Zero frets and nuts

deano

I have an old Rose Morris acoustic. To be honest it was the very first guitar I ever had. My brother had it for Christmas when I was 11 but he never took to playing it, but I did. That was forty years ago!

Anyway, it has a zero fret. I replaced the nut with a cheap plastic one years ago when the original broke up.

I'm going to use it to mess around practicing refretting, refinishing etc unless someone tells me they are worth squillions!

But just as a matter of interest, does the material the nut is made from have the same level of effect on the tonality when the guitar has a zero fret as it does when it has a regular nut/fret combination?

Also, I have never been able to see any kind of truss rod adjustment on it. Does anyone know if it was common to not have a truss rod on cheap acoustic guitars from the mid to late 70's? I assume it was cheap because we never had much money and I can't imagine my mum and dad would have spent a lot on it back then.

ICBM

deano said:

But just as a matter of interest, does the material the nut is made from have the same level of effect on the tonality when the guitar has a zero fret as it does when it has a regular nut/fret combination?

No. It's basically just a string guide - the zero fret takes the pressure of the string.

deano said:

Also, I have never been able to see any kind of truss rod adjustment on it. Does anyone know if it was common to not have a truss rod on cheap acoustic guitars from the mid to late 70's? I assume it was cheap because we never had much money and I can't imagine my mum and dad would have spent a lot on it back then.

It probably just has a T or I-section steel bar in the neck - non-adjustable. Many cheap guitars did.

deano

Okay thanks @ICBM, much appreciated.