intonation

[Milnoque]

I'm with Goldtopchas. Look to your stings first. They don't need to be old. A fault in the manufacture can cause this problem easily. When I was doing setup work I would occasionally run into this on new strings. This can be true even on high dollar brand names.

Secondly, the lighter the gauge the more difficult it is to achieve great intonation. It's just too easy to pull a really light string out of position mechanically.

Third, I am going to assume that this problem exists only on one or two strings. It's unlikely that Fender forgot exactly where to locate the frets or the nut on your Strat. If you set your action somewhere in the normal range minor problems with your neck adjustment won't pull you off pitch by 10 cents.

Fourth, Try someone else's tuner. Those little guys are excellent but are far from perfect. The problem could be partly there.

 

[Sirnothingness]

What type of tuner are you using? What's the +- tollerance of it? Are you sure it's giving you correct reading within 10 cents?

 

[32-20-Blues]

1 cent is 1/100 of a semitone. 10 cents is rather a lot to be off pitch . . .

I read once, in Guitarist magazine (UK), that most concert violinists only get within 5-6 cents of a note. That could be bullshit (quite a bit of what appears in that magazine is), but it brings up the question of just how much of a discrepancy the human ear is capable of detecting.

In attempting to answer this question, I have done some cursory research.
According to Thomas Rossing, the average human ear can only hear 5 cents discrepancy in pitch: The just noticeable difference in pitch must be expressed as a ratio or musical interval since the human ear tends to respond equally to equal ratios of frequencies. It is convenient to express the just noticeable difference in cents since that notation was developed to express musical intervals. Although research reveals variations, a reasonable estimate of the JND is about five cents. One of the advantages of the cents notation is that it expresses the same musical interval, regardless of the frequency range.

The source for the afore mentioned extract: Rossing, Thomas D., The Science of Sound 2nd Ed, Addison-Wesley 1990

So the lesson here, I guess, is that good enough is, in fact, good enough.

 

[muttley600]

It's unlikely that Fender forgot exactly where to locate the frets or the nut on your Strat. If you set your action somewhere in the normal range minor problems with your neck adjustment won't pull you off pitch by 10 cents.

Thats about it really. The rest is just physics. You can agree or disagree if you like but you ain't going to change the physics of a vibrating string no matter how much you try.

Get the action right first then set your compensation.

According to Thomas Rossing, the average human ear can only hear 5 cents discrepancy in pitch: The just noticeable difference in pitch must be expressed as a ratio or musical interval since the human ear tends to respond equally to equal ratios of frequencies. It is convenient to express the just noticeable difference in cents since that notation was developed to express musical intervals. Although research reveals variations, a reasonable estimate of the JND is about five cents. One of the advantages of the cents notation is that it expresses the same musical interval, regardless of the frequency range.

Exactly right and I think the JND or just noticeable difference is the key and many people cannot hear a difference of greater than 6 cents.

The real lesson is good enough HAS to do. With your frets as they are you have no choice

 

[32-20-Blues]

Exactly right and I think the JND or just noticeable difference is the key and many people cannot hear a difference of greater than 6 cents.

Cool. I'm trying to teach myself about this stuff.