I am trying to restore an old Ibanez guitar that has a vintage Strat style bridge. Firstly, the action is way too high to be playable, even with the saddles at the lowest position. Also the intonation is always too flat even when I bring the saddles forward. I suspect the neck has problems. Please advise me on how to fix this!
Intonation problems
- Thread starter Rolland
- Start date
hockey punk
New member
It is most assuredly time to start tweeking the truss rod , only about 1/4 to 1/8th turn at a time and give it time to settle between turns (not a great amount of time , just turn it a little and then play it a while to see where you are at ). About the intonation ,the neck bending will have some affect on it for sure but I would check to see if the mounting screws on the bridge and the neck could have sloppy holes that might allow for neck or bridge movement .
I don't do any of my guitar work myself so I can't help personally but check this site out http://www.braille.uwo.ca/~charles/bg101_5.html
Treeline
New member
Check out some of the discussions, archives and the library section at the following link: www.mimf.com Lots of stuff on diagnosing neck problems. Mostly guitarheads, like me. Many are builders (unlike me); some have 20 years on the business. We speculate; they teach us. Good deal.
Sometimes the angle of the neck needs adjusting. When all else fails to bring the action lower you need to shim the neck. Try a piece of screen(it won't move around) If you need more fold it in half.Usually a little is all that is needed. Shimming the portion of the neck closest to the body will lower action and shimming the portion of the neck furthest from the body will bring the strings
higher, follow? Try loosening the truss rod before doing this (not to much) .When the action is where you want it put a capo on the first fret and depress the low E at the last fret. You want to loosen or tighten the truss rod until you have 10 thousandths clearance from the bottom of the low E to the top of the 8th fret. This slight curvature is called "relief" For very heavy strings or aggressive playing try about 12 thousandths.
Now it is time to set intonation.
Hope this helps
Jas
higher, follow? Try loosening the truss rod before doing this (not to much) .When the action is where you want it put a capo on the first fret and depress the low E at the last fret. You want to loosen or tighten the truss rod until you have 10 thousandths clearance from the bottom of the low E to the top of the 8th fret. This slight curvature is called "relief" For very heavy strings or aggressive playing try about 12 thousandths.
Now it is time to set intonation.
Hope this helps
Jas
Thanks Jason for the shimming idea. I used a small piece of paper and it helped so the action is okay now. But still can't solve the truss rod problem, either there's a lot of buzzing on the first few frets, or intonation is way flat on 12th fret, or both. Could it be because the nut is too low? If so, how do I change the nut?
Rolland
This guitar sounds like it needs some serious work. I could write a book here about guitar setup and maintenance or, you could buy one that is worth every penny
Guitar player repair guide by Dan Erlewine
Its alot of fun to repair, tweak, setup your own stuff and the cost of the book is less than a pro setup. I would recomend it to every guitar player. Dan writes in easy to understand laymans terms.
The book is easily found in any AMS, Musicians Friend kind of mag
Jas
This guitar sounds like it needs some serious work. I could write a book here about guitar setup and maintenance or, you could buy one that is worth every penny
Guitar player repair guide by Dan Erlewine
Its alot of fun to repair, tweak, setup your own stuff and the cost of the book is less than a pro setup. I would recomend it to every guitar player. Dan writes in easy to understand laymans terms.
The book is easily found in any AMS, Musicians Friend kind of mag
Jas
hockey punk
New member
Go for it Rolland I agree with Jason , it is a lot of fun to tweak your own guitars and you allways learn something , sometimes you learn the wrong way to do it but that knowledge is valuable too . It's not a Stradavarius it's an Ibanez . Experience is the best teacher . Books are alright too .
Don't know if this will help much, but this is something that no one else mentioned.
How old are the strings?
Old strings can screw with the intonation even when the guitar is setup right.
There was once when I fiddled with the saddle all night and couldn't get the intonation right. By chance, the string snapped and when I replaced it, even though the saddle had been moved all over the place, it was a lot more in tune than it had been while I was trying to adjust it. Turns out that my intonation problem wasn't the saddle at all, it was the string.
How old are the strings?
Old strings can screw with the intonation even when the guitar is setup right.
There was once when I fiddled with the saddle all night and couldn't get the intonation right. By chance, the string snapped and when I replaced it, even though the saddle had been moved all over the place, it was a lot more in tune than it had been while I was trying to adjust it. Turns out that my intonation problem wasn't the saddle at all, it was the string.
GT
New member
I did my own intonation on my strat copy.
I found that I had to compromise between the twelth fret and the fifth and seventh frets.
I believe that unless you have a perfect neck, you cannot just use the twelfth fret
to set intonation.
I have found that it also helps to play a song with lots of chords up and down the neck and check it that way.
Also dead strings sound flatter on the higher frets, than new strings.
Good luck, don't get to frustrated!!!
I found that I had to compromise between the twelth fret and the fifth and seventh frets.
I believe that unless you have a perfect neck, you cannot just use the twelfth fret
to set intonation.
I have found that it also helps to play a song with lots of chords up and down the neck and check it that way.
Also dead strings sound flatter on the higher frets, than new strings.
Good luck, don't get to frustrated!!!
Slackmaster2K
Gone
I recently took my les paul into the shop for a setup...the first time I had ever done so...my intonation has been SOOO off for the past couple *years* that I finally broke down. Basically it got to the point where I couldn't set the intonation, thus requiring truss adjustment.
Anyway, the local shop only charged me $15 and I was able to watch the guy do it. Pretty cool. The guitar plays and sounds much better now. If you're not interested in adding guitar setup to your long list of crap to keep straight, just take the sucker in
Slackmaster 2000
Anyway, the local shop only charged me $15 and I was able to watch the guy do it. Pretty cool. The guitar plays and sounds much better now. If you're not interested in adding guitar setup to your long list of crap to keep straight, just take the sucker in
Slackmaster 2000
Thanks for all the help guys, I think I finally figured out what's wrong, it's the nut that is too low and causing some buzzing on the upper frets.
Problem is there's not too many guitar techies in my area and after I checked out the prices (US$150 for refretting, $50 for a basic tune up) maybe it's better to get a new replacement neck from a Squier.
Well I also checked out the famous Guitar Player Repair Guide and spent a couple hours browsing it in the bookstore. It seems to be in every bookstore that has a music section. And they gave me, the '12 simple steps to changing a nut', which is simple only when you are reading it. But I'm getting there. Thanks for the help!
Problem is there's not too many guitar techies in my area and after I checked out the prices (US$150 for refretting, $50 for a basic tune up) maybe it's better to get a new replacement neck from a Squier.
Well I also checked out the famous Guitar Player Repair Guide and spent a couple hours browsing it in the bookstore. It seems to be in every bookstore that has a music section. And they gave me, the '12 simple steps to changing a nut', which is simple only when you are reading it. But I'm getting there. Thanks for the help!
Treeline
New member
What's that red face doing there? Didn't mean to do that.Check out some of the print resources at www.elderly.com . Good folks there.
[This message has been edited by Treeline (edited 05-05-2000).]