Intonation and Wound G strings
Intonation is what keeps your guitar in tune when fretting notes. Easy with any tuner, be it clip on, pedal or good ears to get your guitar’s open strings set to standard tuning. But as you fret up the neck you want your guitar to stay as close to in tune as possible. If your guitar sounds out of tune when playing some chords or when playing fretted notes up at the higher frets your guitar’s intonation needs setting. Depending on what type of bridge, strings your guitar has plays a big factor in this setting.
When checking intonation and playing your guitar “in-tune” it is important that you fret notes or chords evenly and not use too much pressure. Especially if your guitar has high jumbo frets it is easy to press down too hard and actually stretch the strings out of tune. One reason why your touch is so important in your playing. You strive to fret notes by pressing down the string to the fret, but not push the string down further to the fretboard bending the note out of tune. Be careful with your fretting hand so you don’t inadvertently pull one or more strings out of tune by applying uneven pressure. If you press too hard you can make any chord or note play out of tune. Continue reading…
