Definition of Guitar Intonation

Series Summary

Does your guitar hurt your fingers when you play? Does your hand get tired quickly? Do you feel like your guitar is never in tune, no matter what you do? If these things are problems, then there may be something wrong your guitar's intonation. Adjusting a guitar's intonation properly will alter and improve the action of the guitar (the distance between the neck and the strings) and make sure the guitar stays in tune all the way up the neck. The guitar setup and intonation is an important step in getting the best sound out of your guitar.

In this free video series, professional guitar player and technician Bill MacPherson shows how to adjust the intonation of a guitar. With his expertise he explains what guitar intonation is, what the different factors that affect guitar intonation are, different tuning methods, different guitar bridges, and finally how to adjust and setup the intonation of the guitar string by string. Stop fighting your guitar when you play and learn how to make your guitar work for you?

Video Transcript

"Hi this is Bill Macpherson for Expert Village in today's series of clips we're going to be about guitar intonation proper intonation. What guitar intonation is, is the strings on your neck playing in tune all across the neck from the bottom of it to the top. Another way of explaining intonation is through cords you may play one cord down here on your neck but if you play this one here this one may sound out compared to this one which may sound perfect. Another thing that might affect intonation is playing style so a lot of people like playing hard, like pushing hard on the the frets, some people like to play soft so everybody your intonation may be different. Just going from play to another just handing the guitar over to somebody else the intonation maybe out just from playing. Actually what intonation is the length of your string now each string has it's own length setting, a guitar is usually to skill but it's my new changes that change your intonation and moving these saddles back and fourth is what will set the intonation and we'll be talking about that further."