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Guitar Not In Tune ???


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Hello,

I just restrung an old electric guitar and it seems out of tune in certain spots. How do I tune the guitar so that it's in tune up and down the entire neck? :D

ie: The guitar may be in tune near the top of the neck, but if you play the same cord further down the neck near the pick-up's it sounds out of tune.

I have a flat telecaster type bridge with screws that pull or push each string forward or backwards.

Thanks, Greg.

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There's a pretty good description of how to set the intonation of a guitar on jemsite.com. There may be one here also - I don't know. That's what you should be looking for though - intonation. You might need a decent tuner with an analog meter if you don't have one already.

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Tune the open strings with a tuner. When they're good tune them at fret 12 (one octave higher) on the tuner. If they are out of tune on 12 adjust your saddle on the bridge (towards neck = higher pitch; towards tailpiece = lower pitch). Make sure to tune the open string after each adjustment and check 12 again. It takes a while if it's out of wack really bad, but a fairly easy job to do.

It's rare that a guitar has "perfect" intonation, but most get pretty close. If you're within 1/4 step I wouldn't worry too much because most of us can't define pitch that closely anyway.

Some (not many) guitars won't adjust to a decent intonation. These should have never left the factory, or may have had a major problem after they did. If you can't hit it after a few tries e-mail me. Crank up the distortion and hope nobody notices until you can afford a guitar that does.

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no, mr metal. you really are the one. you are member 777. there was a whole topic dedicated to you in the off-topics area, if i remember. you should really go there and see the glory you live with.

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there is a tutorial on the main site...setting up a guitar or something like that.i do my intonation differently.i hit the harmonic at the 12th fret and then the same note fretted.then i adjust them to match by ear....is that wierd?

Not at all...That's how I do it. Well, I hope it's not strange :D . Sometimes I use an electric tuner, but mine isn't as accurate as my ear.

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