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Sting Intonation


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Posted

2012 Gibson SG Standard with tune-omatic bridge: I recently changed my guitar strings and moved from the Gibson Light Gauge 10s to the Rev. Willys Number 8 (nickname for Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top). This really screwed up my intonation. So, I adjusted the intonation (open string in-tune then fretted at the twelfth using a Boss Tuner). The intonations are fine for each open-to-fretted-twelfth fret string, but the g,d,a strings, especially the famous g string, when fretted at the second fret are sharp, not only to the ears but on my tuner.

 

Every video is see is the same where the sharp notes are high on the neck while playing fine on the lower frets. As you have just read, my issue is exactly the opposite where the problem is the lower three frets but fine higher up.

 

What am I missing?

 

(fyi, I bought this guitar new from Guitar Center in 2012 and it was still in the box from the Gibson Guitar factory. So, this instrument has never been serviced as nothing has been wrong since I bought it, until now with the changing of the string gauge.)

 

THANKS...........

Posted

I'm guessing it is because the nut is cut a little high. I bet if you check the intonation, or the tuning on each fret as you go toward the nut, it will get progressively sharper as you get closer to the nut.

 

It's VERY common on Gibson guitars, and a lot of others, for the string slots in the nut to be cut on the high side of ideal.

 

When either the nut is high or the bridge is high, it takes a little bit more tension to fret the string, stretching it out of tune a bit. Tension is least at the 12th fret because it is the middle.

Posted

I'm guessing it is because the nut is cut a little high. I bet if you check the intonation, or the tuning on each fret as you go toward the nut, it will get progressively sharper as you get closer to the nut.

 

Yes, that too [thumbup] But that's a harder fix unless you have an adjustable nut, or the tools and know how to cut them a bit...

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