setting your own intonation

T

theD1CKENS

*insert clever title here
from my understanding, you would set the intonation by tuning the string to 440 A(or what have you), and check the tuning at the 12th fret. if it's off, you adjust the saddle.
lather,
rinse,
repeat.
at least, that's how I've always done it, and it works well enough.

...or is there a more accurate method?
 
Doesn't have to be 440...but I always like to stay with that program. :)

You first hit the harmonic (not open string) at the 12th...and then press/play the string at the 12th...the two should be in tune with each other.

I prefer to use a strobe for this because with the harmonic and pressed notes at the 12th, it's easier to see than hear if they are *perfectly* in tune to each other.
 
Make sure everything is in proper adjustment and your strings are fresh before you intonate. You can use the harmonic, the open string, or better yet, both, to set intonation. A good quality guitar tuner can do a fine job on this.
 
Yeah...that was a great thread, though I don't think we ever came to any concensus on the "best tuner" for intonation. :D
In most cases people praise whatever tuner they are using at the moment.

I'm always amazed at how many people use a tuner...and still play out of tune....and can't hear that they are out of tune! :)
 
haha yeah that's prettty bad.......but i'm a bassist......i don't have to be in tune, nobody notices :P :P hahah but really though i like mine. you can switch between guitar and bass mode, you can switch between strobe and the other mode, and you can tune all the strings at once polyphonically which i tihnk is pretty cool...although i never use it because it's much more accurate with a single string at a time haha
 
Well...even in polyphonic mode, you can only tune one string at a time, so I don't get the benefit of it, but I guess some people think it's cool that you can see all the strings at once. I don't really think it saves any time or offers anything that's an improvement over the single string tuners.

Hey...I notice out of tune bass. :D
Last night I had to re-recorded a bass track because the bass was just a pinch sharp...no more than maybe 0.2-0.3 cents, and I could hear it every time it played against the guitar track. It was in tune on the strobe...but when I was playing it, I was pressing down just a bit harder than when I tuned it...and that made it slightly sharp...so I had to redo.
 
If you can hear .2 cents on anything other than identical notes played simultaneously, you've got a better ear than almost anyone alive. I doubt there's a human being who can sing anywhere close to that accurately. The difference between just and even intonation is much greater than that, and many pairs of instruments are pretty much incapable of playing all notes even close to that much in tune with one another.
 
Well...my strobe is accurate to 0.1 cents. At +/- 0.2-0.3 cents...the strobe is moving noticeably up/down.
I'll tune up with the strobe...play for a bit...and then I can hear one string out just a hair.
I go back to the strobe, and sure enough, it's no longer stable, but starting to slowly drift up or down. When I apply an offset on the strobe in order to stabilize the movement and see how far off the tuning has gone...at times it doesn't take more than 0.2-0.3 cents of offset...so that tells me the tuning was out by 0.2-0.3 cents.

Honestly...it's not that hard to hear it when you are playing against another instrument that IS in perfect tune.
Heck...if I just tune up a guitar by itself, I can't hear if it's off by 0.2-0.3 cents...but against another instrument, it's actually pretty easy for me to hear even that small a difference.
It's not so much about hearing it way out of tune...rather there is this slight dissonance between the two instruments even at 0.2-0.3 cents.
Sometimes at that small amount, I can't tell right away if it's 0.2-0.3 cents sharp or flat...but I can tell that it's NOT the same as the OTHER instrument.

Not to get back into that other thread...but that's why I still say for intonation, you need a strobe to get it perfect because your ear will have a hard time comparing the two notes since you play each note individually (harmonic or open, then presssed)...rather than playing/hearing them both simultaneously and being able to hear them against each other.
And even if you did, you might hear the 0.2-0.3 cents difference between them, but like I said, it's hard to always gauge if it's plus or minus 0.2 -.03 cents.

I don't have Superman ears :D ....it's just ear training and hearing one note played against another at the same time.
I believe that using the strobe for the last 8+ years has fine-tuned (excuse the pun) my hearing...and to tell the truth, sometimes it's actually a PITA, because I will stop many times to adjust the tuning for 0.2-0.3 cents because I can hear that it's not in-tune with the other instruments/tracks, or even other strings on a guitar.

There was someone who recently put up a song that they finished working on...and while a lot of folks made positive comments about the music...I found it odd that no one mentioned that the guitars were noticeably out of tune. Now...maybe everyone was being polite, and I certainly didn't want to toss out a monkey wrench either...:) ...but the guitars WERE out of tune.

That's what I was saying earlier...I'm amazed at how many people don't hear that they are out of tune.... *shrug*
 
I have a Conn ST11. Great strobe. I used it for years before they started making the little electronic tuners. As an experiment I tried setting an intonation with a $30 Korg tuner (these are even cheaper now) and checking it against the stroboconn. It was right on the money. The experiment proved repeatable. Now I only use the Conn if I want to impress somebody.

I use the Korg tuners, but I don't assert that they are superior to those of other brands.

It matters more that you take your time and be patient. With practice and fresh strings it usually doesn't take very long.
 
I don't need to impress anyone, I tune for my own needs...and I prefer the strobe to other, less accurate tuners. ;)

(And yes...there's usually the counter-argument about the need for super-fine accuracy, but there's already been enough discussion about the need (or not) for the 0.1 cent accuracy of something like a Peterson strobe...but IMO, that's a personal decision if you need/want it or not...so no point in getting into all that again.)
 
Someone seems to have got to Wikipedia. From the article on "Electronic tuner:"

Tuners with an accuracy of better than 0.2 cent is required for guitar intonation tuning.... Low cost tuners with an accuracy of at least 1 cent do not work well for guitar intonation tuning.

So I suppose that means it has to be true (though the poor grasp of number agreement between verb and subject gives me some pause).

It does make me wonder about those sloppy "whatever-the-hell-works" classical string players who intonate by ear on the fly while they're playing.
 
miroslav said:
Well...even in polyphonic mode, you can only tune one string at a time, so I don't get the benefit of it, but I guess some people think it's cool that you can see all the strings at once. I don't really think it saves any time or offers anything that's an improvement over the single string tuners.

Hey...I notice out of tune bass. :D
Last night I had to re-recorded a bass track because the bass was just a pinch sharp...no more than maybe 0.2-0.3 cents, and I could hear it every time it played against the guitar track. It was in tune on the strobe...but when I was playing it, I was pressing down just a bit harder than when I tuned it...and that made it slightly sharp...so I had to redo.
Click to expand...

lol i was kidding :P i obvioulsy know out of tune bass as well.....atleast i'd hope that in my eleven years of bass playing now that i'd be able to :P

the benefit of polyphonic is just that, being able to see them all at once..you strum it, and can quickly see which are sharp, which are flat, then bam make adjustments on the fly. i never use it on bass, sometimes guitar if i wanna do it quick
 
Ghip Todd, designer of the T series Peaveys, Advises using frets farther up. Such as the 5th fret and then the 17th. He says it is more accurate. His method works well for me.
 
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