neilwebb Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 Hi, can't seem to tune this Variax 100% to my satisfaction. It's got new strings on so hard to tell, but my tuner seems to show a discrepancy on some strings between playing the actual string and playing the harmonic at the 12th fret. I guess this means the truss rod needs adjusting. Thoughts? I believe I'm still under guarantee and have no idea if this is a problem or not. Just wondered if there were any suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 3 hours ago, neilwebb said: Hi, can't seem to tune this Variax 100% to my satisfaction. It's got new strings on so hard to tell, but my tuner seems to show a discrepancy on some strings between playing the actual string and playing the harmonic at the 12th fret. I guess this means the truss rod needs adjusting. Thoughts? I believe I'm still under guarantee and have no idea if this is a problem or not. Just wondered if there were any suggestions. No... truss rod adjustments and neck relief have nothing to do with intonation...well infinitesimally small, anyway. Regardless, truss rod adjustments are not how you fix intonation problems, as it's a string by string issue, typically requiring a different degree of adjustment for each string, if any is needed at all. It's also not a warranty issue...it's setup/periodic maintenence that every electric guitar on earth needs occasionally. Intonation is adjusted by either lengthening or shortening the vibrating length of each string. You do it by moving the bridge saddles either forward or back. If the fretted note is flat compared to the harmonic, then the bridge saddle needs to be shifted forward slightly (towards the headstock), making the length of the string shorter. If the fretted note is sharp, then shift the saddle back the other way, making the vibrating length of the string slightly longer. It's trial and error, and you don't need to move the saddle very far... do it in small increments until the fretted note matches the harmonic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilwebb Posted January 27, 2021 Author Share Posted January 27, 2021 Thank you! It also struggles to stay in tune but I'm hoping that's just because the new strings aren't worn in enough. Or maybe the tuning pegs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 38 minutes ago, neilwebb said: Thank you! It also struggles to stay in tune but I'm hoping that's just because the new strings aren't worn in enough. Or maybe the tuning pegs. Stretch them... that's New Strings 101. Waiting for them to stretch themselves is silly. Tune each string to pitch and then pull on it, firmly but not so much that you snap them, and retune to pitch. Do that until no matter how much you yank on it, they don't go flat anymore. Takes 5 minutes, and then you won't have tuning stability problems anymore. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psarkissian Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 neilwebb,... Register the guitar and then log a support ticket in your account. When you log the ticket, include photo of the front showing the bridge and pick-guard area. How is the tremolo working? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilwebb Posted January 31, 2021 Author Share Posted January 31, 2021 @cruisinon2 & @psarkissian - thank you both so much. I really apologise for the slight delay in replying - the notification email ended up in spam and then I needed a day or so to test! Stretching the strings was something I had already tried - when it didn't fix it I guessed (hoped) they may simply take longer to settle of their own accord, but sounds like that's not the case, and I'm increasingly sure that's not the issue. I've tried adjusting the saddle. What I'm noticing is the following (note: I'll just refer to the 6th string here) I can't seem to get the harmonic & open tunings to align fully but not sure if that's 100% possible anyway. I get fairly close (~3 cents) Even when they are close, if I then play a fretted A on the5th fret of the 6th string, the tuner registers it as being ~20 cents out. I can't seem to address this, and again, not sure how close to a A is should be, but thinking 20 cents is too far out When I play the harmonic the tuner's needle pretty much holds its position. But when I play the open string, it hovers around E and then seems to drop. It's been a long time since I played and can't remember my last Variax doing that ... but perhaps it did. @psarkissian It's the Variax 500 sunburst, so no tremolo bar. I've logged a ticket and included screenshots as suggested - thank you so much. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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