This is silly because you actually play the fretted notes and this is what needs to be in tune. Having an intonation method that one references one position is only a starting point and not a very good one for anything other the floating bridge placement in a hurry . Violins are irrelevant because they have no frets .
Get a Turbo tuner for setups and just use the built in one for gigs . Also try 3rd to 15th fretted notes as the reference points and make sure your nut is the right hight and the relief and action are already set correctly before you do it. These things correct 99% of issues.Intonation is something I struggle with - I am pretty methodical about dialling it in using my FM9 tuner and 12th fret open/harmonic - but still sounds off in many of my guitars
I guess I don't understand the 3/15th frets... I assume its just a balancing act? Maybe its intonated fine at 12th fret and open, but maybe 3rd is flat or something? So you just need to balance it all out?
I actually have some saddle travel left it's a string thru body issue. I can only move the saddle back so far before the string is absolute vertical and takes a hard 90 degree angle over the saddle. I get the inherent imperfections of guitar but this was very noticeable.
This interest me although I'm not familiar with term witness point regarding guitar. Is this essentially saying press the string in front of the saddle to force it to be bent? It won't damage the string core?
Tune the strings to third fret notes not open strings and intonate it at the 15th fret.
John Suhr mentions the third fret in the guitar set up video that is on you tube. How hard should you fret the string?
The witness point is the exact point of contact and it is not always perfectly positioned on the saddles top leading edge. As for the angle the string needs to travel over the bridge to see the witness point properly is down to the design . If is is a sharp one the core will need to bend anyway so the sooner it does the better. This is a huge issue on poorly intonated acoustic guitars too. This and poorly installed strings in this case but I can usually get them to play in tune in literally two seconds.
It should be however hard you fret during playing. This should be no harder than a clean note.
Just watched John Suhr's video (where this was explained)... I think I am being very dumb here, but if I use the 3rd and 15th fret examples... if I tune the open string FIRST and then play the 3rd fret, it could be flat/sharp (if intonation is not correct)... but that shouldn't matter right? As long as 3rd fret and 15th fret match, then it should be fine? Basically what I am getting at is, you don't need to tune the open string to pitch first, you would fret the 3rd fret and then tune using an tuner so it shows a perfect G?
Yes perfect G. If it feels out to you if you then play an open string your nut is probably off.
As Andy alluded to, tuning issues in the first few frets points to the nut being off, slots are too high. Fretting pressure can be a cause as well, but an improper nut setup is usually a big contributor.
The nut is high or the string is old. OR the intonation is off. Either way make sure the relief is correct and by that I mean 5/7 thou under fret 7 when you fret 1 and 12.
Yeah, for context, this is a Fender American Professional Tele (2020). New strings. Nut height seems fine based on feeler gauge measurements. But maybe its just not good enough.
The only thing the Babicz did was allow strings to pass thru the back instead of the body which basically fixed a 'symptom' instead of the actual problem. The Gotoh 'In Tune' seems to be a 3 saddle setup with 3 mounting holes. The Babicz also has 3 mount holes but the bridges on the Tele Ultras have 5 mount holes (3 regular plus 2 at top). Attaching a pic for reference. It's not my actual bridge but mine is identical. I'm going to go back to original and try to deal with actual problems with suggestions made here.
I would guess it is probably fine.