Intonation Horror

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VikingBlues
Posts: 4466
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 7:44 pm

Intonation Horror

Post by VikingBlues »

Sometimes a newly purchased on-line guitar just has to go straight back!

How's this for bad intonation?

https://app.box.com/s/ef53tuprqklfapbkgber8l2tmaziwszy :yikes:

Top 5 strings were fine. But the 6th (thickest) string had other ideas and wanted to do things differently.

The progressively worse intonation moving up the fretboard meant reducing nut height wouldn't fix things, and a compensated saddle was already in place. An electric guitar with a tune-o-matic bridge might have been an easy fix but a different story for a standard acoustic bridge / saddle!

It's a small size guitar tuned A-A in case you wonder why the notes sound quite high.
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
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12bar
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Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:05 pm

Re: Intonation Horror

Post by 12bar »

:eye_rub:
For a new purchased guitar it's easy - get it back. Otherwise there are some things your can do, although an electric would have much more ways to do. You're not alone with this, google has several threads on other forums like
http://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27695
If it's only one string, maybe a new set of strings can fix it...
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VikingBlues
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Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 7:44 pm

Re: Intonation Horror

Post by VikingBlues »

Yes - it went back yesterday! Arrived Friday, tried it in the evening, phoned the supplier Saturday morning, it was picked up Monday morning. At least that's a good quality of customer service. :thumbsup:

But shame that a guitar was allowed out in that condition. :sad:

There was an unusual aspect to this problem that I think would would make a fix trickier. The usual issue seems to be that intonation higher up the fretboard is OK and the first few frets are bad. A bit of work on the nut will often fix that type of problem because the too high cut nut is causing extra string stretch on the lower frets - something I'm used to tackling with lower (and some higher) price guitars.

With this guitar the intonation was getting worse as I moved UP the fretboard towards the body. While in tune at the open string it was very significantly out at the 12 fret confirmed by the difference between the harmonic and the fretted note. Which was I felt was indicating a string length issue. Not an easy fix with an acoustic bridge - and it already had a compensated saddle.

Not worth wasting time. money and strings on I felt - and it also needed rather more work on fret ends than I'd expect even at the modest price level. Not one of Ibanez's better bits of work.
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
MichaelRobinson
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Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:20 pm

Re: Intonation Horror

Post by MichaelRobinson »

You can get mad for less reasons. Not fun at all to buy a guitar and it sounds crap. I do understand you, VB.
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