Topmusicanswers
- How does neck relief affect intonation?
- How do you fix the intonation on an acoustic guitar?
- What causes intonation problems?
- Why does my low E string sound out of tune?
How does neck relief affect intonation?
Adding relief (increasing the amount of bow) to the neck, increases the space between the strings and the frets, allowing them to vibrate freely without buzzing. If there is too much relief, the strings will be too far from the neck, the instrument will be uncomfortable to play, and intonation could be compromised.
How do you fix the intonation on an acoustic guitar?
Intonation is adjusted by increasing or decreasing the length of a guitar string. The easiest way to do this is by adjusting the position of the guitar's bridge. On some guitars, adjusting the bridge position is an easy job. On other guitars such as acoustic guitars, this is almost impossible.
What causes intonation problems?
Your frets are excessively worn, flat, dented, etc.
If the tops of your frets are too flat, dented, or you just had crappy fretwork done by a bad guitar tech, you can have trouble setting intonation. If this is the case, you'll probably have other issues too, such as fret buzz or notes fretting out.
Why does my low E string sound out of tune?
Most likely it's riding too high on the nut, and as you depress it onto the frets, essentially you are bending the string slightly sharp. Proper setup should take care of this. This is very common on most makes of guitars. The low E string can be compensated by changing where the string touches the saddle.
