Re: OT Re: Phiew.... guitar intonation - hard work!

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

Ian Petersen wrote:
> Andy,
> 
>     My electrics don't have the intonation problem that
>     the compensated nut is reckoned to fix
> 
> 
> Just out of interest, did you check that your nut is actually in the 
> theoretically 'correct' position with relation to the frets? As 
> previously noted, some manufacturers install their nuts (!) a gnats 
> whisker closer to the first fret than the correct scale length. Your 
> guitars may very well already be 'compensated'.  

Nope, they aren't.
...and the Hofner SG has a Zero fret

> 
>  > What all my guitars tend to have, however, is an obsessively
>>  set up nut height :-)
> 
> However obsessively set up your nut is, the string still needs to 
> stretch to reach the fret or it wouldn't be able to vibrate. 

When you buy a new guitar, it's very unlikely to have a perfectly
set up nut. So there's a lot of extra tension when the first fret
is fingered. 

Bringing the nut down a bit lessens that tension, to the extent
that on my guitars the intonation is spot on.
(checked with tuner)

I always ask as many useful questions as the guy can stand when
I get anything fixed, so consequently I found out how to
set up the nut myself.
Anyone wants to know, ask me off list.


> 
> None of the guitars on which I have installed compensated nuts *needed* 
> the compensation as such. They played, intonated and tuned just fine 
> before. But they sound 'different' after compensation - and to my ears 
> 'sweeter'. Whether they sound 'better' is obviously a matter of taste ...

Well, if you like it better, then I reckon it really is better...it's your 
instrument.

Sometimes I change the (non-comp) nuts on my guitars, they also get better 
:-)


andy

> 
> Ian
> 
>