Saddle Height - Intonation Setup


light487
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Joined: 07/14/07
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light487
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Joined: 07/14/07
Posts: 849
03/14/2008 10:19 pm
Heyas

So I am restringing my guitar today because the intonation is way out on a couple of the strings, the top-E string is -37Hz out.. anyway.. I've never been able to get the intonation perfect on this guitar because the saddles don't go back and forward enough. Normally I can get it within 10Hz of perfect intonation. I know that the saddle height also plays a part in this... so I am wondering which way to move the saddle height..

Where should I place the saddle position before moving the height? If the tuning is too sharp (and the saddle position can't move enough to accommodate) do I need to move the height up or down?

I'm really getting sick of having intonation problems.. even after taking it to a store and having a "professional" set it up, I still have these problems. So the only solution I can think of is to learn exactly how to intonate it myself.
light487
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strat-man
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strat-man
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Posts: 375
03/15/2008 5:27 pm
Saddle height doesn't really play much of a part in setting intonation, it's mainly to adjust the action, sure, adjusting saddle height on a already correctly intonated guitar will knock it out by a cent or two but if your intonation is that far out that you can't adjust it with the fore and aft movement of the saddles then your problems may lie elsewhere, (bridge, neck relief etc)

What kind of guitar is it? some bridge/saddle designs don't allow for 'perfect' intonation i.e Telecasters with 3 saddle bridges.

If the guitar has always had this problem then it could be a build issue, bridge mounted marginally too far forwards or backwards on the body for example.
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# 2
light487
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light487
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03/15/2008 7:21 pm
Well I am back within 10Hz again... and I haven't even started moving the saddles yet (I'm waiting for the strings to stretch in first).. so the strings that were that far out must have been damaged through wear and tear..

It's a Stratocaster copy btw
light487
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