Posted by Nathan King on October 13, 2009 at 4:46pm
I was a bit nervous about using the bolt for a nut, due to the frets and possible intonation problems. It worked out just fine, but my next fretted neck might use a "real" nut instead.
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I was gifted some jumbo fretwire, and I"m planning on using it on the next batch as the zero. I use low/narrow for the rest of the frets. Lately I"ve used a 1/8" cotter pin set in a shallow notch and cut in the slots with a small file. This solved a great deal of my intonation problems. I'd previously had way too big of a nut and playing on the top frets was painful to listen to .
I thought about using a zero fret on this, but ultimately decided against it. Another reason I liked the diatonic fret spacing, there isn't a half step fret from the nut, so if it is off intonation wise, it would be more noticeable there (did that make sense? lol).
And yeah, the bolt looks much more home made! And it works just as well, plus I don't have to file a real nut.
I like the zero fret thing. There is a post somewhere on here that talks about nut position. The article that was linked suggested slipping the nut back between 1/16 and 1/32" for better intonation at the top frets. I"ve been doing that and it (combined with lots of other improved skills - so who can say?) has made for a better playing instrument for me.
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And yeah, the bolt looks much more home made! And it works just as well, plus I don't have to file a real nut.
Plus the bolt looks more groovy, eh?!