How to Adjust Intonation on a Bass Guitar

Video Transcript

"THE FERRET: Okay, we've got the saddles adjusted for height. Now, we're just going to make sure it plays comfortably, and now we're going to check the intonation. We've got the screws on the back of the bridge player right here that move the saddles back and forth, and what we're trying to accomplish is that the open note and the note at the 12th fret are exactly the same. Most people would use a strobe tuner or any kind of electronic tuner that's pretty accurate to work. We've got a stick-on contact tuner right here, and we're going to check the tuning. Now, that the open note's in tune, we can play the 12th fret. If the tuner says that your string is sharp, that means that you need to move the saddle back towards the end of the guitar. If it says it's flat, that means you need to move it back towards the neck. In our case, the string's showing sharp. So we're going to need to move it this way, and looks like we need the Phillips screwdriver and we're going to turn the screw clockwise just a few turns and see where we're at. Now, the tuner says the string is in tune and it's intonated. So we can follow that same procedure on the next three strings."