Saddle slot recut to fix intonation

[Rude80]

Hi all,

I have a high end factory guitar that I recently bought 2nd hand and took to a luthier to correct it's intonation problems. The luthier has suggested that it requires a new saddle and slot to be filled and recut. This seems a little extreme to me. Guitar is a 7 yrs old and is a 000 size. E 6th string is the worst (sharp) with most other strings out as well. Guitar is in otherwise mint condition (no sign of abuse).

Can any luthiers out there confirm this to be a normal procedure?? Also, anybody have any insight as to why this might have happened??

Cheers.

[Brackett Instruments]

It's a normal procedure. If a good job is done you'll pretty much need a magnifying glass to see the repairs.

How did it happen? IMHO too many machines and jigs, instead of a builder who loves his craft and "measures twice, cuts once".

[murrmac123]

Hardly a case of too many machines and jigs, more a case of careless operatives failing to check the settings of the machines and jigs.

That said, every factory guitar, and pretty much every boutique guitar as well, will benefit from specialist intonation work.

[martinedwards]

it's not a huge job.

I switched a guitar from righty to lefty by filling the slot and recutting. it was an "ebonish" stained wood and the filled slot is pretty much invisible.

dunno how much a pro would charge, but its a couple of hours max.

[pops]

Check your truss rod, if there is too much relief (couple thousands max) it could create intonation problems. If that is ok the fix is simple. You could also make the slot wider and put in a wider saddle that could be intonated for each string.

[joeybagadonutz]

Well the biggest thing (outside of improper scale length) that will whack your intonation out is a neck bow or twist paired with high action. Ideally you want a slight convex curve, and I mean very slight, in order to get the strings low to the fretboard without buzzing. After that replace the saddle and set the action as low as possible. Re-compensate nut with a file and you are done.

You should only need to route a new slot if it's really off extremely badly to begin with. Even then I would prefer to route a wider slot and use an over-sized saddle similar to the ones Mike Greenfield uses, which are probably nearly 1/4" wide as opposed to about 1/8" or less on most factory guitars. Unless of course you are using FWI, which is pricey, unless of course you are rich, which case it doesn't matter.

In any event, the lower your action, the less you have to stretch your string in order to fret it. Conversely the higher your action, the more out of whack your intonation will be because you generally have to stretch the string more and more as the action rises as you move up the neck, which makes it nearly impossible to get good intonation up the neck. With most guitars that have bad intonation that I have seen, this is usually the main problem. However it is one of many possibilities. "High end" guitars with problems are widely available online. Good luck.

If you want to check your scale length to see how bad it is off for yourself, measure from nut to 12th, then from 12th to the saddle. they should be pretty close (accounting for compensation). Your high E string should be nearly even and your low E string should be slightly longer from 12th to saddle than nut to 12th because of greater compensation needed for a thicker gauged string.