Intonating the 3rd string.

[Diego]

I've always found a bit challenging to get the 3rd (G) string to sound right. It's a finnicky string that wobbles too much and loves to go sharp when picking hard.

I do a compromise that works fine for me: I intonate it a little sharp and always tune it just a tiny little bit below its pitch.
Setting it flat helps with chords on the first frets (usual offender of out-of-tuneness with that string) and intonating it sharp makes the higher notes sound right since it's tuned slightly flat.

Any tricks you use to improve the situation? If you use a wound 3rd, you're lucky.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

As a Telecaster fiend, I am constantly bending strings to correct some pitch issue or another.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

i set my guitars similar to you, intonate a little sharp and tune a touch flat. i found that by playing up and down the neck with a stobe tuner while intonating and tuning and trying to get the best balance of everything being in tune. the guitar is an imperfect thing and heavy plain strings dont make it any better.

 

[Diego]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

i set my guitars similar to you, intonate a little sharp and tune a touch flat. i found that by playing up and down the neck with a stobe tuner while intonating and tuning and trying to get the best balance of everything being in tune. the guitar is an imperfect thing and heavy plain strings dont make it any better.

That's what I do and I landed my approach by trial and error.
Try all my common spots and play them like I would do normally, ham fists and everything. Any tendency of sharp or flat notes quickly comes up that way and you can start ironing it.

I haven't tried my approach with other strings yet, and I could definitely do that with my low E, which is consistently sharp from 9th fret and up.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

If using plain 1st through 3rd strings in standard tuning, the 3rd is the floppiest string on a guitar. It gets the most bent out of shape when you fret it, and it also tends to float around the tuned-to or fretted note more than the other strings. I tune them a little below the right note, and I adjust the intonation based on playing chords in the area between the 5th and 10th frets or so (as opposed to 12th fret and open)

 

[jeremy]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

i used to use a custom dr set 11 15 19 28 38 54 and it seemed even worse with a bigger plain G string for whatever reason

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

Isn't that because that is actually the one string on guitars that is never quite actually in tune or can't be properly and perfectly intonated? Or something like that. It seems like I've read something like that before.

 

[Diego]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

Yup. The 3rd string could really use a different placement of frets just for itself, which is the concept behind tempered fretboards:

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

i used to use a custom dr set 11 15 19 28 38 54 and it seemed even worse with a bigger plain G string for whatever reason

The heavier the string, the more the note changes when you depress it. That's why the heavier your strings, the farther back your saddles end up, and why the amount of rearward saddle travel on the low string is usually the determining factor for how heavy you can go and still intonate right.

 

[VinceT]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

I always had a problem with the G-string intonation until I was watching a vid of Joe Bonnamassa where he mentioned in passing "intonate at the A" - so I started working from that point and it's become the best compromise for me. Stepwise, I intonate as normal across all strings, then I 'fix' the G string by intonating for A at the 2nd and 14th frets, check the other strings, repeat until it all balances. The upshot is that open chords and, especially, F-barre, Dmaj and Amaj sound good and the G-String up the neck isn't out enough to notice. Getting this solved for myself became essential once I started playing my Music Man Reflex, which has a compensated nut - that intonates so cleanly that I REALLY began to hear the issues on my other guitars.


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[blueman335]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

i set my guitars similar to you, intonate a little sharp and tune a touch flat. i found that by playing up and down the neck with a stobe tuner while intonating and tuning and trying to get the best balance of everything being in tune. the guitar is an imperfect thing and heavy plain strings dont make it any better.

+1. I've never gotten a G string perfectly in tune, it's always been a series of compromises. I also set the intonation by checking it in more than one location (besides the 12th fret). But the flipside is that my best bends are with a G string. That makes everything else worthwhile for me.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

Isn't that because that is actually the one string on guitars that is never quite actually in tune or can't be properly and perfectly intonated? Or something like that. It seems like I've read something like that before.

None of them are perfectly in tune. Straight frets across the neck are an average for the 6 strings, and all are off to some degree on most frets. There's a company in Germany that makes perfectly intonated necks for Strats; the fret are wavy.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

That is a very typical problem. The "G" string is by far the worst offender. Notice on a compensated nut that the "G" string has the most compensation. That effectively does the same thing everyone has been saying...tune it flat and compensate it sharp. Except by having compensation on the nut you can still play open chords in tune.

I make compensated nuts for all of my guitars. Can't live without them.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

A simple correction for this problem is to take a small piece of bone nut 1/8 - 3/16" thick and about 1/4" long and super glue it to the front of your existing nut (effectively shortening the string). You'll have to file the string slot into it.

In 1969 I put a 1/4" long piece of a hardwood toothpick under the "G" string right in front of the nut of one of my guitars as a cheap quick fix. It's still there today and working perfectly fine.

 

[EDX]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

oh man, the g string is a big offender, my aproach is sightly different, as i first set the G saddle halfpoint tween the b and d saddles, then i proceed to tune the strings to proper pitch, i bend them to hell and bend the neck (headstock ala jimmy) to stretch them, then when the strings are in pitch i kick 2 overdrives in front of the gain channel of my amp to intonate the g string by ear, first with the tone rolled to get the fundamental right, and i tune to pitch with that intonation, then i roll the tone open to hear for any dissonating over harmonic, if any i tune and fine tune the intonation, if none then it's done.

yeah it's a little complicated but works very well, as distortion reveals dissonance and pitch problems with ease.

 

[vinta9e]

Re: Intonating the 3rd string.

Isn't that because that is actually the one string on guitars that is never quite actually in tune or can't be properly and perfectly intonated? Or something like that. It seems like I've read something like that before.

It's true but it's actually more complicated than this.

There's a company in Germany that makes perfectly intonated necks for Strats; the fret are wavy.

Actually, this company belongs to Paul Guy and it's in Sweden. The point of the frets being wavy is achieving unequal temperament, which by definition is something quite the opposite of "perfectly intonated". The notes namely are "out of tune" a specific amount, on purpose.

i used to use a custom dr set 11 15 19 28 38 54 and it seemed even worse with a bigger plain G string for whatever reason

Thick plain strings are more susceptible to inharmonicity, hence why wound strings were invented. This, however, is only one of more sources of the problems mentioned in this thread.