erogenousjones17
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That is a good point. I'm going to look into that...hm, if only I had a set of feeler gauges or something... :icon_scratch:
Growing pains
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erogenousjones17 said:
Or just check the tuning of the very first fret (where this would cause the worst problems IMO) with a tuner when that string is tuned perfectly open and see if it looks too sharp. Then whip of the files and cut her down, see if it fixes it... shoot first ask questions later!
GoDrex
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this thread made me think of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Van_Halen#Tuning
Tuning
Though rarely discussed, one of the most distinctive aspects of Van Halen's sound was Eddie Van Halen's tuning of the guitar. Before Van Halen, most distorted, metal-oriented rock consciously avoided the use of the major third interval in guitar chords, creating instead the signature power chord of the genre. When run through a distorted amplifier, the rapid beating of the major third on a conventionally tuned guitar is distracting and somewhat dissonant.
Van Halen developed a technique of flattening his B string slightly so that the interval between the open G and B reaches a justly intonated, beatless third. This consonant third was almost unheard of in distorted-guitar rock and allowed Van Halen to use major chords in a way that mixed classic hard rock power with "happy" pop. The effect is pronounced on songs such as "Runnin' With the Devil", "Unchained", and "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?".
With the B string flattened the correct amount, chords in some positions on the guitar have more justly intonated thirds, but in other positions the flat B string creates out-of-tune intervals. As Eddie once remarked to Guitar Player:
“A guitar is just theoretically built wrong. Each string is an interval of fourths, and then the B string is off. Theoretically, that's not right. If you tune an open A chord in the first position and it's perfectly in tune, and then you hit a barre chord an octave higher, it's out of tune. The B string is always a cotton-headed ninny to keep in tune all the time! So I have to retune for certain songs. And when I use the Floyd onstage, I have to unclamp it and do it real quick. But with a standard-vibrato guitar, I can tune it while I'm playing.''[21]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Van_Halen#Tuning
Tuning
Though rarely discussed, one of the most distinctive aspects of Van Halen's sound was Eddie Van Halen's tuning of the guitar. Before Van Halen, most distorted, metal-oriented rock consciously avoided the use of the major third interval in guitar chords, creating instead the signature power chord of the genre. When run through a distorted amplifier, the rapid beating of the major third on a conventionally tuned guitar is distracting and somewhat dissonant.
Van Halen developed a technique of flattening his B string slightly so that the interval between the open G and B reaches a justly intonated, beatless third. This consonant third was almost unheard of in distorted-guitar rock and allowed Van Halen to use major chords in a way that mixed classic hard rock power with "happy" pop. The effect is pronounced on songs such as "Runnin' With the Devil", "Unchained", and "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?".
With the B string flattened the correct amount, chords in some positions on the guitar have more justly intonated thirds, but in other positions the flat B string creates out-of-tune intervals. As Eddie once remarked to Guitar Player:
“A guitar is just theoretically built wrong. Each string is an interval of fourths, and then the B string is off. Theoretically, that's not right. If you tune an open A chord in the first position and it's perfectly in tune, and then you hit a barre chord an octave higher, it's out of tune. The B string is always a cotton-headed ninny to keep in tune all the time! So I have to retune for certain songs. And when I use the Floyd onstage, I have to unclamp it and do it real quick. But with a standard-vibrato guitar, I can tune it while I'm playing.''[21]
ByteFrenzy
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Which is why Gibson invented... oh, never mind.
Max said:
Max you're probably right to point out that intonation adjustment is not required every time you chage strings. I stroke that part off my previous message to reflect this. Personally, I would only re-check my intonation if I started to have intonation problems... But this is an adjustment that should not be overlooked.
Most of the tuning problems outlined above are gone with the compensated nuts. They're not 100% but the result is much closer to being in tune on all chords. I love them but I'm sure there are people to hate them.
As others have said, go ahead and file that low E notch a tad lower - no reason for that to happen. Have you file the saddles into an 18" radius for your compound neck? Filing down the middle saddles just a hair (I mean, just a hair) will put your string heights more in balance allowing you to get lower action on the middle strings, assuming you have a compound radius neck.
I hate to keep bringing it up, but one possibility for your intonation issues is that your nut is quite a bit higher than normal - this will exaggerate intonation problems because you've got to bring the string down farther, stretching the string more relative to the open frets. Here's a pic of one Warmoth nut I got that required a lot of work (after some deepening of the nut slots but well before finishing), and a pic of a nut that I got right.
I hate to keep bringing it up, but one possibility for your intonation issues is that your nut is quite a bit higher than normal - this will exaggerate intonation problems because you've got to bring the string down farther, stretching the string more relative to the open frets. Here's a pic of one Warmoth nut I got that required a lot of work (after some deepening of the nut slots but well before finishing), and a pic of a nut that I got right.
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