Intonation question on set up

Gear
1

Hello all,

I tried to set up my bass, following Josh’s setup video,and i managed to adjust my truss rod to a fairly good point. The nut seems to be fine as well. I havent poked the saddles because the string height is comfortable for me playing. Then i tried to see the intonation,but both of my tuners registered either a sharp G or nothing at all, on the 12th fret on all strings. Note that i tuned my bass after every step.

Any help?

2

I used this website to intonate my bass and it worked fine

https://guitarapp.com/tuner.html

3

Did you have the bass plugged in the amp?

4

no I’m using an audio interface. if you a mic that works too, but don’t use your smartphone’s

5

I don’t have an interface…just the amp

6

I have a strap on tuner and it just doesn’t work on 12th fret what tuner are you using

7

I have a clip on tuner and a plug in tuner that i bought for this reason. Both are fairly cheap though

8

plug in tuner should work, do you have fretbuzz or any issue that could affect the tuners? did you try harmonics on the 12th frets, do they sound the same?

9

This video might be helpful. Jump to 31 minutes into the video, where he speaks of intonation and makes adjustments:

1 Like
10

No,i don’t have any fret buzz on any of the frets. I haven’t tried the harmonics yet

11

Thank you for sharing!

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12

You’re welcome! Someone else recommended this video recently, and I really enjoyed it. I like the detailed explanations. I had seen videos about how the saddles are adjusted, but this had the best explanations as to why making this and that change will affect the intonation and how. I bookmarked it and it is now my go to video for adjustments.

He advertises MusicNomad products, but there are cheaper tools that can be used to do all that, if one doesn’t need the whole set. I know people who love these products and they must be good, but they aren’t the only option.

13

Well yes, sometimes YouTube is just a big advertisement but you can find gems in there on every topic you want. I will try again later in the day to finish the intonation,and if this doesn’t work im gonna get it to a professional so i dont fall back with the course

1 Like
14

I believe you will be able to do it yourself. It is not too difficult, but of course it depends on the type of bass. Good luck!

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15

Thanks for believing in me​:joy::joy: i promise i will post the results!!

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16

Hi there,

on my bass, I found that I have to turn the intonation screws many turns to get an effect. That seems to be fine, too.

The other thing is that you will usually see the same pattern:

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The low strings will be “longer” than the high strings (D and G), but it all comes out in a line. The exception are drop tunings or guitar (the :bee:-string).

Cheers,

Antonio

2 Likes
17

The thing that i don’t understand is why my tuner doesn’t register any notes above the 12th fret. Or it register G# and nothing else

18

Check the tuner or borrow/order a new one. A Korg TM-60 is a good buy anyway.

  • Any visible defects?
  • Does tuning the bass work in general?
  • Does it work on other instruments (preferably another bass) past the twelfth fret?
  • Is the battery of the tuner low?
  • …
19

Well i messed around a bit and here are the results:

I am f#*$ing stupid!!

I have set the tuner to bass mode in order to tune the bass. But now i have changed it into chromatic and it works!!

Feel free to shame me​:joy::joy:

3 Likes
20

I love when a solution turns out to be something simple like this!

Yes, you feel like kind of an idiot, but a little embarrassment is better (and cheaper) than the alternatives.

And we’ve all been there. Hopefully your moment of shame helps someone in the future, just like you’ve probably found solutions like this in the past that have helped you.

1 Like