Intonation

I need some help on how to correctely intonate a guitar. I understand that the guitar is sort-of two instruments put together, one is from open to the 12th fret & the other is from the 12th fret to the 24th fret, and that for the guitar to sound right they have to be "in tune" with each other. I was taught to tune the guitar normally and then to tune it from the 12th fret using the screws on the bridge saddles. When I do this though my tuning goes flat or sharp. Is that supposed to happen? Could someone explain to me if I'm doing it right or if there's a different way I'm supposed to do it.

Adjusting the intonation is an exercise in the art of compromise, the standard practice of matching the 12th fret harmonic and the 12 fret ( fretted ) note is OK, OK if you are going to only play open & 12th fret notes, but not much more than that, here's a few things to try, set your intonation like you have been, now with the tuner still plugged in, play some notes at the 2nd,3rd, 5th frets, play an open E major, then play an A major barre chord at the 5th fret, notice which strings are going out of tune, ( the worst ones anyhow) probaly the B&G strings will go sharp and thats whats driving you crazy, now here's where we have to compromise, you want to find the most acceptable setting of intonation and open string tuning, example,... play the B string at the 3rd fret, it's probaly #, so adjust the intonation so this note plays more in tune, play the open B, you may have to sharp or flat your open note tuning slightly, what you are working towards is the best you can get out of the fretted and open string tuning, Do you get what I'm talking about? It comes down to making it sound the best to your ear, the tuner is just a tool but your ear is the final judge, Work on a few strings and see if you can find the balance point, if you have anymore questions, just ask, Good Luck and Happy Tuning

Thanks my guitar sounds a lot better. I have one more question though. I was reading a guitar magazine a while back and I saw something about intonating your guitar to say something like B E A D G B or D G B E A D, do know what thats about or how to do it. They said it gave the guitar a heavier sound but wouldn't you have to be tuned to that to make it sound right?

Yeah there is alot of this lower tuning stuff going on, Black Sabbath was doing it years ago, Soundgarten started doing it, now everbody is on the bandwagon, what they are doing is lowering or dropping the tuning of the guitar down, sometimes maybe just one string, sometimes all the strings, here's a little example, tune your 6th string (E) down to D, now you can play the root and 5th of a chord with one finger on the 5th and 6th strings but you'll have to play them 2 frets higher, i.e.... normally you play the G note at the 3rd fret,6th string and the D note at the 5th fret, 5th string, but after you tune the 6th string down you just play both notes at the 5th fret with one finger, see, same notes, listen to "NO MORE TEARS" by Ozzy, this is what Zak is doing, now leave the 6th string at D and tune the rest of the strings down so that from 1st to 6th you have D-A-F-C-G-D, now you can play all your chords the same way as normal, but they are a whole step, (2 frets is a whole step) lower, you play A, but it really is G, this is what everyone is doing, the lower you tune down, the heavier the string you'll need to use and you may need to raise your bridge height some, the strings will be flopping around because they are so loose, the down-tuned 6 string is just the poorman's 7 string..............

No not down tuning your open tuning, down tuning your intonation.

Rereading your 2nd post, yes you would have to tune down to those tunings to set your intonation that way, it would be impossible to do it any other way, you couldn't have a srting tuned to E and be intonated for B, if this is what you mean, what magazine was this article in?

I think it was in guitar Guitar World, the article was about a Parker Fly and how it was good for metal because its intonation was lowered.