Discussions about ways to set intonation on guitars is a little like discussing different ways to wash a car. Some will get it clearer than others. However if the owner lives on a dirt road, the differences are mostly lost in the dust.
I’m an engineer at heart. When approaching a problem I tend to look not for the best possible tool, but the tool most suited to the job at hand. In the end that usually works best. There’s an old engineering line about measuring with a micrometer, marking with a pencil, and cutting with an axe.
Guitar strings don’t have constant pitch. Once a string is plucked, it’s pitch varies as the vibrations die down. So setting intonation is a little bit of guesswork to beginning with, as one decides when to pick the pitch of reference.
A much larger factor is player style. I play with a light touch where others may play with a very heavy touch. Sometimes others will sit in and play my guitar. Many will comment that it played in tune for me, but was sharp for them. The difference is that the setup is done with my style in mind, not there’s. Unless a setup person takes this into account, intonation work may be quite ineffective. Tuners don’t help here, as it relies on personal knowledge and experience.
Strobe tuners are very accurate and in general more accurate than most electronic digital forms. However the differences can many times be swamped by other factors like playing style and how the owner will tune when he/she gets home.
I set intonation with the same device I tune with, a Line 6 POD XT Live. The guitar is a Line 6 Variax 500, which is a digital guitar to begin with. The interface between guitar and XT Live is a digital one. There are no ¼ instrument cables involved. For me that works well. Others may have different approaches.
Ed
I’m an engineer at heart. When approaching a problem I tend to look not for the best possible tool, but the tool most suited to the job at hand. In the end that usually works best. There’s an old engineering line about measuring with a micrometer, marking with a pencil, and cutting with an axe.
Guitar strings don’t have constant pitch. Once a string is plucked, it’s pitch varies as the vibrations die down. So setting intonation is a little bit of guesswork to beginning with, as one decides when to pick the pitch of reference.
A much larger factor is player style. I play with a light touch where others may play with a very heavy touch. Sometimes others will sit in and play my guitar. Many will comment that it played in tune for me, but was sharp for them. The difference is that the setup is done with my style in mind, not there’s. Unless a setup person takes this into account, intonation work may be quite ineffective. Tuners don’t help here, as it relies on personal knowledge and experience.
Strobe tuners are very accurate and in general more accurate than most electronic digital forms. However the differences can many times be swamped by other factors like playing style and how the owner will tune when he/she gets home.
I set intonation with the same device I tune with, a Line 6 POD XT Live. The guitar is a Line 6 Variax 500, which is a digital guitar to begin with. The interface between guitar and XT Live is a digital one. There are no ¼ instrument cables involved. For me that works well. Others may have different approaches.
Ed
