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Guitar Intonation Tips

Did you ever tune your guitar and play a few of the chords on the first two or three frets and find that it seems to be right on pitch? But then as you play up the neck around the tenth fret or higher, it is out of tune, and the higher you go the worse it sounds. On the other hand if you tune the instrument so that it sounds good on the upper frets it is out of tune on the lower ones. A common way of expressing this problem is to say that the guitar is not "true" or the intonation is bad. Before you start adjusting the bridge to fix the intonation, put on a new set of strings. A worn out or bad string is usually the culprit. If the new strings do not solve the problem you need to do some work on the bridge.

First, check the open strings with an electronic tuner. Then check the strings on the twelfth fret to see if they are true. A note played on the twelfth fret should be exactly one octave higher than that same string played open. If your guitar has movable saddles and the string is sharp on the twelfth fret you need to move the saddle away from the nut, thus increasing the distance between the nut and the saddle. If the string is flat at the twelfth fret then you need to move the saddle the opposite direction, toward the nut, thus shortening the distance between the saddle and the nut.

Many guitars have one saddle for all the strings and it is not always glued to stay in place. In the case of a one piece saddle you will have to move the entire bridge and try to find a location where the notes sound true. It is sometimes nearly impossible to do. Changing to a bridge with individual saddles may solve the difficulty but that route could be somewhat expensive.

If these efforts do not help you should check the neck to see if it has bowed. Hold the guitar up with the neck away from you and your eye near the bridge and sight down along the neck to see if it has bowed, or you may lay a yardstick on the fretboard to check for a bow. When the guitar neck starts to bow, the distance between the nut and the saddles becomes shorter which has a negative effect upon the guitars intonation.

If the guitar has a truss rod, loosen the strings and turn the device. If the fretboard has bowed in a concave manner the truss rod should be tightened. Be careful because it is possible to split the guitar neck if you tighten the rod too much. If the neck is bowed the other way someone may have already tightened the truss rod too much and it therefore needs to be loosened. This tightening and/or loosening of the truss rod may only be done a few times. After that it will quickly bow again. I always examine the head of the truss rod to see if it has been tampered with and if it has I suddenly become very hesitant about buying the guitar.

Contributor's Note
Ralph Goldinger is a retired public school teacher of 32 years and a guitar instructor - performer of almost 40 years. He taught guitar in the music department at Slippery Rock College from 1971 through 1974 and has taught private guitar lessons for many years, a pastime which he continues to enjoy. Besides my family, music and guitar has been my biggest passion in life and recently started to learn about Internet marketing and blogging. He enjoys sharing his knowledge and musical experiences with others.