Hi,
I have an early 80's US-made Tele which hasn't had a setup in at least 15 years. Lately I've noticed intonation problems, so I thought I'd see if I can fix it myself. This model lets me individually adjust each string's intonation.
I tried the method where you tune the string, then check 12th fret harmonic and fretted, adjust intonation, retune the string, and try again until it's in tune. All of my strings initially are sharp when fretted at 12th fret. I tried starting with the E and B strings. What I found is that when I get it right at 12th fret, the fretted notes seem to get sharper as I go further down the neck towards nut, and they get flatter as I go up the neck to bridge. Any suggestions on diagnosing this?
- my strings are not brand new, and I will probably put on new strings tomorrow and try again, but they really aren't more than a few weeks old and have not been played very much
- I have medium gauge strings on, back in the day I used to play lights but I've moved up to mediums. I know string gauge can impact intonation, but would this be my problem?
- string height seems pretty good to me. My G string might be a tad low, as I get a little buzz if I play it hard down by the nut. BTW intonation on the G seems to be the furthest out of all the strings.
So what is most likely my problem?