Is this normal?

[trajectory fish]

I have a light set of flatwound strings on my 7621, tuned ebGDAEB guages 11 - 65, and I tried to set up the intonation tonight. I'm having trouble intonating the low B string, as it goes sharp as I play up the neck. Strangely, moving the saddle a great deal did not cause a change in the degree to which the notes go sharp. I had to remove the spring on the screw to be able to get the saddle as far back as I did, and the notes still get sharp as I go up the neck. I lowered the action a little bit, and it did help some, but not enough to fix the problem. Here is a picture of my bridge as it is now.



Thanks
-Bennett

[nuno]

yes it's normal.
.65 it's too thick gauge even for a 8-string Nevborn, go figure a 7-string.
i sometimes happened to set some friend's guitars which got that kind of problem even with a standard .42 gauge low-E.

[trajectory fish]

I would think that if it were too thick, the notes would get flat as i go up the neck, not sharp The strange thing is, moving the saddle had no significant effect on the intonation. For a low B, I don't think a .065 is too thick, I have a .070 on my acoustic that works fine. I'm thinking it might be a problem with the nut. What kinds of things should I look for that might be a problem on a nut?

Thanks!

[nuno]

you cant compare acoustics & electrics, it's all another planet, and almost never the intonation can be set on acoustics unless you unglue the bridge and reglue it in a better angle, but you'll never reach such intonation as good as on electrics.

trust me, .65 gauge is thick enough to get your intonation off.

if you dont care much about finish, unscrew the bridge and screw it in a backward position, just pay attention to the holes where you puck the strings in.
ok, you'll have a couple little pierces on the top, right the bridge and the bridge pick-up, but your guitar will play great!

[darren wilson]

Intonation can be easily set on an acoustic using a compensated saddle. If there isn't enough space to set it correctly, the saddle slot can be filled and re-cut. The bridge doesn't have to be removed and re-glued. Trust me, i'm having this done as we speak on my AJ-307 with .011 to .070 strings on it.

I have a .060 low string on my Dean 7-string, and i seem to be able to intonate it correctly with its tune-o-matic bridge. I think i could easily go up to .065 on it, maybe even higher. And those things don't have a lot of play.

I think you may be right in assuming there's a problem with the nut. What nut material is on your 7621? I'd take off the string and see if there's any chipping or flaking at the leading edge of the nut (closest to the fretboard). If the point where the string breaks over the nut has moved back toward the tuners, it would definitely throw off the intonation across the entire neck. I can't think of any other reason why you'd need to set a .065 back THAT far.

If you do have any chipping or cracking, or if the slot was just badly cut, see if you can get it replaced with a good quality GraphTech, Tusq or bone nut and have it slotted by a professional who knows what they're doing.

[trajectory fish]

Thanks for the help guys, i'll check out my nut as soon as i get a chance.