sensitive ear or bad guitar?

[skaltpunk]

i bought a used epiphone les paul... it definitely sounds better than my fender strat-copy but seems consistently, yet hardly, out of tune. my guess is that the intonation of the neck is screwed up. how do you gauge such considerations economically?

 

[M.Brane]

While no guitar can ever be completely in tune (that whole physics issue) some are better than others. If new strings and a setup don't help it it could be the nut is off a bit.

Always set the action and the truss rod before adjusting intonation.

 

[Doug H]

I keep a small screw driver handy in the case for fine tuning intonation. The 12th frett (actave) harmonic should match the fretted note. If it doesn't, the string should be longer to bring the fretted note down a bit in pitch and vise vera. The harmonic note is always pure, but the position where it rings best will change slightly.

It's pretty easy to tell if a string is really bad (usually caused by messing with the setup) and sort it out. To do a bangup job you need a decent tuner and want to balance other issues as mentioned in the above post.

edit: Just a warning, if you haven't done much of this, it's pretty easy to make it worse than before, strip screws etc...

 

[TheGuitarMan]

www.buzzfeiten.com

Or you could get the dern thing set up by a pro. That would be cheaper...

I don't think it would be worth it to pay the $250 for an Epi LP, but the set up would be included.

 

[Major Tom]

I agree with both of the previous posts, 2 good possible explanations for your problem. A lot of cheap/import guitars are pretty decent, but often the factory doesn't spend much time setting up the action and intonation. Sometimes previous owners will screw things up. I wouldn't accept the previous owner's or factory's settings/adjustments anymore than I would accept the current position of the driver's seat in a car I was buying. If you haven't set the intonation yet, do it or have someone do it, it is imperative to put on a new set of strings of the gauge that you will be using beforehand...

 

[skaltpunk]

thanks guys. im gonna buy a brand new set of elixirs or other nice strings and get a setup.