Archive for June 18th, 2010
How many times have you picked up your electric guitar to play, either alone or with a band and found you were off? You grab your digital tuner, tune it up, only to find that it still sounds off and now you don’t know what to do about it. This same thing applies to bass guitars also.
What you have just experienced is something called intonation, but don’t worry all of us have had it at some time. What is intonation you ask, well it is when the note played on a string in the open position is the same note played at the 12th fret.
It is really quite easy to adjust for, you will need a digital tuner. Tune the first string as you would normally, than check the string at the 12th fret, if it is not the same it needs to be adjusted. Your guitars bridge has screws that connect it to the saddle, if your note was flat turn the screw to move the saddle towards the fretboard. If your note was sharp turn it away from the fretboard. Don’t forget to release the tension on the string before you make any adjustments. After you have completed the first string do the same thing on each of the remaining strings.