And you thought you knew how to intonate your guitar...

[Chickenwings]

Re: And you thought you knew how to intonate your guitar...

None of this OCD stuff addresses what makes most of us sound crap: Playing the wrong notes. Bending and missing. Sour vibratos that even perfectly intonated instruments cannot fix. Squeezing too hard. Squeezing too little.
Good players sound good not because of some mathematical equation helping them get perfectly intonated instruments, they sound good because they play good.
Violins don't have frets, a very short scale and wooden tuning pegs. Good players can make them sound sublime, lesser players sound like everything is out of tune.
Frets help us, but they can't do the job for us. In the end, you can run a computer over and axe and have wobbly frets, fanned scale, specially chosen string guages, a trick nut and the most expensive strobe tuner you can find and it still comes down to how you touch the strings and how you play the guitar. There is no getting round it.
Relax. There are more important things to worry about, like practicing and using your ears.

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: And you thought you knew how to intonate your guitar...

Clicking on links is one thing. Blatantly insulting other forum members is another thing altogether. But yeh. Moving on...

Chilax bru. It was an impromptu response, that's why I deleted it as soon as I posted it so as not to hurt members with paper soul. I'd spend my time practicing if I were you, or checking the kitchen cupboard; there might be a mamba or Mozambique spitter lurking underneath.

 

[Mincer]

Re: And you thought you knew how to intonate your guitar...

I am all for any innovations that make the guitar better for me. Things like a zero fret, well designed locking tuners, and an easily adjustable neck is on the list.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: And you thought you knew how to intonate your guitar...

None of this OCD stuff addresses what makes most of us sound crap: Playing the wrong notes. Bending and missing. Sour vibratos that even perfectly intonated instruments cannot fix. Squeezing too hard. Squeezing too little.
Good players sound good not because of some mathematical equation helping them get perfectly intonated instruments, they sound good because they play good.
Violins don't have frets, a very short scale and wooden tuning pegs. Good players can make them sound sublime, lesser players sound like everything is out of tune.
Frets help us, but they can't do the job for us. In the end, you can run a computer over and axe and have wobbly frets, fanned scale, specially chosen string guages, a trick nut and the most expensive strobe tuner you can find and it still comes down to how you touch the strings and how you play the guitar. There is no getting round it.
Relax. There are more important things to worry about, like practicing and using your ears.

This is true.

 

[dpaterson]

Re: And you thought you knew how to intonate your guitar...

Dudes.

I agree with all i.e. sounding crap, playing wrong notes, bending and missing, sour vibratos, and the rest. But what's the harm in trying to get your guitar's intonation and/or tuning the best that it can be??? Put is this way: having a poorly intonated and/or poorly tuned guitar isn't going to help matters let's face it. And I can tell you: give a badly intonated and/or badly tuned guitar to a good player and they will not play it i.e. they won't say "oh well this guitar ain't great but because I'm so good it doesn't matter because I can make it sound fine". Not gonna happen!!! They'll tell you straight: this is a piece of sh*t. Ask me how I know!!! You think these Pros. employ guitar techs. and spend tens of thousands of $$$ on guitars because they're nice guys??? Nope.

Matter of fact and in just thinking about it: it's not just the Pros. or good players. My very very first two electric guitars were some real cheap pieces of sh*t (some no name brand Fender Stratocaster type ripoffs back in the '80s' ) but I didn't know sh*t from a shovel back then. All I do know is that it didn't matter what I did I was out of tune (notes and chords i.e. could tune open strings but when played it just sounded really really bad) and just couldn't play the darn things and questioned myself as to whether or not I'd actually ever be able to play the guitar. Well: after this stuff was explained to me then that's when I started buying proper guitars i.e. USA Charvels at the time. Made a very big difference. Didn't make me a rock star. But at least I could play in tune to a degree and realised it wasn't just me that was just so bad. It's hard enough to learn to play these things well without having to fight with the instrument at the same time.

Now I'm not saying to be OCD or paranoid about it. Not by any means. But surely try to do your best not??? Kinda like the difference between just slapping together a piece of music or spending time getting it just right (as right as it can be for your skill level anyway and same with a guitar). Sams thing as people chasing after tone. Why not???

One thing that was mentioned on this thread earlier but that needs correction: you have to intonate in the playing position. To say that it doesn't matter is incorrect I'm afraid. I've been practicing through amp. sims. this past week (no point in upsetting the world until I've got my project just right) so I've been tuning using that fancy Amplitube 4 tuner. And I must say I was quite surprised myself at just how much the tuning changes between a guitar that's lying flat and tuned and a guitar that's in the playing position and tuned. And the reason why you need to intonate in the playing position is simply because you have to tune in the playing playing position and only then intonate.

Oh and @Obsessive Compulsive:

Always nice to hear from you first thing in the morning!!! LOL!!! Oh I am practicing dude. Big time. Matter of fact: you seem to spend more time on the forums than me of late. As for the rest (snakes): you wish!!! LOL!!! Have a wonderful day. I'm sure we'll chat again soon.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: And you thought you knew how to intonate your guitar...

But what's the harm in trying to get your guitar's intonation and/or tuning the best that it can be???

There’s no ‘harm’ but what everyone finds out when they obsess and try to nail down the science, theory and details, whether it’s intonation, pickups, magnets or wood, is that they eventually come to the realization that the problem has sufficient factors that make it so complex you will never actually effectively solve it.

Evidence the fact that you notice enough of a difference between intonating the guitar on the bench and when you pick it up to play, it’s not right. You might as well throw the thing in the fireplace and light it.

Every tech I’ve known in my lifetime sets up the guitar on the bench and simply plays it to test it, making minor adjustments. Because that’s as good as it’s going to get, really.

And if you hand a crap guitar to a real player, they won’t decline to play the guitar, but they may decline to play particular songs, because they won’t work on that guitar. But any real guitar player can strike a few notes on the neck, find the good spots and bad spots, and figure out what songs or music will work on any guitar pretty quick.

I can understand chasing tone. I can’t understand chasing intonation. Either it comes together reasonably quickly, or it’s time to invest in a better made instrument.

 

[ArtisanLuthiers]

Re: And you thought you knew how to intonate your guitar...

Simply outstanding. This is an excellent presentation built on a solid understanding of a relatively complex matter. Well done, sir.

 

[dpaterson]

Re: And you thought you knew how to intonate your guitar...

Simply outstanding. This is an excellent presentation built on a solid understanding of a relatively complex matter. Well done, sir.

Thanks. I think!!! LOL!!!

Other than my one or two little experiments: I cannot claim bragging rights to anything i.e. just found the original articles on the Internet written by others.

But there’s so many different avenues of thought on this topic it’s frightening. Just last night a YouTube video popped up out of nowhere where the dude was purporting that one should intonate the third fret only and with the usual personal justifications and reasons. Scary part is that everybody is absolutely convinced that their method is the best, better than the last, and the only way it should be done!!! LOL!!!