how to intonate a guitar
This advanced playing requires not only greater technical skills—picking, fretting, strumming, etc.—but greater technical accuracy too. If you can't buy a tuner, there are apps online that may also act as a tuner. If you want a more exact tuner, you can purchase a strobe tuner. An accurate guitar tuner that shows a note’s frequency in Hertz (the more accurate your tuner, the stronger your intonation accuracy), A 1/4″ instrument cable, length doesn’t matter, A hex key (or allen wrench) to match your saddle’s hex openings (where applicable), A screwdriver to match your saddle’s screws (typically a small flat-head or slotted-head; sometimes smaller, like screwdrivers for glasses repairs), A truss-rod hex key (or allen wrench), if you’re doing any truss rod adjustment, Guitar polish, fretboard conditioner, and whatever other products you like to slap on your guitar. In order to combat this, proper intonation is key for any guitar. Brings you back, doesn’t it? (I start low because it’s easier to tune a flat string accurately than it is to tune a sharp string, in my humble opinion of course.). This article has been viewed 85,288 times. Because electric guitars are such precision tools, the slightest looseness in any part can wreak havoc on the whole instrument. Before you repeat the saddle adjustment on the remaining strings, quickly check the height of all of the saddles to ensure one more time that the action of the strings is where you want it on the fretboard, and you don’t have any buzzing . So, watch our video or read our article below—both don a good job of showing you how to intonate your guitar quickly and easily. Your email address will not be published. Please help us continue to provide you with our trusted how-to guides and videos for free by whitelisting wikiHow on your ad blocker. To have perfect intonation, the strings must be an equal distance on the 12th fret from the nut to the bridge. INTONATION PROCEDURE. Even more so if you’ve got a hard-tail, non-trem Strat. Guitar (obviously) Accurate tuner; Guitar cable; Tool to adjust your bridge saddles (in most cases, a Phillips screwdriver or flat-head screwdriver). Remember, play with a soft-to-medium attack for the most precise reading. % of people told us that this article helped them. If your strings are not, then playing higher notes on your fretboard will sound out of tune. Please consider making a contribution to wikiHow today. Play the lowest open string, or, for a more accurate reading, play the 12th fret harmonic. Do you hear those angels singing? Your email address will not be published. They'll let you intonate much more accurately without … The intonation is a relatively easy thing to fix and anyone can do it. The familiar harmony helps them identify which string is slightly off. A guitar's intonation determines whether it is tuned across the fretboard. fixing it is pretty much the same on … Fretting near the twelfth fret on the B string might sound sharper than playing in open position, but for the first couple of years playing, you’d hardly ever notice it. Now, the act of intonating a guitar is, basically, adjusting the scale length of each string (and in some cases the height of the saddle as well) by the smallest of measurements so that each string’s notes are directly in line with its open-string tuning. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. This makes the twelfth fret note of a string theoretically be about … Fixing the intonation means making sure the guitar is in tune with itself, and making sure each fret is on the right note. Life was much simpler then. An electric guitar is a precision instrument, and like all precision instruments—surgical scalpels, sniper rifles, or eight-cylinder engines—it needs to be precisely sharpened and honed in order to do its job well. Our Expert Agrees: Intonating your guitar requires adjusting the saddles at the bridge. In addition to writing and performing with The Ghost Next Door, he is the founder and primary guitar instructor of Asghari Guitar Lessons. Typically, the bare bones guitar set up and intonation requires: Before you do anything else, you’ll want to clean off your guitar, change your strings, and stretch the new strings a bit until they hold tune properly. Last Updated: May 12, 2020 In order to combat this, proper intonation is key for any guitar. Knowing how to intonate an electric guitar—and keep it intonated—will heighten the accuracy of each string’s sound, sweeten each chord, and sharpen the sizzle of each new lick. A luthier will be able to adjust neck and bridge to affect the action of your guitar, file nuts down, and replace the bridge completely if need be. In addition to writing and performing with The Ghost Next Door, he is the founder and primary guitar instructor of Asghari Guitar Lessons.
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