Guitar How-To

When your guitar is in tune according to your tuner, but it does not sound in tune when you play a chord, you probably need to adjust the intonation.

To check the intonation, first make sure your guitar is in tune, then play the sixth string at the first fret, then the fifth string, fourth, third, second and first. Be careful just to press the string hard enough to sound a clear note without bending the string. Do the same at each fret all the way up the neck. As you do this, you are listening for extraneous noises, buzzing or a dull sound at any of the frets.

Another way to check you guitar’s intonation is to play an open E major chord, then an F major at the first fret and move that barre chord shape all the way up the neck, strumming the chord at each fret. As with the other test, you are looking for any crappy sounds.

Here is a video lesson on checking and fixing the intonation of an electric guitar. The video gives you another method of checking the intonation by playing harmonics.

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