you have extensive experience repairing instruments, if you file to much there is no going back, you would simply have to purchase a new one and your guitar would not play in tune at all. I have been performing my own repairs for over 20 years and building guitars for a few years and still messed up a bit. Keep reading to find out what happened. If you do decide to do it on your own I highly recommend you go to the Zero Glide website and watch their installation video, it is very informative and helpful. Once the install was done which took me about 40 min with all the sanding I setup my guitar and checked the intonation and tuned up. AWESOME!! No hype behind this product, it stays in tune and plays true all over the neck. I have never heard any Gibson play this in tune all over the neck except for my Custom Shop Les Paul. Keep in mind that a full setup should be done once this nut is installed. That includes, neck relief, bridge height and intonation or you will not be happy with the results. This is true for any nut replacement you make, nothing to do with this product at all which is why again I recommend you get a professional to install this for you do not have experience in guitar repairs. After playing for a while I noticed that I had filed the zero fret (the fret that your strings rest of) a bit to much on the high E side and it was causing a bit of an issue. I called Zero Glide and they send me out a replacement fret, including shipping it was less than $5 and the person I spoke with was very professional and helped me get this resolved quickly.

The Zero Glide Slotted Nut allows one to change the string height at the nut by simply changing the fret that is part of the nut. Four heights are included in the kit. This lets one customize the action with each string change, or by loosening the strings between string changes. The only downside is that quite a lot of cutting and sanding is often required at installation.

Could be as simple as 30 minutes worth of work, or could take several hours and a number of tools... My Gibson SG factory nut was impossible to remove. Couldn’t tap it out with a block, sawed the nut down the middle and tried to collapse it with pliers and the material was so brittle that it just broke off everything above the nut channel... so then I had to chisel and file everything out, which took some time. After the nut channel was all cleaned out, it was time to install the new zero glide system. It comes too wide, too thick, and too tall, which requires a decent amount of careful sanding, spot checking, and more sanding. The fret wire needs some sizing too, and it would be great if they could give you an easier way to center the fret against the center of the nut. It’s a bit of work to make sure the fret lays flush with the lip on the nut and the fret board, but that’s just more sanding and spot checking. Came with 4 frets and only 2 of the 4 were marked so I had to eyeball which ones were which size. I don’t recommend gluing the fret to the nut in case you want to switch them out later for a higher or lower size at a later time. The sound is good. Generally satisfied with the product. Install was more than I bargained for. Your experience may be different. No issues with price versus quality. I was able to get what I wanted, which was a much smoother action than the factory install.

I've set up a ton of guitars, mandos, basses, dobros and banjos over the last forty or so years. I've made and fitted nuts, and cut string slots, out of blanks consisting of ivory (thankfully pretty much not available any longer), assorted bone, various synthetics, and brass. At a festival, I once made an emergency mando nut by cutting a blank from a red thick plastic camping spoon -- BTW, that mando sounded & looked pretty cool with a red nut; the owner eventually replaced it. I am not a stranger to creating and fabricating nuts, doing string spacing and cutting nut slots to the correct width & depth, making and sizing saddles, doing truss rod adjustments, fretwork and performing fretted inst set-ups. I decided to try the ZS-1 on a Yamaha acoustic, rescued from a dumpster, that fit the dimensions specified. Someone, I don't think it was the factory, had installed a very cheap and mis-cut plastic nut. I didn't find the ZS-1 overly difficult to install. The real problem involved the overall sound which seemed quite dead after fitting and installing the ZS-1. The guitar had a better sound with, as crappy as it was, the old nut. I also could not find a perfect zero fret height with the assorted fret gauges that came packaged with the system. I had to select the closest one to acceptable and realize that it was a compromise between the bass and treble string heights. Therefore, once you've fitted the plastic base which does take some skill, you essentially have to pick one of the given fret sizes and adapt to that when it comes to string height at the nut side of the instrument. There are prbly some setups where one of the supplied zero fret gauges will work and not be a compromise. Remember the idea of not having to cut exact string height nut slots, which can be very tricky to do, is the reason this type of nut was created. . So, with this system you are at the mercy of the given zero fret gauges and how they interact with your guitar at the first fret. And, if you are uncomfortable with the zero fret gauges packaged with the system, and how much height there is or isn't, away from the first fret once you've fitted the blank and selected a zero fret, you're pretty much out of luck. You could prbly spend less time cutting and fitting a "real" nut rather than try to modify the zero fret itself which the company does not recommend, and which does not lend itself to modification, and will probably create more problems and raise your frustration level. In my case the zero fret height from across the strings, bass to treble, was kinda sorta acceptable but not overall great and as stated earlier, the real show stopper was the poor sound. Anyway, back to the Yamaha ...... Using the same guitar and same strings, I fabricated and fitted a bone nut. The improvement was quite noticeable both in overall articulation and volume and play-ability; as there was no zero fret compromise when it came to nut slot string depth. I can see this zero fret system working in perhaps an emergency situation as it can be installed pretty quickly if you know what you're doing. And maybe it works ok on an electric gtr which relies more on the pickups for sound than on a sound chamber, but you'd still have that possible compromise of first fret string height. In my opinion, this zero fret nut design involves too many parts which can deaden the sound, more so than you'd have with a solid, one piece, properly fitted nut. This system works against the idea of using two simple solid single points of string contact to produce sound; a solid nut and a solid non-adjustable saddle (for an acoustic guitar). If you're a luthier, or a hobbiest that likes to mess with guitars, and have the bread to spare, give it a try and see what you think ........ bumper sticker version: Cldn't get it to sound good for me. YMMV

Not sure i needed to help after all

Fantastic just what I needed .

Much better than a bone nut for my gretch with bigsby. A metal fret slides the strings better than a porous nut, returns to pitch way better. One of the most important purchases for a trem equipped guitar.

Parfaite solution pour les problèmes de tuning de ma LesPaul

Zero frets solve lots of tuning problems and to be honest so does this one..for a while..after 7 months the fret is starting acquire grooves where the strings pass over. This is not supposed to happen for many years. I don't know what metal has been used but it is too soft. As with a badly cut traditional nut slot, grooves appearing across the zero will inevitably lead to string 'binding'- in other words they will stick , and the tuning problems come back. It's a fun 'proof of concept" and look forward to finding a guitar with a zero fret which is more beefy.

Exactly as advertised.