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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on February 28, 2019 at 11:29am

hummm.  My first suspicions would be :

1-  Placement of the bridge is off a bit ? (measure from the middle of the nut to the 12th fret , that should be exactly half  the scale . or the same measurement from the 12th fret to the middle of the bridge.)

2- Your action is too high (strings are too high off the fretboard and become sharp when pressed down on .

3-  your nut may be off  , or where the strings ride are not in scale ,

First 2 are easy fixes,  

a picture from the side to see how high the strings are may help . 

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Rasmussen on March 1, 2019 at 5:03am

Hi 

thanks for answer I´´m sending som picture of the guitars

Thomas

Attachments:

• IMG_20190228_192009.jpg, 2 MB
• IMG_20190228_192023.jpg, 2.3 MB

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Rasmussen on March 1, 2019 at 5:07am

Nr. 2 

Attachments:

• IMG_20190228_192040.jpg, 1.8 MB
• IMG_20190228_192051.jpg, 3.3 MB

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Rasmussen on March 1, 2019 at 5:09am

nr 3

Attachments:

• IMG_20190228_192108.jpg, 1.8 MB
• IMG_20190228_192126.jpg, 2.5 MB

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Rasmussen on March 1, 2019 at 5:25am

As I have written I have done a scale length so from nut to 12tf should be the same as from 12th til bridge

I have thought about the string action have can I prevent that, put in some smaller bridge ?

what does it mean nut is off? strings are not in scale?

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on March 1, 2019 at 10:23am

Yes , your string action is a bit high on all of them . a smaller bridge and nut should help  on  nr 2 and 3 .  But your First picture , the  neck is lower than the body , so a smaller bridge may not work without the strings  bottoming out on the  body while strumming .

(nut is off? strings are not in scale?) Means  the measurement should be from where the  strings  contact point is on the nut  . (usually around the middle of the nut  ) if you are measuring from the side of the nut , the measurment will not be correct.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on March 1, 2019 at 11:00am

Hi, for me it's hard to diagnose a problem like this without having the guitars on the bench. 

In my experience your action, string height, looks ok, not too high to make the guitar play " nothing like" the piece you are learning anyway. I use very high slide action but compensate my bridge accordingly. It still notes in the "ball park" when fingered.

High action at the 12 fret will effect correct noting in that area and above, it should still play in tune- ish at the first 5 frets. If it is out of tune at the nut end then the strings are too high at the nut. 

However, I would check every thing you have done.

Scale length... from where the string leaves the saddle to where the string leaves the nut

Intonation.....pick open string and then pick fretted at 12 fret should sound the same only an octave higher

Move the bridge back or forewads, normally back, until the two notes sound the same, only an octave apart.

I would also look at your fret spacing....You say it plays/sounds good with the slide, BUT..are you holding the slide over the top of the fret or unknowingly compensating for incorrect fret positioning?

When fretting a note finger goes behind fret string hits centre of fret (unless fret has a flat top, but that's another issue) the slide should sit over the same area to get the same note.

Check fret spacing.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on March 1, 2019 at 11:33am

A blow up of his #2   Note , he posted pictures of 3 different guitars here .

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on March 1, 2019 at 11:40am

That's going to pull notes sharp if fretting and sound off for sure. Maybe a hole step.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on March 1, 2019 at 11:22am

Strings need to be high for slide - low for fretting. Setting up a git for both is difficult and takes a good bit of practice to play both well.  I usually set the string height at 3/16" off the fretboard to play both and about half that for fretted. String height over the top of the body is usually higher than the fretboard height and that is fine.

Distance from backside of nut to 12 fret is half the distance of the scale length, but 12 fret to bridge/saddles will be a bit longer to to intonation/compensation.

Measuring frets  before cutting slots should be done from the nut to each fret, not fret to fret. Because if you get a fret off the mark, all the rest will be off the mark.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on March 1, 2019 at 12:50pm

Thanks Pick, I never thought of blowing it up. Yep that should play ok at the nut  [ at least it should sound like Amazing Grace] if the Bridge is moved to allow for the higher action.

On the guitar I just played/posted in the video section, the 12th fret action is 4mm and 1st fret 1.5mm and with the bridge compensated for that, it intonates perfect, just a bit sharp at the nut as the strings are tighter there.

That's what makes me think the problem is other than string Hight. But I could be wrong, we can only surmise what the problem is without having the actual guitar I suppose.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on March 1, 2019 at 2:21pm

lol, sorry , this is the best reply i can come up with  , without sounding like i'm disagreeing , or otherwise beyond constructive critique .   ;-)

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