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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on February 12, 2014 at 2:57am

The nut is supposed to remain permanent. It is the bridge that is moved or adjusted to deal with intonation of the strings. I suggest looking on Youtube for a visual explanation  of how this is done. But essentially, you tune the strings open to their respective notes, then play each string fretted at the 12th fret. If sharp, move bridge towards tail end of box. If flat, move bridge towards neck...a little at a time, until the string plays in tune (one octave higher) than when played open.

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on February 12, 2014 at 9:16am

The only addition to Ted's advice I have is that the initial position of the bridge should be 2 times the distance between your nut (or fret 0, if you are using one) and fret 12. That puts the bridge "in the ballpark" and then use Ted's procedure to precisely locate the bridge for optimal intonation.

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Permalink Reply by Nate on February 12, 2014 at 3:06am

I agree with Farmer Ted, sounds like an intonation problem, maybe.  Is your bridge floating or fixed? If its floating just adjust your bridge until your octave is correct.  If that isn't it it may be string bend pulling the note sharp.  if you left your neck unfretted then you can just adjust your playing (not the best bet if anyone else will ever try playing your guitar), if the neck is fretted then you might want to try to lowering you action so that string doesn't have to stretch as far before it hits the fret.  Just a thought as i am a CBG builder and not a guitar tech or luthier, hope that helps

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Permalink Reply by Jim on February 12, 2014 at 4:19am

Thanks to both. The neck is fretted, but the bridge is floating, so I can try adjusting the bridge. My thinking on the nut adjustment was this:

The intonation of the frets, relative to each other is good. In other words, if I tune the 12th fret to G, the first fret is A, 2nd A#, etc. everything sounds good, except the open-note G, which would be a little flat in this case. So, I fear that if I move the bridge, I'll have problems elsewhere. That being said, I'm the nube here, so I'll take your generous advice! :)

Regarding action, I got about "a dime" at the nut, and about "a nickel" at the 12th fret. But, when I put the toothpick-nut in place, that increased the action, and I did wonder about whether I was bending some notes at that point.

Thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by David McQueen on February 13, 2014 at 1:55am

One other thing, the saddle on the bridge should be slanted so that the highest (treble) strings are closer to the nut than the low (bass) strings. It is compensation for the fact that the base strings tend to go sharp more when fretted than the treble strings. On a standard guitar the offset is about 1/8" per inch of saddle.

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