Guitar Intonation

When you tune your guitar, how do you do it? You use a tuner and tune the strings so that the open notes become E-A-D-G-B-E (Standard Tuning). But after tuning have you ever checked if the 12th fret of the 1st string is also an E note? Or the 8th fret of the second string is a G note? NO? Why?

You may be thinking that when I have already tuned the open strings, then automatically, every fret gets tuned. This thing only applies when your guitar's intonation is correct. But check it once if it is really correct or there is some alteration to it. 

If there is any alteration, do not panic, it has a solution. If your twelfth fret sounds higher than E note, then you need to increase the length of the string. If it sounds flatter than an E note, you need to shorten the length of the string. Now how to do it? Electric guitar bridges do have this option to change the length of each individual string. On acoustic guitar it is a little bit difficult to do.

This is the bridge of an electric guitar. If you notice, you will find some nuts provided in the bridge. These nuts are meant for adjusting the length of strings from nut to bridge. The picture is self explanatory and now you must have got the idea how to do it.

This is the saddle of an acoustic guitar. You need to adjust its height to change the length. If you need to increase the length, lift the saddle up and increase its height. Do the opposite for decreasing the length of the string.

This is a floating bridge. Do you notice a black circle? That nut can be opened using an Allen Key. When you loose that nut, you can adjust the length of that particular string by moving the string holder and then again tighten that nut to fix it.