Help! hardtail intonation

ZoSo58LP

ZoSo58LP

rock guy
hey so i've got a parker p-42 pro with a hardtail bridge. now, the intonation on many of my strings is sharp...so when i hit the 12th fret, it's VERY sharp. thing is, the bridge saddle is ALL THE WAY toward the back (toward the stop piece) and can't move anymore...and that's the direction i have to go to flatten out the intonation! what the hell do i do?! haha

and thing is, months ago, this thing was intonated PERFECLY. i haven't touched it since. wtf?
 
Is it on all strings? Slack off the strings, check all fixings on the bridge are tight and secured. Check the neck is held tight to the body. Put new string on and report back on what action you have. Is the measured distance from nut to twelfth fret the same as or greater than the twelfth fret to bridge saddle? If yes it has to do with old strings and action/setup.
 
hey mutt, thanks for the info. it was all strings, and they were from May...however, i put new ones on (same gauge) and it was still just as bad..so i lowered my bridge a little bit and messed wtih my intonation a bit, and now they're much better...but the E and G string saddles are STILL all the way to the back, so i can't adjust them anymore :\ but the way it plays now it me is just perfect
 
Yeah, I swear I was just signing on here to suggest that perhaps the action is too high, so that when you "hit" the 12th fret (I am interpreting "hit" to mean fretting, or striking the string to produce a harmonic) the string gets bent as you push it down.

But Mutt beat me to it, and covered much more ground.

Oh, well. You snooze, you lose.
 
stevie, that must be whats going on....

also i forgot to mention i've been playing in DGCF tuning lately, so since i'm still using 10's, i'm sure my strings are fluctuating and vibrating more since i still play with the same force, and obvioulsy it takes LESS force to press down on a fret, but i still press down normally...when just pressing a bit, my first E string is SITLL sharp, whereas my others are fine..and my E saddle is all the way to the back, so maybe it's just how this thing is lol
 
If you want to make the most of drop tunings you need to use a longer scale length or a heavier gauge string. String are designed work best within a given tension tolerance. If you slacken them ytoo much you can get odd things happening. Essentially the tension in the string is not sufficient to overcome the work being done and distribute equally along it's length.

The next thing you need to look at along with the action and neck releif is the depth of the nut slots on offending strings. The whole thing is a balancing act. What is the current action at twelfth fret? How does the neck relief look? and what clearance do you have at the first fret when you fret at the third fret? If you don't fully understand what I'm getting at or how to best measure or estimate these things just holla and I'll explain. All we need is ball park figures.
 
hey mutt thanks for the reply..i used to run a big heavy set on this thing because i did nothing but that tuning, but nowadays i go back and forth between that and regular, plus i like to do leads, so i like having the 10's on there for bendability (is that a word? lmao)

i suspect it just needs a good setup, so whenever i get around to taking measurments i'll come back and throw some info out :D
 
ZoSo58LP said:
hey mutt thanks for the reply..i used to run a big heavy set on this thing because i did nothing but that tuning, but nowadays i go back and forth between that and regular, plus i like to do leads, so i like having the 10's on there for bendability (is that a word? lmao)

i suspect it just needs a good setup, so whenever i get around to taking measurments i'll come back and throw some info out :D
Click to expand...

Keep in mind though that you are always likely to have some intonation issues to achieve what you are attempting to do. As far as workable limits go string are what they are. A bit like only inflating the tyres on your car to half the recommended pressure the thing will drive but it will handle like a pig..
 
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