Wraparound intonation issues - help!

[lettucecheese]

I just got my first guitar with a wraparound bridge - a VOS Les Paul Special. I LOVE this guitar, and don't want to change anything on it. However, the D string is pretty far out when I play past the 7th fret. Go up to the 12th and forget it. The rest of the strings are fine.

Is this common? What causes this, and what can be done? Do most guys fudge the intonation on the other strings to go for a happy medium? I don't love the idea of changing the bridge, but is that the best solution? If so, which bridge will be most like the one I have, but with better intonation? Which bridge would allow me to keep the same studs?

Are there other adjustments that might improve the situation?

Any help and education is appreciated.

[walterw]

here's your answer.
http://www.allparts.com/store/tailpieces-stop-tailpieces-tp-3403-010,Product.asp

[John Phillips]

It may be a bad string, if just one is that far out but the others are fine. Most wraparounds do actually intonate OK, certainly not badly enough that they're unplayable high up on the neck even if they sound a bit 'rock'n'roll' ;).

Have you tried adjusting the bridge? They are adjustable - there are two small Allen screws in the back edge, and you may be able to get a better compromise across all six strings. Make sure you slacken the strings right off before trying to adjust them (or the action), or you'll chew up the posts.

[gtrmaker]

The first thing I would do is change the string. If that doesn't help, here is another after-market bridge that is fully adjustable, an quite reasonably priced.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_tailpieces/Adjustable_Wraparound_Bridge.html

[plexirocker 68]

No matter what ANYONE says you must be aware that those bridges will only COMPENSATE tuning. You must have a bridge with accurate INDIVIDUAL string length adjustment for every string. Even some of the after market Compensated bridges means just that, compensated. It is impossible to intonate these guitars in all positions up and down the neck.


Many people just get used to playing out of tune guitars and play in limited areas of the neck.

Just make sure to buy a bridge that you can adjust each string. Especially the G,B, and high E. Tone Pros makes a good one and so does Pigtail. I know they are higher buy worth EVERY penny.


I have a picky ear about tuning and tried forever to get my jr. to intonate until I realized the bridge was flawed by being only able to compensate.
I switched bridges out now this baby is right in ALL positions.


plexi

[xmentalpilot]

The first thing I would do is change the string. If that doesn't help, here is another after-market bridge that is fully adjustable, an quite reasonably priced.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_tailpieces/Adjustable_Wraparound_Bridge.html

Definately try the string change first. I chased a "B" string intonation problem on my R4 (tuna-matic bridge) for a couple of hours before the light came on and I swapped the string. Funny thing was I swapped with the same brand from another package (HiBeams) I bought at the same time. That "B" was flakey too! So I swapped them all out with a a set of Boomers that I had bought for my Strat and the intonation problem went away. Something I have noticed is that my Fenders seem to have less intonation/string issues and generally can swap string brands without problems. (I play .10's on all of my guitars). On the other hand, seems like every one of my LP's can be sensitive to string changes. I am wondering if this might be an attribute of the different scale lengths?

[HipKitty]

To answer your initial question, is it common...yes it is. Strings can make a difference as well as getting the wraparound situated as best as it can be set...finding the happy medium..really, with current string production issues, it won't be dead on..that's where a player can compensate with his playing technique as it's been done for ages.

Of course, if you are of the Steve Howe type, where you have the technique and it still kills you to deal with it, you can certainly replace the wraparound with a number of the after-market adjustables like the BadAss bridge, Stew-mac's or Wilkinson's.

[lettucecheese]

Thanks for the responses. Of course, I'll try replacing the strings first - can someone give me a short explanation as to the physics of that? It doesn't make any sense that one string would intonate better than another.

As far as intonation in general - I'm not super picky. All of the other strings are well within range - just one is out pretty badly.

I sure hope changing it will make the difference...

I just looked at a couple of those bridges. So, the plain ones with some compensation would make it intonate better? I'm generally not a fan of the ones where you can adjust each string.

[HipKitty]

Thanks for the responses. Of course, I'll try replacing the strings first - can someone give me a short explanation as to the physics of that? It doesn't make any sense that one string would intonate better than another.

As far as intonation in general - I'm not super picky. All of the other strings are well within range - just one is out pretty badly.

I sure hope changing it will make the difference...

I just looked at a couple of those bridges. So, the plain ones with some compensation would make it intonate better? I'm generally not a fan of the ones where you can adjust each string.

I'll try without the extreme technical dialog and with a little history of how I found out....

As a player whose always restrung my own guitars and subsequently do so as part of my profession, I've always noticed incosistencies with intonation with different brands of string (same guage). While doing work on a guitar brand (for the parent company), we were having trouble maintaining proper intonation with the different positions of the "Trans-Trem"...further invesitgation found that several brands of strings made for these type of trems had variences in their windings as well as lengths of the strings....nothing consistant. Of course, the string companies denied the variences but went silent once pics were taken and sent.

Well, this cause me to think how this applied to the strings that I used not only for myself, but my own company and found similar findings with a box of each brand of the same string gauge. Minute differences, but enough to make a difference in intonation and the ability to maitain intonation.