https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Fri, 05 Jun 2026 01:52:24 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-149600 Fri, 06 Jan 2006 06:19:06 +0000
I am almost 100% certain it is your intonation. When your intonation is off, you guitar will always be out of tune somewhere. When you tune it nice and open chords sound great, then barre chords up the neck will sound horrible. So, you tune it so those barre chords up the neck sound right, and your open chords will be way off. That is intonation.

Use a good tuner. Pluck your E string open and tune it as perfectly as possible. Now, fret the E string at the 12th fret and pluck it. If the note is sharp (very common), you need to move the saddle back toward the rear. If the note is flat (rare), you need to move the saddle forward.

Loosen the string fairly slack before you make an adjustment to the saddle. The adjustment screws will then turn easy, and you won't mar them up. Then retune the open string as perfectly as possible again, then recheck the fretted note at the 12th again. Take your time and try to get as perfect a match as possible.

Do this with all strings.

Note- Before adjusting intonation, make sure you like the string height or action first. One thing that can throw off intonation is the action being too high. If the action is too high, you cannot accurately adjust intonation. In this situation, when you depress the string to fret at the 12th, it is distorting the length of the string. Intonation will still be off slightly.

I am almost completely positive this is your problem.]]> Guitar Repair and Maintenance Wes Inman https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-149600 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-149234 Thu, 05 Jan 2006 02:52:56 +0000 Guitar Repair and Maintenance Steve-0 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-149234 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-149215 Thu, 05 Jan 2006 01:50:45 +0000
if so then the springs at the bottom may be too loose.that happened to me and it wouldent stay tuned]]> Guitar Repair and Maintenance axe_junkie33 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-149215 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-146464 Sat, 24 Dec 2005 01:13:10 +0000 Guitar Repair and Maintenance Nils https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-146464 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-146449 Sat, 24 Dec 2005 00:21:51 +0000 This is, of course, assuming that you're not swinging on the vibrato arm like King Kong from the Empire State building!]]> Guitar Repair and Maintenance greybeard https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-146449 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-13960 Sat, 24 Dec 2005 00:15:02 +0000 Guitar Repair and Maintenance sadbuttrue https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-repair-and-maintenance/cant-tune-wont-tune/#post-13960