guide to intonation?..

[marson]

so, as far as i've heard about setting up intonation, the process goeslike this: tune string to perfect pitch, play 12th harmonic to make sure its tuned, then play the 12th fret note and if it is flat, then detune, and move the saddle towards the neck, if it's sharp move it towards the tailpiece. please correct me if i'm wrong. so i did all those steps, for all the strings. i then tuned them to pitch. after doing that, however, i noticed the b string didn't match the note played on the 4th fret of the g string, the e string didnt match 5th fret of b string, etc. what am i doing wrong? is my tuner bad? maybe setting up guitars isnt my thing.

 

[skynyrd67]

Welcome to the wonderful world of intonation,,lol. It doesn`t always work out text book style, each guitar is different, each players touch is different. The way I usually do it is tune open string to pitch, then hit the harmonic at the 5th fret and check it on tuner, then note at the 12th fret and read tuner. Adjust saddles to make the open, 5th harmonic and 12th fret all tune equal. PLUS, once you detune set the saddle and retune stretch the string a couple of times THEN check the intonation, a string can get hung on the saddle or nut when tuning back up and make everything look ok when it isn`t.

 

[Lipinhu]

Try get a fretboard like this... for a start.

I'm reading some guitar books and they are pretty unanimous about intonation and compensation: It's impossible to perfect pitch every note.

So, I guess you did a good job intonating your geetar.

 

[Kirrt]

It bet even THAT fretboard isn't get perfect pitch on every string gauges

 

[Lipinhu]

Besides, when tuning with harmonics the strings stay in a very consistent straight line between the nut and bridge saddles, when you press a note you are actually bending that line, so that a shift up is unavoidable.

 

[njdelta]

One thing to remember is to press the strings on the 12th fret the way you play. I had that trouble the first couple of times I set the intonation on my guitar (the first couple of times I guess could be considered the same time to guys that know what they're doing). Dan Erlewine's book "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great", was very helpful.

 

[nuance97]

Also according to Erlewine the 12th harmonic can be a few cents sharp compared to the open note. This would be imperceptible to the human ear, but it is not needed or recommended to even use the harmonic when setting intonation.

One other thing it is best to start with the saddles all the way back before you even put on a fresh set of strings prior to intonating because where the strings bend across the bridge it kinks the string which will mess with how it intonates.

 

[marson]

One thing to remember is to press the strings on the 12th fret the way you play. I had that trouble the first couple of times I set the intonation on my guitar (the first couple of times I guess could be considered the same time to guys that know what they're doing). Dan Erlewine's book "Hot to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great", was very helpful.

well im glad to hear that, because i ordered that book just a few days ago . thanks everybody for the help, ill try again later today.

 

[greenhorn]

Yes, you have to press the strings as you do when you play.

I fret the 12th then play the open. I DONT do the harmonic at the 12th because depending on how action is set it wont work. When fretting the 12th and then playing the open I've had no problems.

 

[Pete M]

I've read conflicting things about almost all aspects of setting intonation. I say unless you play jazz (yuk!) or have perfect pitch hearing then intonation is a ballpark thing. Yeah people get crazy with weird nuts and frets but for rock n roll close enough is good enough! Gibson used to use a jig and plonk unadjustable wraptails on. They seem to play ok.

 

[Murkar]

Hope this isn't something too obvious (forgive me if it is) but did you make sure to check that the frets are perfectly level? Might not be an issue with the intonation if it sounds noticeably out of tune at some positions.

If the string is really noticably out of tune at the fourth fret then that's probably a problem; if it is really minor then it's probably just the natural intonation issue but (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong here) I think the changes in intonation are pretty small usually; how out of sync is it with the b string when you fret the fourth fret of the g string?

 

[Reverend D]

I'm sure this is what my first fret install will look like...

Regards,

Don

 

[onehippie]

for your convenience click the tune up in my sig

page 1 has basic overall setup for your friend

 

[gator payne]

You have just found the most noticable tonic error in "Equal Temperament mode". There have been many different temperament modes developed over the years. Each have have tonic errors mostly cause by 3rd's and or 5th's. "Equal Temperament" is the mode used by modern straight fretted and fretless instruments in most cases.

To understand why this error exist requires a modist understanding of the musical language, A couple weeks ago I posted the thread listed below with a link to Mike Doolin's articals on just this subject. If you are going to intonation this is a must read.


http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/lut...onation-mike-doolin.html?highlight=intonation