Guitar tuning / setup question

JJunkie

JJunkie

Power User
Oh, hey guys!

I recently became the owner of a new Ibanez PGMM guitar (a short scale for my kid). Not a bad guitar, but have made various modifications to get it playable.

There is one thing I still can't solve though and am not sure if it is to do with the overall setup of the guitar or what.

Basically, I tune the guitar. But when I fret a note on a low fret, the note is like 7 or 8 cents sharp. So when I play any chord with a combination of fretted and open strings, it doesn't sound very musical.

If I put a capo on, there is no issue, as all strings are slightly sharp and hence in tune with one another.

I haven't encountered this type of issue with any other guitar before so I am scratching my head and can't find the right answers through a simple google search. The intonation is set correctly.

By the way, this issue happened with the original nut. I changed it to a TUSQ xl and it still happens.

This is actually quite an enjoyable guitar to play (not just for my kid but me also) but lately I have not been playing it because the issue is always at the forefront of my awareness.

I don't actively take part in this forum very much any more, so I'm kind of excited about ducking in and tapping into this awesome community's knowledge. Thanks for your help.
 
JJunkie said:
Oh, hey guys!

I recently became the owner of a new Ibanez PGMM guitar (a short scale for my kid). Not a bad guitar, but have made various modifications to get it playable.

There is one thing I still can't solve though and am not sure if it is to do with the overall setup of the guitar or what.

Basically, I tune the guitar. But when I fret a note on a low fret, the note is like 7 or 8 cents sharp. So when I play any chord with a combination of fretted and open strings, it doesn't sound very musical.

If I put a capo on, there is no issue, as all strings are slightly sharp and hence in tune with one another.

I haven't encountered this type of issue with any other guitar before so I am scratching my head and can't find the right answers through a simple google search. The intonation is set correctly.

By the way, this issue happened with the original nut. I changed it to a TUSQ xl and it still happens.

This is actually quite an enjoyable guitar to play (not just for my kid but me also) but lately I have not been playing it because the issue is always at the forefront of my awareness.

I don't actively take part in this forum very much any more, so I'm kind of excited about ducking in and tapping into this awesome community's knowledge. Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
How do you know the intonation is setup correctly? Is the 12 fret the same pitch as the open string pitch?
 
MSS said:
are you sure it‘s not the nut? If it goes away with a capo then I am thinking high nut slots or too light a string gauge.
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Usually it's too HEAVY a string gauge that might cause that.....light strings might give you more buzz if the nut is too deep
 
jon said:
Usually it's too HEAVY a string gauge that might cause that.....light strings might give you more buzz if the nut is too deep
Click to expand...
I guess where I was going with that was - the higher the string and lower the tension, the sharper it will go with fretting pressure.
 
Thanks guys. I'm using 10-46, and playing lightly because I don't need to press hard at all on this short scale guitar.

The nut is still pretty high to be honest but I'm going to have to wait a couple days to get a proper nut file set. What I'm using now is just the cheap welding torch nozzle cleaning set, basically lost it's abraisiveness after a few swipes and now it's useless.
 
Not necessarily the nut SLOTS, but the overall height itself could be the issue - do you have one of those little precision rules? Use it to check the height of the fretboard to the strings and compare it to another guitar - if it's too high you might have to take out the nut and sand down the bottom to get a good height

If the nut shelf isn't level too that could be causing problems, if you take out the nut again, look to see if it's nice and smooth and level (or curved with a smooth shelf if it's a strat) - you said it was a PGMM short scale - could also be that 10's are a little too beefy for it, the shorter the scale is the lighter the string you should use, for eg on my short scale guitars I use 9s or 8s
 
JJunkie said:
Thanks guys. I'm using 10-46, and playing lightly because I don't need to press hard at all on this short scale guitar.

The nut is still pretty high to be honest but I'm going to have to wait a couple days to get a proper nut file set. What I'm using now is just the cheap welding torch nozzle cleaning set, basically lost it's abraisiveness after a few swipes and now it's useless.
Click to expand...

I have one.... (RG Mikro/Same thing)

It doesn't have 10's, 9s, or 8s

I have a set of 7's on it

10-46 on that guitar just sounds crazy
 
guitarnerdswe said:
Yep, on a Les Paul. Still does.
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I remember reading an interview with him, where he described his string gauges. He must have a very light touch on his picking hand to avoid the Doppler effect sound wherein the action of picking the string pushes it sharp, and then it settles back to normal tension. It's weird. I can't play guitars strung with super light strings. I'm accustomed to my string tension, and my picking technique gets wonky.
 
jon said:
Not necessarily the nut SLOTS, but the overall height itself could be the issue - do you have one of those little precision rules? Use it to check the height of the fretboard to the strings and compare it to another guitar - if it's too high you might have to take out the nut and sand down the bottom to get a good height

If the nut shelf isn't level too that could be causing problems, if you take out the nut again, look to see if it's nice and smooth and level (or curved with a smooth shelf if it's a strat) - you said it was a PGMM short scale - could also be that 10's are a little too beefy for it, the shorter the scale is the lighter the string you should use, for eg on my short scale guitars I use 9s or 8s
Click to expand...
Yeah actually the guitar is set up with 10s in the factory. And it still has poor tuning stability. I replace the tuners, trees and the nut. This is the first time I have replaced a nut so have been a bit slow about it, don't want to over do it but it seems I still have a fair way to go to get the overall height down. I'll work on it over the weekend and let yu guys know how it went
 
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