Intonation

[Max Dread]

Hi

Perhaps I'm being thick........

but I always thought a 12th fret harmonic should be the same as an open string? Well, I'm going to be setting up my guitar soon and I was having a little play about to see where things are at at the moment, and it seems on most strings the 12th fret harmonic is sharper than the open string. Is it normal, or indicative of an issue?

Cheers

Max

[Timbaline]

The 12h fret harmonic should be the same as an open string. If it not then you need to re-intonate your guitar.

[6fingers]

http://www.just****inggoogleit.com/

[Homebake]

i intonate using rich's method; playing the open then 24th fret, not anything to do with 12th.

[6fingers]

Originally Posted by Homebake

i intonate using rich's method; playing the open then 24th fret, not anything to do with 12th.

That's the same thing,they're octaves of the open string.
Gosh.

[smooth55]

I've actually found that fretting the last note on your board and intonating from that is a little more accurate. It's kind of a pain but if you're really anal, you'll realize that the harmonic being correct doesn't factor in what the note will actually be when fretted. Just some food for thought and I don't have a ton of experience doing my own setups, but that's what I've come to find.

[6fingers]

Originally Posted by smooth55

I've actually found that fretting the last note on your board and intonating from that is a little more accurate. It's kind of a pain but if you're really anal, you'll realize that the harmonic being correct doesn't factor in what the note will actually be when fretted. Just some food for thought and I don't have a ton of experience doing my own setups, but that's what I've come to find.

100% right.
When you fret any string,you press it down so you bend that string.Fretted notes tuning are more acurate than harmonics.
So the best tuning is fretting some notes across the neck.
Play an open string than its 24th fret.They have to be the same .If not,intonate it like that pic I posted.

[Rich]

I used to use last fret intonation exclusively. The only problem with it is the mid scale is a little flat, but I'd rather have it flat because you can always add pressure or microbend into tune. Flat you can add, sharp you can't take away from.

I haven't written if all up how I'm currently intonating, but here goes.

I intonate the open and fretted high E at the 12th. [yes, the upper register is a little sharp doing it this way]
I intonate the open B string to the B 17th fretted [E]. What I'm doing is matching the B 17 to E 12, otherwise these are very much out against each other.
Then all the rest of the strings I intonate 5th fret fretted and 17th fret fretted.

[Ayrton]

Huh, Rich I am going to try that.

I had been doing 5th and 17th for all strings.

Thanks