The zero fret

[joolstacho]

Personally I like the ZF. Mind you, I often use a slightly higher zero fret, which allows for a slightly lower action 'up top' or heavier 'country pos' playing before buzzing becomes an issue.
Obviously fret levelling needs to be done before the zero fret is inserted, (and I usually make the ZF slot just a tweak wider so that replacing it is easier). Making a nut for use with a ZF? -maybe one hour for me, -just string spacing... Making a nut for non ZF? Maybe 2-4 hours to get those string-heights close to perfect. (But then I'm no expert).

[old_picker]

Ray, a compensated saddle is fine for most of the fretboard but the lower frets will still not be correctly intonated with just a compensated saddle.

Having setup many 100's of nuts and bridges on electric guitars I find chords in farmers corner very sweet when I'm done. Certainly you can go over the board with a very good tuner and find some notes out a little but most players will not notice these small anomalies. I get things as good as I can in a very imperfect system and have never had a complaint that intonation is wrong.

In an acoustic instrument with a fixed saddle I can see the case for intonated nuts but at the end of the day this type of refinement is way over the head [or ears] of the vast majority of players.

my2c for what its worth

[blackalex1952]

Stewmac has entered the debate! These guys will do anything for a sale!
http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and_Su ... N_20160909

Do you have zero glide nuts?