Post by RandomHero on Sept 14, 2006 7:05:18 GMT -5
Anyone here who plays a 7-string, or at least a guitar tuned much farther down than C, will understand that finding that perfectly intoned sweet spot on a .58+ string is next to impossible. I thought I might submit the query to the old and wise on the forum. =)
On my Ibanez, I tune my top down to A, with the standard six strings in standard tuning. As I draw the saddle back, there approaches a point at within 1/8th of the extent of its' backward travel that it seems to get as good as it gets, as far as the 12th fretted/12th harmonic method goes. Much farther back than that, however, and the problem equation seems to reverse itself; not only does the intonation slide back out as if you were returning the saddle toward the nut, but -all- positions on the fretboard lose their relativity to the notes on the rest of the neck! I imagine it causes problems akin to those you might encounter if you put a 24.75" scale neck on a body routed for a 25.5" scale...
To my understanding, no guitar can be perfectly intonated. Unless you want to do a lot of math and design a guitar with a compensated nut, bridge, and even compensated frets, for use in -one- tuning with -one- set of string guages, you're stuck with the "move the saddle to average out the scale length over the fretboard" patch-up attempt at intonation.
I know I'm running headfirst into the laws of physics by expecting a .58 to vibrate at 110 hz, and be intonated as well as everything else on the 25.5" scale, but -why- exactly can't I get it as close to perfect as I can the rest of the strings?
On my Ibanez, I tune my top down to A, with the standard six strings in standard tuning. As I draw the saddle back, there approaches a point at within 1/8th of the extent of its' backward travel that it seems to get as good as it gets, as far as the 12th fretted/12th harmonic method goes. Much farther back than that, however, and the problem equation seems to reverse itself; not only does the intonation slide back out as if you were returning the saddle toward the nut, but -all- positions on the fretboard lose their relativity to the notes on the rest of the neck! I imagine it causes problems akin to those you might encounter if you put a 24.75" scale neck on a body routed for a 25.5" scale...
To my understanding, no guitar can be perfectly intonated. Unless you want to do a lot of math and design a guitar with a compensated nut, bridge, and even compensated frets, for use in -one- tuning with -one- set of string guages, you're stuck with the "move the saddle to average out the scale length over the fretboard" patch-up attempt at intonation.
I know I'm running headfirst into the laws of physics by expecting a .58 to vibrate at 110 hz, and be intonated as well as everything else on the 25.5" scale, but -why- exactly can't I get it as close to perfect as I can the rest of the strings?
, but the shortcut to the answer for this is easy - just use a bass guitar's standard A string, and be done with it.