Intonation

[Sobot]

I tried a search of "intonation" but too much came up, and I couldn't find my answer.

Just a simple question, about my bridge placement.

I bought a strat neck from Mighty Mite (Ebay) which is 25.5" scale, and I read another more recent thread about where to meaure from the nut to the saddles and stuff. My real question is if your intonation is set up perfectly with say 10-46 strings, and then you throw on some 12-56 strings, will you have to move the saddles toward the neck, or away from the neck to get the perfect intonation?

[brian d]

Well, bass strings are generally intonated further from the nut than treble, so I would guess that heavier gague strings would have the same concept, and you'd need to lenthen the strings.

Also, if you don't re-adjust the action with the truss rod, there will be bowing of the neck resulting in a slightly shorter effective string length and more stretch on the string when fretted, so you'd have to compensate for that with the intonation.

All in all, I'd say just put on the strings, re-adjust the action and do your set the intonation as required without worrying too much about what theoretically should need to be done to it.

Regards,

Brian.

[GregP]

Brian's got it right.

In theory you will need to lengthen the strings, because the heavier guage is more likely to pull sharp when you fret your notes. However, follow his advice that you should just intonate it as a new set-up regardless of the theory.

Greg

[Roadhouse Blues]

Definately lengthen, I did the same with my roadhouse strat, and you need to lengthen the strings. Remeber, the shorter the string, the sharper the note, longer string, flatter note. A good way to intonate is use a tuner, tune the strings, lengthen a bit, tune the string, play a high fret into the tuner on each strings (such as 12th fret) and if it is sharp, it needs more lenght, if flat, it needs to be shortened. After each adjustment, re-tune, play a high fret, adjust, etc.

It may seem annoying at first, but it really goes by quickly once you get good at it, and with heavy gauge strings it may be hard to lengthen sometimes with the pull off the strings, so you may need to flatten before adjusting. Pain in the ass, but it'll pay off

Good luck,

Matt