Originally Posted by: dlwalke

But I was having some problems that seemed to boil down to the fact that a fretted string is stretched, so that even if the string is divided perfectly in half, the fretted string is going to bias the notes to play a bit sharp.

[p]Good observation. That's the reason good action or string height is so crucial. Even then it's difficult & sometimes not possible to get perfect.

Some guitarists set their guitar up so that it is just a little flat in order to compensate for the fact that it goes a little sharp when you fret it! Especially if you play or pick heavy handed!