Tele Intonation

S56035 · July 2020

I have an Vintera 60s Modified Tele which has the three saddle bridge. I can get the intonation fine on all the other string except the low E. I can get the A fine but not matter what I do the low E will not even get close. It goes from quite a bjt sharp to totally out of whack. I've changed the strings to both the same and a different gauge but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Any ideas on what I can do?

Funkfingers · July 2020

Change to compensated saddles. These are drilled at the correct angles to get each pair of strings about right.

There are also adjustable compensated saddles. These use a lock screw system. Set the necessary angle for correct intonation. Lock it.

Er, what string gauges and tuning are you using?

HAL9000 · July 2020

Are you saying that you can’t get E to intonate if the A is right? Or that you can’t get the E to intonate at all?

SteveRobinson · July 2020

Is your pickup too high maybe? If it is, the magnets can pull on the string and make it impossible to tune

RandallFlagg · July 2020

Sometimes the low E looks out of intonation on my tuners as the signal jumps about all over the place as the note rings out fretted at the 12th making it difficult to determine correct intonation. I've always had this to a greater or lesser degree with many guitars.

If I put the tuner down, plug in and use my ears it gets a lot easier.

ICBM · July 2020

Has the string indented the saddle? I see these have brass saddles for some odd reason - original 60s Teles had steel. Brass is too soft and often does that, although it’s more often the G string that’s the problem - the indent moves the effective intonation point forwards and the string plays sharp.

Fit steel saddles... they just sound better anyway

.

I also find it’s better to set the intonation for the sharper of the two strings, if you can’t get both right. A flat note is less noticeable than a sharp one.

Winny_Pooh · July 2020

You can take a file and file away the from part of the E saddle, moving the intonation point towards the back of the bridge, round over then raise the height. I got fed up with 3 saddle bridges on my teles and just changed them all to 6 saddle and never got annoyed with intonation again.

S56035 · July 2020

Thanks for all your replies. To answer the questions:

The gauge would normally be a 46 but I've also tried a 52 as well as a new 46 but it's exactly the same.

To maybe explain it a little more.......I can intonate the A string without any issue, I can adjust it as flat or sharp as I want but the changes make almost no difference to the E string at all. It's almost as if the saddle I'm adjusting is "unrelated" to the E string but its obviously not.SteveRobinson said:

Is your pickup too high maybe? If it is, the magnets can pull on the string and make it impossible to tune

Any thoughts on what this height should be?

ICBM · July 2020

S56035 said:

Any thoughts on what this height should be?

Lower the neck pickup as far as possible. If that stops it, it's that.

Then adjust the pickup up to the point just below where it starts again.

S56035 · July 2020

ICBM said:

S56035 said:

Any thoughts on what this height should be?

Lower the neck pickup as far as possible. If that stops it, it's that.

Then adjust the pickup up to the point just below where it starts again.

Cheers. I'll give that a go tomorrow morning.

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Tele Intonation

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