A
Great idea, almost perfect
I like taking cheap guitars and seeing how good they can get with a little TLC and minor (and sometimes not so minor) modifications. I bought the Harley Benton ST-70 Black Paisley, and thought it a good opportunity to try the Zero-Glide nut,
After levelling, crowning and polishing the frets, the nut was fairly straight forward to fit, and after trying the various zero-fret sizes I ended up with the highest one which seemed perfect, unsurprisingly as the frets were new and unworn.
In use, the tuning stays well in, even after a fair bit of whammy use, and the open chords sound great to my ears, acoustically and through an amp.
The only one thing I have noticed (and hence not 5 stars given) is that when bending, the strings do move sideways suddenly (but only slightly) on the zero-fret which you can hear when playing quietly through an amp, but more importantly when playing at 'normal' levels, I can't hear the strings acoustically, but I can feel the string tweak slightly as I bend.
It's not too bad when you get used to it. I may try some nut sauce to see if that helps, but it's something to be aware of. I would say on an acoustic this would be a problem, for me at least.
After levelling, crowning and polishing the frets, the nut was fairly straight forward to fit, and after trying the various zero-fret sizes I ended up with the highest one which seemed perfect, unsurprisingly as the frets were new and unworn.
In use, the tuning stays well in, even after a fair bit of whammy use, and the open chords sound great to my ears, acoustically and through an amp.
The only one thing I have noticed (and hence not 5 stars given) is that when bending, the strings do move sideways suddenly (but only slightly) on the zero-fret which you can hear when playing quietly through an amp, but more importantly when playing at 'normal' levels, I can't hear the strings acoustically, but I can feel the string tweak slightly as I bend.
It's not too bad when you get used to it. I may try some nut sauce to see if that helps, but it's something to be aware of. I would say on an acoustic this would be a problem, for me at least.
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