{GEAR}Can anyone explain this?

#1 · November 20, 2003, 12:29 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on November 20, 2003, 12:29 pm
Posted by: bruce.haag <bruce.haag@...>

Greetings to the group from a LONG time deep lurker. I came across a problem last week that truly confounded me. With the collective wisdom of this list, maybe we can come up with an answer. Here's the deal:

My fourteen-year-old son has a Fender Squire Strat guitar purchased as a "Strat Pack" from GC last year. He had changed the strings and put on the extra set of "Fender"s that came in the strat pack about two months ago. He mentioned that his guitar just wasn't playing in tune. Seems when he played up near the 12th fret on the high E string, it was quite flat. I told him I would look at the intonation of that string. I moved the saddle closer to the nut which did improve the intonation but I could not move it far enough to intonate it correctly. That was about three weeks ago. Last week, he mentioned that his strings were really rusty. I looked at them and yes they were quite corroded. I started playing around with that high E string again and it was even more out of tune at the 12th fret. In fact, it was a full half step flat. I knew I couldn't adjust the saddle any further and was looking for a new fix. The neck looked straight and the action was quite nice. I was stumped.

To further complicate matters, I noticed that the B string was getting quite flat as well up near the 12th fret. Then I started checking the harmonics. On the E string, the harmonic normally located at the 12th fret was actually at the 13th. Huh? The 13th fret was now the octave to the open E string both fretted and harmonically (new word?). Even when I fretted the string between the 13th and 14th frets and plucked the string between the 13th fret and the nut, it was the same high E octave. I thought to my self, "This can't be right because the distance is different between the 13th fret and the bridge and the 13th fret and the nut." I even took out my tape measure to prove to myself. Sure enough, the halfway distance between the nut and the bridge was right at the 12th fret.

I called a couple of local luthiers and explained the situation to them over the phone. They both said they've never heard anything like this, bring it in and they would take a look at it. Well I knew it desperately needed new strings so I went out and picked up some Elixer Nanoweb extra lights. Put them on and the problem was resolved. Perfect intonation at the 12th fret on all six strings.

So my question is this: Does anybody have any idea why this might occur? Could the corrosion have changed the density of the string sufficiently in one area to make such a huge difference in the intonation?

We are thankful the problem was resolved but in the back of my mind I keep asking why.

Thanks for any ideas you might have.

Bruce Haag

Posted by: bruce.haag <bruce.haag@...>

Greetings to the group from a LONG time deep lurker. I came across a problem last week that truly confounded me. With the collective wisdom of this list, maybe we can come up with an answer. Here's the deal:

My fourteen-year-old son has a Fender Squire Strat guitar purchased as a "Strat Pack" from GC last year. He had changed the strings and put on the extra set of "Fender"s that came in the strat pack about two months ago. He mentioned that his guitar just wasn't playing in tune. Seems when he played up near the 12th fret on the high E string, it was quite flat. I told him I would look at the intonation of that string. I moved the saddle closer to the nut which did improve the intonation but I could not move it far enough to intonate it correctly. That was about three weeks ago. Last week, he mentioned that his strings were really rusty. I looked at them and yes they were quite corroded. I started playing around with that high E string again and it was even more out of tune at the 12th fret. In fact, it was a full half step flat. I knew I couldn't adjust the saddle any further and was looking for a new fix. The neck looked straight and the action was quite nice. I was stumped.

To further complicate matters, I noticed that the B string was getting quite flat as well up near the 12th fret. Then I started checking the harmonics. On the E string, the harmonic normally located at the 12th fret was actually at the 13th. Huh? The 13th fret was now the octave to the open E string both fretted and harmonically (new word?). Even when I fretted the string between the 13th and 14th frets and plucked the string between the 13th fret and the nut, it was the same high E octave. I thought to my self, "This can't be right because the distance is different between the 13th fret and the bridge and the 13th fret and the nut." I even took out my tape measure to prove to myself. Sure enough, the halfway distance between the nut and the bridge was right at the 12th fret.

I called a couple of local luthiers and explained the situation to them over the phone. They both said they've never heard anything like this, bring it in and they would take a look at it. Well I knew it desperately needed new strings so I went out and picked up some Elixer Nanoweb extra lights. Put them on and the problem was resolved. Perfect intonation at the 12th fret on all six strings.

So my question is this: Does anybody have any idea why this might occur? Could the corrosion have changed the density of the string sufficiently in one area to make such a huge difference in the intonation?

We are thankful the problem was resolved but in the back of my mind I keep asking why.

Thanks for any ideas you might have.

Bruce Haag