Vintage, Rare And Collectable Guitars
Perth, West Australia
Back to Home-Page AUSTRALIA'S NUMBER 1 VINTAGE GUITAR DEALER!!
Staying in Tune!
Intonation and tuning difficulties are problems that concern most guitarists. Faulty string intonation on electric guitars is corrected by using a stroboscopic tuner and shifting the bridge saddle position by adjusting the intonation saddle screw.
Though acoustic guitar saddles are non-adjustable, it is possible to improve intonation on an acoustic guitar, but first we will discuss exactly why intonation problems exist.
As string gauge diameters increase from treble to bass, a strange defect in tuning accuracy shows up; the thicker the string, the sharper the overtone harmonics become. As you fret further up the neck this problem becomes more noticeable, particularly on the thick bass strings. Intonation is corrected by lengthening the string to flatten the overtones. Most guitar makers use a guess-and-by-golly formula to establish how much slant to build into the saddle and hope for the best. Sometimes this simplified bridge saddle placement works surprisingly well, but more often than not, even the best quality guitars suffer poor intonation.
To correct intonation we must alter the leading edge of the saddle to change the string length. The original saddle may not be thick enough to permit the needed adjustments and the saddle slot must be widened to fit a wider bone saddle. Corrected intonation will be spoiled by changing brand or gauge of strings. Experiment with string types well in advance and have your friendly luthier correct your intonation with the brand of strings you intend to stay with. Once the saddle is contoured for intonation for a particular type of string it should remain reasonably accurate for many years and you should notice improved tone and volume from a properly intonated acoustic guitar.
If you suspect that your guitar's intonation is off, have a luthier check it for you. A new bone saddle, custom fitted and contoured for intonation usually runs $60-$100.00 for most steel string or acoustic guitars..