Intonation on a guitar refers to the accuracy of the pitch of the notes played on the fretted strings. It’s one thing to accurately tune your guitar with open strings, but do you ever strum with all your strings open? Not often!
So, the “real tuning” of you guitar depends on getting the right notes when your fingers press down on the strings to play chords or notes — i.e.: “fretted”.
Adjusting a guitar to get those fretted notes is called setting “intonation”.
How to adjust your guitar for proper intonation will depend on the type of bridge and saddle system you have. Below, we’ll look at a standard electric guitar with individual saddles. If you have a bridge system where you can only adjust at each end of the bridge, you’ll set each outer string and cross your fingers for the inner strings!
To properly intonate a standard electric guitar, follow these steps:
- Tune the guitar to standard tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E) using a digital tuner or an app on your phone.
- Play the 12th fret on the high E string (the thinnest string) and adjust the string length (by turning the saddle intonation screw until you’re properly tuned at the octave. That means your E4 string (open) should give an E5 note.
- Retune the open string after each adjustment until both open and fretted notes are correct.
- Repeat steps 2 & 3 for all six strings, making sure to adjust the saddle for each string individually.
Notice in the picture below, each heavier solid string is slightly longer than the thinner string next to it, and that the process repeats with the wound strings where D is typically about the same length as B.
HOWEVER
Intonation is affected by the condition of the guitar’s nut, truss rod, saddle heights and other factors, which is why it is typically the very last step in a guitar setup – something every guitar should have on a regular basis.
Does YOUR guitar need to be intonated, or need a setup? Bring it to Hank’s Guitar Shop in Clearwater and Dan, Liam or Hank will drop everything to check your guitar over and let you know what, if anything it might need and give you options. There is NO COST for this evaluation!
How is a wooden floating bridge intonated?
Thanks for a great question, Josh!
Intonation, on any stringed instrument, is done by altering the length of each string so that the octave is heard when fretted at 1/2 scale length, which is the 12th fret on our guitars.
With a floating (or ABR type, etc.) bridge, you can only adjust the two end string lengths, and hope that the saddle handles the inner strings. Typically, you’ll intonate the two outer strings by fretting at the 12th fret, then sliding the bridge forward or back until you get the octave.
The treble side will be shorter than the bass side, usually by about 3mm.
At Hank’s, we intonate sliding bridge instruments with each string change or setup.