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How do I adjust the intonation and action on my guitar or should I leave it to an expert? |
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You should most definitely leave it to an expert unless you've been playing guitar for years and have a thorough knowledge of what you're doing to the guitar and the risks involved with adjusting things. If you don't know what you're doing to your guitar and you just follow a guide on the Internet, you could seriously mess something up. That something could be potentially warping/cracking a neck because you adjusted the truss rod too far. And on a neck-thru or set neck guitar that could REALLY mess things up bad because they're harder to fix the necks. So, instead of worrying about messing something up, just take it down to your local guitar shop and pay them the cash to get it fixed. Hey, they might even throw in a free pack of strings or something :) |
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You shouldn't need to mess with the truss rod to set intonation. To set intonation, the open string, the same string played at the 12th fret, and the harmonic played at the 12th fret should all play the same note (although at different octaves). So: tune the string to pitch, play it at the 12th. If your tuner reads the note as sharp, you need to lengthen the scale (back the saddle off). If it reads flat, you need to shorten the scale (move the saddle up towards the nut). Every time you adjust the saddle, de-tune the string first. You rarely need to move the saddles more than a fraction of an inch, so go slowly. Be aware that as one string is tuned tighter, it may make the other strings sound a little flat, so it's best to tune & test all the strings a couple of times. |
