. . . not for the first time, but this is very odd.
A customer dropped off an Ibanez Artist today with tuning issues. It has previously had a new nut fitted which wasn't great and I replaced it.
Tuned up and intonated it sounded fine apart from the low string - playing an open G chord the low G sounded horrible and read sharp on my tuner (Peterson VS-II).
I stuck a wooden toothpick under the string to see if the nut position was at fault and finally managed to get the open string, 12th fret and G on the third fret all in tune, but the toothpick is 6mm from the edge of the nut !
The frets are pretty worn but I have tidied up the shape of the fret in the problem area so I wouldn't expect its impact to be massive - but I'm not sure what else it can be.
I fitted a new set of EB 9-42s and have replaced the bottom string with a new one just in case, but nothing has changed.
Any thoughts ?
"I'll probably be in the bins at Newport Pagnell services." fretmeister
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with the new nut in the "right" place and the guitar intonated the error is getting progressively less the closer to the 12th fret.
with the toothpick at 6mm away from the face of the nut the notes at the nut end are all pretty much in tune.
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Only on one string? The low E?
Nomad
Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too...
How high is the action at the nut?
How do the break angles over the nut and saddles look?
Do the saddles have a normal looking pattern of distances from the nut, or are any out of the expected position relative to the others?
Nomad
Nobody loves me but my mother... and she could be jivin' too...
I have set up hundreds of guitars but I don't think I know all there is to know, otherwise I'd have kept my head down
I'm going to double check everything in the morning, including checking the fret positions against the scale length and putting another string on just in case something weird has happened with both strings, but don't forget the owner said he's always had problems with it since a friend gave it to him so there may be something odd/wrong that's always been there.
this is why I asked for suggestions
I've replaced loads of nuts and done hundreds of set ups but just once in a while something comes along to make you go - huh?
0.5mm works well without going down the fully compensated nut route.
On this one the guitar previously had a replacement nut, suggesting the issue has always been there, or a weird nut was taken out and replaced with a standard one
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I didn't quote for a lot of fret work but having checked the scale length and the first few fret positions it all appeared to be spot on, so I reshaped the first eight frets (they have some visible wear but not big divots) to see how a more defined radius would change things and a quick look before I had to break for dog-walking and daughter-watching showed a big improvement.
I might still have to add a little material to the front face of the nut if I want to get things spot on but it's already much better.
The problem does seem to have been due to the excessive flatness of the wide frets, my initial bit of exploratory filing obviously had little effect as when I did it properly - taking all the strings off, covering the top of the fret in black marker and rounding over until there was just a hint of a line in the middle (which is what I'd normally do after leveling worn frets) then polishing them up.
It just goes to show that sometimes deciding that "they don't look too bad" can be a dangerous thing to do, and it doesn't hurt to be reminded of such things once in a while