Guitar Accessory Reviews Home >> Guitar Tuner >>Intonation What exactly IS intonation?Intonation(or tone) refers to the need for each string to be a slightly different length in order for the proper pitch to be produced at each fret. When should you adjust your guitar's intonation? The intonation of your guitar will most certainly need attention if: 1. It has not been adjusted in over a year. 2. You have switched to strings of a heavier or lighter gauge. 3. You have adjusted the truss rod. (NOTE: Tightening or loosening the truss rod screws up your intonation, but it does so slowly over a period of 24 hours or so. Trying to set the intonation during that time is useless. I know.) 4. Your little brother has become experimental with one of your dad's screwdrivers. 5. You are experiencing various intonation-related symptoms. If tuning by harmonics gives you a different result than tuning by frets, if a barre chord sounds fine in the lower positions but sounds progressively worse as you slide it up the neck, or if you can't get ANY chord to sound right, you may need to adjust your intonation. Other than that, I recommend adjusting it every time you change the strings. This might seem like a lot, but if none of the above applies to you then the whole process should not take very long at all. (You would be well advised to stretch your strings out before starting the process, because brand new strings have the ability to detune themselves at an incredible rate.) You can set your guitar intonation! Unlike more complicated procedures, setting your intonation gives you absolutely no risk of doing any kind of permanent damage to your guitar, unless you prefer to do it one-handed while on the roof of your house. Also, it's much simpler than the size of this file would have you think. The advantages of having a skilled technician do it are 1) he most likely will have the equipment to get it far more precise than you could at home,and 2) while he had your guitar, he might be able to tell you if it had any other, more serious problems. The disadvantages are a bit more numerous than the advantages, I think. 1. It costs money. Usually under $10, but money just the same. 2. You may have to part with your instrument for a few hours or (GASP) a night. 3. How perfect does it really have to be anyway? 4. If you are really broke, see advantage #2. 5. It implies having transportation to a music store. 6. It implies living in a town where there IS a music store. I would suggest that you go for it and set the intonation right and just do it yourself....nobody is better than you! Check your intonation: Tune your instrument to pitch using a strobe or electronic tuner. Fret each string on the 12th fret and watch the tuner. Ideally since the 12th fret is the same note-merely one octave higher- it should also be in near perfect tune. Some things that can cause poor intonation are: 1.High action: An instrument with high action requires that the string be stretched further before contacting the fret, this can cause sharp intonation. This is one reason acoustic guitars naturally require greater compensation than electrics. 2.A sloppy or loose saddle: The saddle can lean forward in it's bridge route and cause the strings scale length to shorten thus causing intonation to be sharp. 3.A grooved/worn saddle can cause the point of contact for the string to change and affect the overall string length. 4.A mathematical error: If the bridge has not been positioned on the top correctly or the bridge slot has not been routed in the proper position intonation will be affected. Very informative,But, How do you do it? Click here to find out: How to set your Guitar Intonation Guitar Accessory Reviews Home >> Guitar Tuner >>Intonation
©2003 Guitar Accessory Reviews
|