This is absolutely, hands-down the best video I’ve ever seen on intonations a guitar. Makes me want to send every guitar I’ve ever made to him for his expert touch!
Michael, another excellent video. I'm so glad that you pointed out the foam under the strings to mute the ones that you don't want to hear. I've had problems, using the same tuner that you use, getting a stable reading. I cut pieces from some flip flops I got at the dollar store and now the tuner is totally stable! Thanks!
Thanks for sharing, I have been watching many of your videos and tried to use your tips on old Levin guitars with no trusrod in the necks. I think the early acoustic Levins had none or maybe only the cheaper ones did not have them. Measuring and evaluating the neck the best I can following your tips has even saved an amateur like myself many hours. Specially the guitars that have been sitting for years with no strings on can be tricky to evaluate when there is no trusrod in them. My last old Levin project looked very promising but I suspected that it was only looks. Unfortunately I was right but what I lerned from you saved me tons of time. It works and the action turned out ok but the tonal quality is not top notch actually far from. I have found out what you do is you only put so much work in them so you can string them up and let them sit for a few days. If the neck stays straight enough which many seem to do you start to measure and spot level the frets before you do anything drastic like pulling it completely apart put in new martin style bracing and replacing the bridge from a floating to a stationary like many renovators seem to do. In my mind it is better to keep them as they where built as an old Swedish cultural treasure and put them on the wall for watching than as I see it to completely destroy what the where ment to be and end up with a poor Martin copy.
This sounds like a good plan ... tune em' up ... wait and see ... after the force of the string load and the flex of the neck had been determined. There are so many different quality strings available now .... I'll often try 2 or even 3 different gauges, to see how the guitar reacts to the different string tension. This is done for a few reasons: #1 to determine the best amount of load ( stress ) on the body and how that effects the action height #2 to determine the acoustic / tonal response for a particular instrument #3 to see how the intonation is affected ... for better or worse ! Once all of these "tests" are done, you'll have a much clearer idea of how to get the " max " out of any given instrument. Thank you for your comments and observations. Michael
You didn’t show how you compensated the saddle and nut. I’d be very interested in watching a demonstration of how you achieve such wonderful intonation. Great job! Thanks!
Hi just a few observations I hope you don't mind me asking? so you found the high frets with the fret rocker? strung and tuned the guitar to pitch then you said you were going to take the strings off and use the Trussrod to find the measurement as if it was under the string load and then what? did you then level the frets while the truss rod was under tension? with relief? or return the neck to straight and level the frets? I'm a bit confused of how you eliminated the high spots on the frets whilst under trussrod tension as you then went from the frets to the saddle there seems to be a gap in the fret completion... love the channel and really love the compensated nut and saddle work you do it's a scientific dark art that works... regards johnnie
Hey Jonnie .... fair enough question... thanks for asking. At the beginning of the video I marked all of the high spots with chalk. I then backed off the truss rod ( no strings ) until all of those chalked spots were "clicking" again. THEN I proceeded to level all of those high spots .... and finally ( lightly ) went end to end to blend it all together. Once everything was addressed .... then I tuned it up and adjusted the truss rod back to where it was at the beginning of the video. Hope that makes sense. Cheers ! MMcC
Very nice! Just curious -is the compensated nut primarily for correct intonation for the first fret and once that is set the compensated saddle takes care of the rest of the intonation up the neck?
No. It's not quite that cut and dried Mike. Regulating a guitar to this level of precision takes multiple factors into consideration. It is why I spend a full day ( or sometimes more ) on each guitar. Scale length / string gauge / tuning preferences / lay-of the neck and fret correction / action preferences / nut compensation and saddle compensation .... all of these factors work in orchestration to produce these results. MMcC
This is absolutely, hands-down the best video I’ve ever seen on intonations a guitar. Makes me want to send every guitar I’ve ever made to him for his expert touch!
Thank you for the instruction and for your playing-beautiful sound!!
The accuracy is mind-boggling. Very instructive 🎶🎶🎶
This is astounding. Beautiful sound.
Terrific.Michael inspires me to do better work.
Michael, another excellent video. I'm so glad that you pointed out the foam under the strings to mute the ones that you don't want to hear. I've had problems, using the same tuner that you use, getting a stable reading. I cut pieces from some flip flops I got at the dollar store and now the tuner is totally stable! Thanks!
Glad it was helpful! Flip flops eeehh .... ? Lol ! Good going !
@@StringTechWorkstations Yes! The thickness is perfect.
Awesome!!!
Thank you! Cheers! MMcC
Thanks for sharing, I have been watching many of your videos and tried to use your tips on old Levin guitars with no trusrod in the necks. I think the early acoustic Levins had none or maybe only the cheaper ones did not have them.
Measuring and evaluating the neck the best I can following your tips has even saved an amateur like myself many hours. Specially the guitars that have been sitting for years with no strings on can be tricky to evaluate when there is no trusrod in them. My last old Levin project looked very promising but I suspected that it was only looks. Unfortunately I was right but what I lerned from you saved me tons of time. It works and the action turned out ok but the tonal quality is not top notch actually far from. I have found out what you do is you only put so much work in them so you can string them up and let them sit for a few days. If the neck stays straight enough which many seem to do you start to measure and spot level the frets before you do anything drastic like pulling it completely apart put in new martin style bracing and replacing the bridge from a floating to a stationary like many renovators seem to do. In my mind it is better to keep them as they where built as an old Swedish cultural treasure and put them on the wall for watching than as I see it to completely destroy what the where ment to be and end up with a poor Martin copy.
This sounds like a good plan ... tune em' up ... wait and see ... after the force of the string load and the flex of the neck had been determined. There are so many different quality strings available now .... I'll often try 2 or even 3 different gauges, to see how the guitar reacts to the different string tension. This is done for a few reasons: #1 to determine the best amount of load ( stress ) on the body and how that effects the action height #2 to determine the acoustic / tonal response for a particular instrument #3 to see how the intonation is affected ... for better or worse ! Once all of these "tests" are done, you'll have a much clearer idea of how to get the " max " out of any given instrument. Thank you for your comments and observations. Michael
You didn’t show how you compensated the saddle and nut. I’d be very interested in watching a demonstration of how you achieve such wonderful intonation. Great job! Thanks!
I have hours of detailed video and step by step instructions / tools and supplies available for my Patreon Tier 3 subscribers.
Mike you are a master, what brand of guitar was this?? Thanks Scott
Yamaha FG 830
Beautiful instrument.
Hi just a few observations I hope you don't mind me asking? so you found the high frets with the fret rocker? strung and tuned the guitar to pitch then you said you were going to take the strings off and use the Trussrod to find the measurement as if it was under the string load and then what? did you then level the frets while the truss rod was under tension? with relief? or return the neck to straight and level the frets? I'm a bit confused of how you eliminated the high spots on the frets whilst under trussrod tension as you then went from the frets to the saddle there seems to be a gap in the fret completion... love the channel and really love the compensated nut and saddle work you do it's a scientific dark art that works... regards johnnie
Hey Jonnie .... fair enough question... thanks for asking. At the beginning of the video I marked all of the high spots with chalk. I then backed off the truss rod ( no strings ) until all of those chalked spots were "clicking" again. THEN I proceeded to level all of those high spots .... and finally ( lightly ) went end to end to blend it all together. Once everything was addressed .... then I tuned it up and adjusted the truss rod back to where it was at the beginning of the video. Hope that makes sense. Cheers ! MMcC
What’s the waiting time
mcconvilleguitars@gmail.com
Very nice! Just curious -is the compensated nut primarily for correct intonation for the first fret and once that is set the compensated saddle takes care of the rest of the intonation up the neck?
No. It's not quite that cut and dried Mike. Regulating a guitar to this level of precision takes multiple factors into consideration. It is why I spend a full day ( or sometimes more ) on each guitar. Scale length / string gauge / tuning preferences / lay-of the neck and fret correction / action preferences / nut compensation and saddle compensation .... all of these factors work in orchestration to produce these results. MMcC
Not to be contentious, but I thought the guitar had to be on it's side to check intonation?
Ultimately it is on its' side when I play it for the final check. Lined right up !
This yamaha fg830?
Yes.