guitar tuning

[watash]

hey guys, i have this old teisco that i bought at a pawn shop, and it has a problem with tuning. I tune the 6th string to E but then the 5th fret plays an A that is a tad sharp. what can i do about this? is therea any way to adjust the bridge to get teh strings sounding right, or is it a matter of the frets. If i were to get it re-fretted would that do the job?

[Zane1Tsu]

Either your intonation is off or the neck is warped. If your intonation is off, you should take it in to a local repair shop, and they can adjust it for you. It's literally millimeters of an adjustment which can make all the difference, so let a professional do it. Or, if the neck is warped, don't bother trying to fix it. Get a new guitar.

[Dani Pace]

I've collected a few old Tiescos over the years (I like the interesting body shapes) and one thing I have noticed about them is intonation problems. While some of them have an amazing tone (they make great guitars for slide) many of them have short necks (some with only 17 frets) which makes setting intonation difficult. Many of them also have single bar bridges which can't be adjusted. The Electra Co. imported thousands of them from japan in the 60s but not many have survived to the present. If you don't mind making the modification, a tune-o-matic bridge might be the answer to your intonation problem, I'd leave it stock, they are becoming collectable as 60s memorabilia.

[watash]

thanks dani pace your info on teiscos helped out. mine has two microphone pickups, and i've been thinking about potting them, or getting other teisco pickups because i just dont dig the mics. tell me what you think.

[Minion]

I recently had an Epiphone Les paul (Still do) that had really bad Intonation Problems and since it had a Single Bar Bridge It was allmost impossible to intonate so what I did was Changed the Bridge from a Single Bar Non-adjustable Bridge to a Strat style adjustable Bridge which only cost me about $10 and now I can edjust the Length of the Strings and the Height so I can now Intonate it......

You can Pick up Strat stype Bridges on E-bay for very cheap these days, I am going to pick up a New Bridge for my Bass Guitar soon as it is an uncomfortable Bridge to play as it keeps Cutting up my Hand.....

Also if your Neck is Warped you can buy a new one on e-bay for about $50, Just make sure the Length and Fret Count and Width of the Heel of the Neck are the Same so it Fits Properly and so it Can be Intonated.....

Cheers

[watash]

if i cant figure out the intonation, ill give it a try, thanks minion

[Dani Pace]

Changing the pickups will likely improve your tone. The microphone pickups are noisy and (to me ) sound thin and tinny. If you go for other Tiesco pups look for the chrome top with 2 slots (some sort of gold tone materal in the slots) and a single row of pole screw down the center, these are a large single coil and are pretty gutsy pups. Changing pups wont cure your intonation problem though, you are going to have to look for an adjustable bridge. Is your guitar a solid or hollow body? Also does it have the single spring (looks kind of like a cheapo copy of a Bixby) tremolo tail piece? If you have one of those tail pieces, replace it, I've never seen one that would stay in tune.

[Monkey Allen]

I have an old average acoustic and a new good one. Funny how the new one sounds up the slightest fault in tuning but the old one is just there or there abouts, and sounds ok for a bash.