Guitar intonation

Personally, I never trust my own ears.

In the studio I use G-Tune, which is a pretty good software tuner, and around the house I just use some digital tuner I've had forever.

One of the real difficulties I've encountered is control of "wow" when tuning and setting intonation, especially on the big E and A strings. I don't think I have a guitar that doesn't have a problem with this phenomenon, which is sometimes less oppressive with 5th & 7th fret harmonics.

I just try to get a stable harmonic and tune the saddle length to match that harmonic to the 12th fret and hope for the best. If it's substantially off somewhere else on the neck, I'll retune to that if that's where I'm going to be playing most.

Something I've noticed lately is that you can set the intonation perfectly and go back the next day and find that the saddle adjustment measures way off again - and sometimes on only one or two strings.

I have to get to the bottom of that one.
 
I just tune the 12th fret note to the 12th fret harmonic. That's close enough for me. I feel that the "out of tune-ness" of the guitar is part of it's charm. You guys that want to play in perfect tune should just get a synthesizer.
 
bongolation said:
Personally, I never trust my own ears.

In the studio I use G-Tune, which is a pretty good software tuner, and around the house I just use some digital tuner I've had forever.

One of the real difficulties I've encountered is control of "wow" when tuning and setting intonation, especially on the big E and A strings. I don't think I have a guitar that doesn't have a problem with this phenomenon, which is sometimes less oppressive with 5th & 7th fret harmonics.

I just try to get a stable harmonic and tune the saddle length to match that harmonic to the 12th fret and hope for the best. If it's substantially off somewhere else on the neck, I'll retune to that if that's where I'm going to be playing most.

Something I've noticed lately is that you can set the intonation perfectly and go back the next day and find that the saddle adjustment measures way off again - and sometimes on only one or two strings.

I have to get to the bottom of that one.
Click to expand...

Bongo,

You may be a candidate for doing certain things by ear.

Also a good way not to be "fooled by your ears" is our good friend the recorder.

Play and record slowly played chords, that cause speculation. During playback you will hear things you may not, while playing.

Some of us are more critical of intonation problems than others, this doesn't mean we're better, it's just our lot. Also doesn't mean we will necesarally get better results.

I seem to be driven, for better or worse, to tweek the bridge on my electric.

Thank god my acoustic doesn't allow, one guitar is enough.

Oh well right or wrong, if your driven, your driven.

Intonation threads have allways been popular, which means guitars aren't perfect. Also means there is no perfect way of fixing it.

Hands on my sons!!

GT
 
64Firebird said:
I just tune the 12th fret note to the 12th fret harmonic. That's close enough for me. I feel that the "out of tune-ness" of the guitar is part of it's charm. You guys that want to play in perfect tune should just get a synthesizer.
Click to expand...
When I was playing rock and blues lead in the (very) old days, I'm sure I would have been saying the same thing.

Now that I am doing more orchestral chord-based stuff, I find I can't get away with as much in the tuning department.

Chords with some strings out of tune are just painful, really.:(
 
bongolation said:
When I was playing rock and blues lead in the (very) old days, I'm sure I would have been saying the same thing.

Now that I am doing more orchestral chord-based stuff, I find I can't get away with as much in the tuning department.

Chords with some strings out of tune are just painful, really.:(
Click to expand...

Bongo,

Absolutely right on!! I feel your pain, and I raise you a philips head screw driver.

You are a perfect candidate for mean tempered tuning.

These problems are real and painfull.

Get out you screwdriver, and set out on the adventure, that may make you happier.

Don't forget to be patcient, and know you have nothing to lose.

You can allways go back to the twelth fret, but I have a feeling you won't.

GT
 
bongolation said:
When I was playing rock and blues lead in the (very) old days, I'm sure I would have been saying the same thing.

Now that I am doing more orchestral chord-based stuff, I find I can't get away with as much in the tuning department.

Chords with some strings out of tune are just painful, really.:(
Click to expand...

Okay, I can see that.
 
I setup my guitars a lot by ear using the 12th frett test as a start. I like to check 5th to 17th frett as well and play the same bar chord all the way up the neck to see if a particular string get's progressively worse, usually a barred A. Ultimately I like to be able to play a barred E anywhere and have it sound ok. If I can do that, I'm pretty happy.

It saves some time and money to be able to get my guitars into "some kind of shape" myself. Maybe that's because of the changing seasons here in Canada.

I've been looking to pick up a tuner for a while but I don't want to waste any money on a pos that's only slightly better than my ear.

As was mentioned already, a bad neck and rough uneven fretts will make a guitar impossible to setup across the whole neck, so don't drive yourself insane trying, get it as close as you can until the rest is sorted out.
 
Forget all this shit and go buy a guitar that has the Buzz Feiten tuning system installed! You'll be glad you did. I sure don't own one, but I've played them, and it's amazing!! In tune all over, all the time. Check it out.

ed
 
www.buzzfeiten.com

If this way is right, the old way is shit!

Guitar manufactures who care, should have jumped on this day one.

Gibson and Fender should be ashamed, with there high dollar out of tune guitars.

It's taken me years to temper my guitar, this looks a lot easier!!

GT
 
Buzz's proprietary scale length has been around for years, yet NONE of the major guitar manufacturers have adopted anything even resembling it. He belongs in the same category as Floyd Rose clamping tremolo systems, a technologically advanced (over-engineered?) but impractical idea that will never be used on the majority of instruments.
Any of you that want to set up your own axes, but don't have a real accurate tuner, go to my homepage (click the button at the bottom of my post) and download the free tuner there. Its accurate to 1/100th cent. I have used it at work for years tuning a variety of instruments in preference to a $500 Peterson 420 strobe. This is a "software strobe" good enough for guitar set ups.
 
Tom,

Very cool tuner!!

How do you get exact numerical readings?

I would be happy to give away my temperment readings at the twelth fret, if anyone wants to know.

Don't care for Buzz's idea, huh? Just another intonation mad scientist?!?

Great thread!!

GT
 
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