It’s the strings. You have evidence of others having issues. They must be out of range for tension on some basses if not all.
Nothing else makes much sense.
3 Likes
Yeah - I got nothing here. No idea what else it could be. Also no idea how the strings could cause this, unless they have varying tension along their length or something - but the only way I see that happening is if the diameter changes. So weird.
3 Likes
I’d never heard the term but had heard the importance of pushing down to properly seat at the saddle and have always done it. Good article!
3 Likes
I’m thinking of making a video or photo journal of me doing the setup. Thought that might help others out. Not saying I’m be the best at setups, but it could be useful for someone.
4 Likes
Could be an awesome start of this community doing their own “how to” videos, or, at least, those that do not exist yet in another helpful format 
3 Likes
Well that was one reason I thought of maybe not doing it. There are a lot of setup videos out there already… Not sure if mine would add any value or not.
2 Likes
Yeah, well we already have 40 varieties of jam and they still come out with new ones 
Give it a shot! Maybe you’ll like the process (research, collecting data, setting up the shoot, editing, …) even more than the result, and - who knows - there might be a new YT career in your future 
4 Likes
FYI- Changed strings and intonates fine now, so it was indeed faulty strings… Going to see what these NYXL strings are like now.
I still don’t understand the physics of strings and how that could happen, but oh well.
3 Likes
. . . I’m just glad you got the problem sorted!Thinking about it the only thing that makes sense to me is tension, and that the manufactured target tension is out of the range of adjustability in some (or all) basses. Someone may have simply had the dial in the wrong place, or the designed tension wrong, etc. Mistakes happen, humans are good at them.
The Fender HMT bass I have, MIJ, when launched was a sonic disaster, the piezo was much much much louder than the P pickup, so blending was useless, and ‘unity gain’ was impossible from one to the other. Took Fender a couple years to remedy, and in the mean time a guy called Cafe Walter made some $ selling the fix.
My first job was with a small food/beverage process automation company. The owner got his start by working at a very large version of what he did, and knowing all the problems inherent in the systems they sold. He made a lot of money fixing the design issues the big company wouldn’t address.
Many examples abound.
2 Likes
Update on this. I wrote to Dunlop and they said that the first runs of these strings did have intonation issues and some of those are still in the wild (I obviously got some of these). They said this has since been resolved. They are going to send me some to try. I’m hoping this is the case as I really liked these strings apart from this intonation issue. I liked them more than the D’Addario NYXL ones I’ve put on a week ago, which cost twice as much. I’ve also asked them how I can ensure that ones I order are not early editions that have this issue or if they can recommend a store that ships to me that has the newer ones in stock.
4 Likes
Definitely. I’m glad they admitted there was an issue and obviously the free replacement is great. I even told them the store had refunded me. They’ve now said they can even send me two sets if I’m fine to pay the import tax, which is definitely worth it. And they’ve also told me a store in Europe that always has the freshest strings. Fingers crossed that they intonate well!
3 Likes
This is interesting. I started ordering La Bella strings from them directly thinking I’m getting fresh, only to find out they ship from whatever store happened to have them on hand which could be anywhere and therefore any age.
1 Like
This is so weird. I am having this issue now on the E string (only) of a set of EXL165’s that have been on the bass a long time and previously intonated just fine. So odd.
1 Like
Trying to intonate old strings is like going down a rabbit hole. It may be time for a string change.
1 Like
This makes sense esp if flat. The old strings don’t have enough tension left.
2 Likes
Time for a new set of NYXL’s in the near future 
It’s only a few cents out so no big deal for the moment, but annoying.
1 Like
On the strings I used that had the problem they said it was a manufacturing defect in a bad batch. They’ve sent me new strings that I’m about to put on in the next couple of weeks so we’ll see if this is true or not. The NYXLs I have on right now intonate fine, but I liked the sound of the other ones better on this particular bass so I hope they do intonate fine.