Settinng accurate intonation

[Demonsorcerer]

Is there a surefire way to achieve perfect, accurate intonation settings with the Edge Pro bridge even when there's no tool to do the job??

Thanks in advance,

David

[TongueNGroove]

sure..you just have to loosen the string enough so you can move the saddle, then tune back up to pitch and see if the intonation is right..if not then rinse and repeat.

[Demonsorcerer]

Duh, i guess youˇre right....but i mentioned ACCURATE, PRECISE intonation....that's nowhere near precise, that's eyeballing things...thanks anywayzzz

[brothersnowgone]

Originally Posted by Demonsorcerer

Duh, i guess you¡re right....but i mentioned ACCURATE, PRECISE intonation....that's nowhere near precise, that's eyeballing things...thanks anywayzzz

I've gotten it really precise before by doing it that way. You can get it perfect this way, but it can take hours undoing and retuning everything....

[TongueNGroove]

Originally Posted by Demonsorcerer

Duh, i guess you¡re right....but i mentioned ACCURATE, PRECISE intonation....that's nowhere near precise, that's eyeballing things...thanks anywayzzz

Umm, I have no idea what you mean..you can get the intonation perfectly accurate and precise..it just takes a bit more time.

Do you mean with just a single adjustment...somehow knowing exactly where to place to saddle so that when you retune the string it is guaranteed to be perfect on the first try? Well no, there is no way. But with experience you can usualy get it perfect or pretty darn close on the first try.

Even with an intonation tool you're not guaranteed to get it prefect on first the go....

[courtney2018]

The newest Guitarist magazine has a article in it on how to do intonation, and it's the same way I was taught a long time ago. It's the 3 F's. Fret - Flat - Foward.

Play the harmonic at the 12th fret and then play the string fretted at the 12th fret. If the fretted note is flat in comparison to the harmonic, then move the bridge forward towards the neck. Repeat this until the fretted 12th note is the same as the harmonic at the 12th fret. Do this for each string. Then you'll have perfect intonation.

[the80sroklej]

I thought fretting the 24th fret and comparing to open was the most "accurate" way?

[Jaden]

theres loads of threads on this, some of them quite heated.

whats wrong with "eyeballing" anyway, if you dont have an intonation tool for your floating trem how the hell else are you supposed to do it - toungeNgroove was right.

what do you do with a fixed bridge? I think the intonation tool for those is called a screwdriver
a floating trem tool only allows the adjustment to be made a full string tension, its the nut behind the wheel that controls the precision.

[Ki swordsman]

try doing what rich does.. stick the whammy in, dive it down so the the strings go slack. then with a little cloth wrapped clamp, clamp the bar to the body . then adjust, release and retest.

[crevis]

You can never get it perfect everywhere on the neck, I do it from the 12th because I'd rather it be right at the 12 than the 24th because obviously you use the frets < 15 more than >15.

[Satchriossi]

i use the method mentioned above as what Rich does to speed this process up because it is a matter of trial and error and can take a long time to get perfect. And i usually can't get 100% accuracy high up on the thickest strings but as someone else mentioned - this area doesn't really matter but what i get is still accurate enough that an audience would never notice a problem, you can just see it on a tuner.

Intonation accuracy is also related to action height because the higher it is, the more you 'bend' the string when pushing it down from rest to the point where the string touches the fret wire. Low, consistant action means that the amount of 'bend' applied at each fret is about the same.

Annoyingly this means that if you raise your bridge, you will find your intonation has gone a touch sharp somewhere, maybe eveywhere. And will need resetting if it bothers you at all.

Though i will say that i've come across some pretty badly intonated guitars (according to the tuner) which sounded fine onstage because the inaccuracy wasn't enough to be noticable when part of a mix of drums, vocals, bass etc. So a slight inaccuracy isn't the end of the world.

[arnoroth661]

Well... All I have to say is patience.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by courtney2018

The newest Guitarist magazine has a article in it on how to do intonation, and it's the same way I was taught a long time ago. It's the 3 F's. Fret - Flat - Foward.

Play the harmonic at the 12th fret and then play the string fretted at the 12th fret. If the fretted note is flat in comparison to the harmonic, then move the bridge forward towards the neck. Repeat this until the fretted 12th note is the same as the harmonic at the 12th fret. Do this for each string. Then you'll have perfect intonation.

The open string and 12th fret usually used is a very inaccurate way to set intonation and in fact if you read the instructions Peterson includes with their strobes it recommends using 2 different spots on the neck such as the 5th and 17th [or a mid scale combination an octave apart].