guitar setup

bonenut

i felt i could set the intonation my fender strat quite well,but i bought a gibson les paul recently and cant seem to do it,i did the exact same process as i did with my strat but to no avail.the notes are fine on the higher frets but as i fret notes close to the nut they are way off.i followed a number of on line tutorials,so i am not doing anything wrong.is there setup men on the northside of dublin that do it,that nelson guy is miles away from me.thanks.

Doctor J

If you tune the guitar with an open string note, are the first, second and third frets in tune when you fret them?

bonenut

i tuned the guitar normally,then the fretted and harmonic note at the 12 fret and adjusted the bridge.from 12 down to about the sixth fret are bang on but after that the fretted notes are way off,some strings more than others.

Doctor J

Ok, but if you tune it now, to open notes, and fret it from the 1st fret up, are the lower frets in tune when you tune it to the open string?

I ask because it may be a misplaced nut, rather than an intonation problem.

bonenut

sorry did not understand your first question.i have it tuned with the open strings at the mo and they are way off.cheers.

Doctor J

Regardless of the intonation, you should be pretty close low down the neck. If you have a capo try tuning to F with the capo on the first fret, see how in tune it is on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th frets and then release the capo and see if it is in tune open.

bonenut

thanks for that doctor.will try that.