As a few people know i struggle constantly to find a balance between harmonically perfect tuning and equal temperament tuning. After a bit of a balls up on my tele nut i spent thismorning researching making my own compensated nut ala Stephen Delpht.
http://www.mimf.com/nutcomp/. Whilst browsing the abundance of knowledge (information overload truth be told) on the internet this morning i came across this article.
http://www.edgeguitarservices.co.uk/Feiten_intro1/index.htm
Yep its a bit of a war&peace job at 19 pages. I cant say that theres anything there i disagree with though alot of the maths confounds me a little. I didnt dig the calculator out. One thing he did mention is the incorrect use of digital tuners on setting intonation. A good ear provides greater accuracy across the board. Something a trusted friend of mine told me a while back that i have convinently forgotten these last few years.
I did however find this little gem from the Guild of American Luthiers on how to tune a guitar.
http://www.edgeguitarservices.co.uk/gal_tuning.htm

Just gave my tele a whirl on it (yes i keep cheap plastic nuts around the house). The tele has always been compromised in intonation because of the 3 saddle bridge. It seems to be a lot better now though. Please give it a whirl and get back on what you find.

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I really like tuning with unison. I'd usually use my tuner, then go by ear with the common tuning method (Low E on 5th to tune A, etc..) but in unison. I started doing that when I was learning to tune my piano and I thought it would apply to a guitar as well. I figured others might use the technique but so far I havent heard of any.

It gets it dead on, much better than any tuner would I think. Unless of course my ears are off. You can really hear the beat waving when one of the strings is not tuned to the other.

I just read the article your last link references. I didn't understand this part. Tuning the 2nd string: Play a harmonic on the (in tune) 4th string at twelve. As this sounds, adjust the 2nd string until 0 at the third fret is in pure unison. What does the 0 represent? It's just not registering this early in the morning for me. Thanks.

If you've never used one of these on an electric guitar you really owe it to your ears to try it. I use my boss pedal tuner on stage for practicality reasons but in the studio and for intonation it's always the tried and true.

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Custom Shop '59 Strat with John Cruz Master Design Pickups
Vibro King
Fulltone Clyde>Deja-Vibe>TS-808>TS-9>Boss Tuner

CW. Today i went over all my guitars checking the intonation 12th fret harmonic to fretted note and was suprised at how off they were when done with the tuner. I think its a waste of time unless your using strobosoft and getting a detailed readout.

Atolleter. I'm suprised you havent mentioned it before. I'm struggling to get used to the high E. It constantly sounds sharp i think i may tune that to the tuner then octave down to the d string 2nd fret then open low E. What do you think? what order do you use?

MJH365. Im sure the 0 means zero beats one note to the other. If you recall the author mentions piano tuners counting beats. Its like the fluctuation you hear when tuning in higain using harmonics. All you do is play the 12th fret harmonic on the D string then tune the Bstring at the 3rd fret to it. Hope that helps.

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Yes. That makes perfect sense. It's early for me, I just got into work and hadn't had any caffine yet. So, what I was reading wasn't sinking in. Thanks for the clarification..... Mike

If I go with my tuner the end result always sounds off. I usually make sure the open low E is dead on and I always struggle with it. The I go the unison way.

- Low E 5th + open A
- A 5th + open D
- D 5th + open G
- G 4th + open B
- B 5th + open high E

Then you can go high E + low E since the wave would follow the same pattern there should be no beat but it's tough to hear a few octaves apart.

If I go with my tuner the end result always sounds off. I usually make sure the open low E is dead on and I always struggle with it. The I go the unison way.

- Low E 5th + open A
- A 5th + open D
- D 5th + open G
- G 4th + open B
- B 5th + open high E

Then you can go high E + low E since the wave would follow the same pattern there should be no beat but it's tough to hear a few octaves apart.

Now the guild data sheet recommends tuning from harmonic to fretted octave or open string. I can only surmise thats to keep the fretted notes to a minimum with tuning so incorrect temprement cant muck it up. In one of those links above it says to avoid tuning to fourths or fifths because of some mathematical reason to do with their level of degree/ interval 3/4s and 4/5s away from the octave not being accurate on a fixed fret instrument.

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So in the end, because of the equal temperement from the "imperfect" frets we're always stuck with a guitar that is in tune with some chords but not others. A vicious circle.

I guess that's why Hendrix was constantly tuning, perfect pitch.

That makes sense. I suppose it comes down to finding your own happy compromise.

I think hendrix was allways tuning because he was allways out of tune. No doubt because of his antics.

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I'm sure beating up on the guitar like that didnt help but hey, that was part of the show.