How to Intonate A Guitar

Learning to maintain your guitar by yourself is one of the most empowering skills for any guitarist. Not only does it save you money on setup fees, but it also keeps your instrument playing and sounding its best. There are several ways you can take care of your guitar to keep it in top shape and perfectly in tune, and a very important maintenance task that often gets overlooked is intonating your guitar.

How to Intonate A Guitar

Oh my gosh, your tone is insane today! The crisp and punchy compressed amp sag is absolutely inspirational… until your fingers go up the neck and you realize your intonation is jacked. Nothing kills the vibe faster than a guitar that won’t stay perfectly in tune up the neck. If your open chords sound great but notes higher on the fretboard start to drift out of tune, you’re facing an intonation issue. The good news is you can fix it yourself! Learning to adjust intonation is a handy skill that will keep your guitar sounding good in any playing position. In this guide, I’ll walk you through what intonation is, how to check it, and how to intonate your guitar on your own with pretty basic tools that every guitar player should have in their gig bag. By the end, you’ll know how to get your guitar playing in tune from open to 22 and beyond. Let’s dive in!

What Is Intonation on a Guitar?

Intonation refers to your guitar’s ability to play in tune across the whole fretboard. Even if each open string is tuned correctly, poor intonation means notes played up the neck will sound either sharp or flat. For example, you might tune an open string to pitch, but the same string fretted at the 12th fret comes out a bit off – that’s bad intonation. Basically, a well-intonated guitar will have the open strings and their corresponding fretted notes (usually checked at the 12th fret) in tune with each other.

So, what does it mean to intonate a guitar? Intonating a guitar means adjusting the guitar so that it stays in tune along the fretboard. In practice, you do this by making small adjustments to each string’s length between the nut and the bridge. Each guitar string rests on a small adjustable piece called a saddle. By moving the saddle forward or backward, you change the string length and thus alter the pitch of the fretted notes. To intonate your guitar, you’ll be tweaking these saddles so that each string’s 12th fret note rings perfectly in tune with its open note. It might sound technical, but it’s a pretty straightforward process that any player can learn with a little patience. Please note that not all guitars have a way to adjust the intonation of each independent string, meaning you’ll have to compromise. An example of this is a traditional Telecaster guitar using 2-string combination saddles. Even if they are “compensated”, by adjusting the saddle, you’re adjusting the string length of two strings at once, so finding a happy medium may be in order. 

How to Check the Intonation on a Guitar

Before making any adjustments, you’ll want to check your guitar’s intonation to see which strings (if any) are out of whack:

1. Tune your guitar accurately. Using a quality tuner, tune each open string to the correct pitch. It’s best to do this with the guitar in your normal playing position rather than lying flat, for the most accurate tuning. Why? Because when the guitar’s on the bench, its neck is usually supported by some kind of block or brace. This can slightly alter the neck relief, meaning that when you put the guitar on your lap or hang it from a strap, your neck will be resting at a different relief value than when it was sitting on the bench.
   
2. Compare the open string to the 12th fret. For each string, fret the note at the 12th fret and play it. Use your tuner to compare that fretted note to the open string’s pitch. Ideally, the 12th fret note should match the open string exactly. If the 12th fret note is perfectly in tune with the open string, that string’s intonation is good. If the 12th fret note is sharp or flat relative to the open string, then the intonation on that string is off.
3. Note any discrepancies. Go through all six (or however many) strings this way. Make note of which strings have a 12th fret note that’s sharp (higher in pitch) or flat (lower in pitch) compared to the open. Those are the strings that will need adjustment. (If a string’s 12th fret note equals the open pitch, you can leave that one alone.)

If one or more strings aren’t quite in tune at the 12th fret, don’t fret haha, you see what I did there? It’s time to adjust intonation on those strings. In the next section, we’ll fix that by moving the saddles.

(If all your strings were in tune at the 12th, your intonation is already on point, and you don’t need to make changes! But in all my time setting up guitars, I don’t think I’ve ever had an instrument come in where the intonation was so perfect I didn’t adjust at least one string. It’s still a good idea to know this process for future guitar setups.)

How To Adjust the Intonation On A Guitar

Now that you’ve identified any intonation issues, let’s get your guitar sorted out. Adjusting intonation basically means moving the bridge saddles to fine-tune each string’s length. Grab your screwdriver, or hex key, and let’s go step by step.

Pro Tip #1: Using a strobe tuner, or a quality tuner that gives you “cents” as a value is extremely helpful to know how close you are to perfect pitch. In my experience, if you’re within 2-3 cents of pitch you will be good to go, and error on the side of flat. Finger pressure alone can change a 3 cent flat note to a 2 cent sharp note, where if you set baseline intonation at 3 cents sharp and press down hard during a solo you’re going to be experiencing a pretty sharp sound.

Step 1: Tune the Guitar (Again) and Prepare

Start by tuning each string to pitch one more time. It’s crucial to begin with the guitar in tune. Keep the guitar in playing position while tuning and making adjustments. This ensures that the neck is under normal playing conditions. When each open string is tuned correctly, you’re ready to adjust the saddles for intonation.

BTW: For the sake of demonstration, I’m doing this on my bench with a neck brace, I know… I know…, but it’s a lot easier than trying to get photos of it in my lap, so do as I say, not as I do okay bye. 

Step 2: Check the 12th Fret Note

Fret each string at the 12th fret (using normal playing pressure) and pluck the string. Use your tuner to see if the fretted note is sharp, flat, or dead on compared to the open string. If the 12th fret note is perfectly in tune with the open string, that string’s saddle is in the right spot and you can move on to the next string. If the 12th fret note is sharp (higher pitch than it should be), or flat (lower pitch), you’ll need to adjust that string’s saddle in the next step. But which direction should I adjust the saddle?? I’m glad you asked!

Step 3: Move the Saddle to Adjust String Length

Time to make the actual adjustment. Locate the saddle for the string you need to fix. It’s the small metal piece on the bridge that the string rests on, usually adjustable via a screw. Here’s what to do based on your 12th fret tuning observation:

• If the 12th fret note was sharp, the string is effectively too short. Move the saddle slightly backward (away from the nut to lengthen the string, toward the guitar’s butt end). This lengthens the string and will reduce the sharpness of the note at the 12th fret.
• If the 12th fret note was flat, the string is too long. Move the saddle slightly forward (toward the nut). This shortens the string length and thus will make the note at the 12th fret sharper than before.

Turn the saddle’s adjustment screw a little at a time, just a quarter-turn or so. If you are lengthening the string, it helps to loosen the tuner of that string do you don’t put unnecessary tension against the neck. Retune the open string after each adjustment (moving the saddle will change the string’s pitch). Then check the 12th fret note again. You’ll likely need to do this iteratively: make a small move, retune, then check the 12th fret. Repeat until the open note and the 12th fret note agree, or like I mentioned earlier is in a compromising balance with the second string sharing the same saddle. Patience is key here: sneaking up on the right position with small tweaks will yield the best results. Aim to be within 3 cents perfect pitch, erroring on the flat side if required.

Step 4: Repeat for Every String

Follow Steps 2 and 3 for each string that needs intonation adjustment. It may take a bit of time to get all your strings just right, but it’s well worth the effort. Once you’re done, play a few chords and riffs across the neck and you should hear that things sound in tune no matter where you play.

Intonating your guitar is a routine part of instrument maintenance. Whenever you change string gauges or notice your guitar isn’t playing in tune up the neck, it’s a good skill to revisit. And if you ever feel unsure about making these adjustments, it’s a good idea to consult a professional guitar tech. But most players can learn to do their own intonation with just a screwdriver, a tuner, and a little patience. 

Pro Tip #2: Don’t intonate your guitar until it has been properly setup, which includes string height and neck relief adjustments. Follow this order: neck relief, string height, then saddle adjustment for intonation.

If you’ve intonated your guitar and still want a little more out of it, consider a pickup change! Pickups make up for over 90% of your guitar tone, and that’s why we here at Lambertones are building the worlds clearest passive guitar pickups. Check out our best sellers here!