Guitar Tuning Problem

cazador

I've recently bought an old electric guitar of one of my friends and I noticed that the intonation was off so I fixed it and bought new saddles but the off tuning sound persisted until I realized that the problem is mainly on the first 3 frets of my G string. The string itself is new and was put on properly. I'm not that experienced with fixing guitars so any help is appreciated.

Johnny Storm

Sorry, I'm not clear what the problem is?

tom thum

the first three frets might be worn and might need replacing . and if you dont know much about fixing guitars you shouldnt really be goin near saddles and intonation.

..Brian..

Could be a problem with the nut, the plactic bit the strings sit in between the headstock and the first fret. More likely tho if its a cheap guitar, its the guitar itself.

Bring it into a reputable guitar shop and get em to have a look is prolly the best option.

bayles

Is the problem only on the G string ? . Normaly when intonation is off its on 2 or more strings and more often than not it is because the neck is twisted which will raise and lower the tension at certain points along the neck this generaly means a slight adjustment of the truss rod . (DONT TOUCH IF YOU HAVE NEVER DONE IT BEFORE)
From what you are saying (i maybe wrong) it is just D# , A , A# that are the problem . Take a look at the bridge nut and see is the string sitting a bit high . If it is then file a fraction off the channel that the string travels through to lower it untill they are all sitting flush with each other.

dermo909

The new strings you put on are prob a higher guage than the old ones and the g-string is sitting too high in the nut. This is causing you to press the string down further which in turn is causing the string to go out of tune.
The nut needs some work done on it.


Bring it to a good guitar repairer to get sorted because these types of fixes might involve a couple of adjustments.

kevin65

There are three elements of guitar setup to consider:
(1) The curvature in the neck - this is adjustable via the truss rod (DON'T touch this unless you know exactly what to do)
(2) Action - the height of the strings from the fretboard, depends on the height of the strings at the nut and the bridge.
(3) Intonation - the set length of each string from nut to bridge saddle.

There is alot of good advice and alot of cr*p advice on the net about how to set these up. So the best thing to do is get a book on how to check and adjust your guitar. With this you can verify the neck adjust is fine, and adjust the action and intonation. You will need a good steel ruler or feeler gauges to measure the gap between the string and fret for action(and a capo) and a good tuner to check the intonation.

When you have gone through these exercises and you still have problems, e.g. string buzz, then it is probably an uneven fret that is the problem, or possiblly some twist in the neck. At this stage, if you are not experienced, you need to get things checked out by a professional.

BTW, unless a set of strings is fresh and you happen to break one, always change the full set each time.