Bridge Intonation.

[Resodude]

Hi,

I've been wondering...

You got the ability to change intonation on electric guitars like this but on acoustics you have nothing.

So if you're going to make a completely own electric guitar with own wounded pickups and own bridge design, is it possible to skip the adjustable stringholders? Or will there be problems in the future?

[GregP]

Heck, some electric guitars have been made with no adjustable intonation at all. To me, it seems like keeping everything adjustable is the best possible option-- but lots of guitars have been fine without, including (as you mention) almost all acoustics.

There are some pretty general guidelines that are almost universally true-- the G string requires less compensation that the B, and the low E requires the most out of all the strings.

If you look at a non-intonatable bridge like this: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailp...ior_Bridge.html and emulate where the strings break, you'll be close enough for rock'n'roll. Some acoustics use 2-piece systems (instead of just the 1-piece like in the pic you referenced). One small bit for the high E and B, and then a larger bit for the G down to the E. To me, that's a reasonable compromise; though, my own acoustics use the typical 1-piece style and I never have any MAJOR complaints about the intonation. Taylor does an in-betwee thing where they use the 1-piece system but with the "B" string area sort of angled back a bit to try to fix that problematic B just a bit.

Greg

[Woodenspoke]

Hi,

I've been wondering...

You got the ability to change intonation on electric guitars like this but on acoustics you have nothing.

So if you're going to make a completely own electric guitar with own wounded pickups and own bridge design, is it possible to skip the adjustable stringholders? Or will there be problems in the future?

You can buy the saddles and build your own plate or buy a compensated saddle which is very wide and lets you move the intonation point back and forth across the face of the bone. Its unfortunately not the easiest thing to do, unless you have a Peterson tuner or other accurate method to determine intonation and a set of adjustable wires (used to locate the intonation position), so you can reference before you cut up the saddle.

I would suggest you use a standard set of electric saddles like GregP suggested, build and mod your own plate to make it custom. Your not going to try building your own tuners too are you? If you were adding a piezo pickup then I may say go with the saddle method.

Woodenspoke