Russian guitar usually differs from the wood in the rest of the neck. The neck joint or heel is the point at which the neck is attached to the body of the guitar. The fingerboard is made of hardwood (ebony or rosewood are common), fitted with metal frets of brass or steel. Fret spacing almost always follows the western twelve tone equal temperament (12-tet) system. The surface of the fingerboard may be flat or curved slightly ("radiused"), although the curve on the Russian guitar is usually somewhat less than that of an equivalent western 6-string guitar. Inlayed position markers are common, and
Zero fret spaced properly. The strings rest atop the zero fret, which can be (but is not necessarily) higher than the other frets. It is claimed that with a zero fret, the sound of an open string more closely approximates the sound of a fretted string as compared to the open string sound on a guitar with no zero fret. Countering this claim are musicians who feel that a bone or even synthetic nut will enhance the overall tone of the instrument regardless of the string being played open or fretted. Since tone is so subjective, the two claims are likely to