Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

I know you said playing style, don't worry about it, but I think you've misunderstood the purpose of a zero fret. The design of a zero fret isn't to reduce the effect of bending things sharp by excess pressure.

Zero frets are used primarily to allow for the lowest possible action at the first fret, without the hassle of cutting a nut slot to the correct height for each string, and also to give a more consistent tone between open notes and fretted notes.

The upshot of what you're describing is actually a side effect. Incorrectly cut not slots will place the strings too high above the fretboard at the nut. When you fret these guitars with too high nuts, you need more pressure to contact the string to the fret, and it must be stretched to do so, meaning the note will become sharp. A zero fret eliminates these problems because during a fret level, it is also levelled, and thus it matches the curvature of the fretboard perfectly, and is as low a starting point for the action as is physically possible without instant fretting out. Lower action means less string stretching, means less sharp notes towards the low end of the fretboard.

Of course, if manufacturers made their guitars with the nut slots cut correctly, this problem wouldn't even need correcting. Its not a fix, its just an easier way of achieving the same thing a correctly cut nut slot should anyway.

As for repeating you, I think you'll find what I actually did was expand upon and give reasons for the points of contention you mentioned. YOu never mentioned the reasons for your playing style causing what it does, so I explained it for the benefit of anyone who wasn't able to make the conclusion apparent themselves.

Originally Posted by mr dave

i believe that missing piece of the sound would be his own fingertips