Hi folks,

I've been just swamped since my last REC take and haven't had a moment to put this together. I wanted to do a video and show the intonation on my LIII. I had to figure out how to display myself playing the guitar while also showing a tuner. I think I got it with Streamlabs and this free online chromatic tuner which seems pretty decent. I just show the E and B strings but all strings are approximately the same, getting me in the "green" zone. I am trying to use as little pressure as possible while still striking a clean note. The action came painted on with this guitar from the factory. It is very low. If this looks good, could it just be I am pushing notes out with pressure and just need to use my ear more? Again, thanks for all the input. I wanted to get a video of this prior to attempting another REC of the track, so nobody feels gaslit, lol.



This post has been edited by FreePizza: Aug 2 2022, 10:45 PM

My guitars are all pretty much like yours there, but I don't think it's uncommon. I'd say yours are probably more precise than my blue ibanez. Due to the way guitars are made, intonation will always be a little off. I'm kinda afraid to test my guitar out now, but I might do a similar video.

Thanks Ben, that makes me feel a little better. Although now I'm the problem haha.

It's not very far adrift from what I can hear. did you have it intonated after you got it? Never a bad idea to have new instruments setup/intonated by a luthier. It does seem to have a bit of drift in it and I can hear it modulating on what looks like the 7th fret I think? Then it's a few cents off at 12. if you fret a note at 12 with too much pressure it will accentuate the drift. Or really any fret with any drift, will be accentuated with over pressure.



This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Aug 3 2022, 04:10 AM

I had a professional look at it after I bought it. He said it was already setup quite good and that he thought the action was pretty low, for his own taste. I've come to like it. It's open, 5th fret, 12th fret, 15th fret and back down on the two strings.

Open E and fretted 12th fret should be identical. Try 12th fret harmonic and fretted 12th fret.
Make sure your fretting finger tip is not in the middle of the fret. It should be closer to the actual 12th fret fret wire. The best intonation is obtained when you're past the middle of the fret.

*Most high end luthiers check intonation at the the 3rd and 15th frets now. They'll capo at the 3rd fret. Some like the 5th and 17th frets.

Thanks guys. I did another quick video with open string, 12th fret (close to fret wire) and the harmonic on 12th.

To me, this looks and sounds decent. I don't see that this intonation would cause the kind of tuning problem we heard in your last two REC takes.

If you have changed something (strings or intonation) then it would be interesting to see a new take.

It could also be interesting to hear you play the take on a different guitar (if you have got one) for troubleshooting purposes.

This is probably a silly question, but just in case, did you stretch your strings quite well when you put them on and did you tune up right before the rec take? Small issues that can have an impact.


I like kris's idea about doing that with another guitar. Could you do just that one part on the B string that sounded out on your new guitar and on a different guitar? Just so we can hear that bit? It might help.

Todd

That's as good as you can get, all these three the same. Any other note discrepencies on other frets is usually down to not have 'True Temperement' frets installed.

Unfortunately, after checking my Ibanez, it is a little off so I wouldn't want to throw a video together with that until I had it fixed up. I'm not so scared to adjust the saddles/string length but if a truss rod adjustment is needed I really don't feel comfortable doing that.

Sensible, woah, that is crazy, I never knew these even existed.

Yeah, that is to compensate for the nature of the fretboard not being able to be intonated perfectly all over on every fret. True temperate allows it to not be a compromise

Sometimes makes me glad I don't have perfect pitch. Perfect pitch and OCD wouldn't be a good combination

Generally speaking Truss Rod adjustments are more for correction of 'twist' in the neck and also the flatness/bow/relief of the neck once tension is applied, not so much for intonation.

As Ben said, straight frets/fan frets are a bit of a compromise, those True Temperement one will give much more accurate intonation but are a very expensive remedy!!!

And no one needs them.
We've been playing in tune on modern guitars with standard frets for about 150 years now and we're essentially "in tune".
Decent set up, intonated guitar, decent playing technique and you should be good to go.

*One thing I rarely ever do is tune my axe or check intonation with any overdrive or distortion. It should be dead clean for any type of accurate tuning/adjusting. OD introduces a shit ton of extra harmonic info that electric tuners do not like.

I completely agree with this by the way. True temperament is a cool "gimmick", but not necessary at all.

Not to mention pretty ugly.

It looks different for sure, but I don't mind it! I'm known to like "ugly" guitars though (i.e. headless, strandbergs, Jason Beckers numbers inlays etc), so you shouldn't trust my judgement on anything

This post has been edited by Storm Linnebjerg: Aug 7 2022, 07:27 PM

Hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Although for this guy's taste it's a little strange and I'm trying to imagine whether it would affect my playing or not. Mayne not, it's just super weird to me lol.

It's sorta like fanned frets in that sense imho. Just something else for the fingers to adjust to. TT has always seemed a bit gimmicky to be sure.