I think guitar intonation has always been a bit of a compromise, but you're right about those strings in particular. I think it's something to do with the major third interval there instead of the fourth. For some reason you really notice it on a high quality nylon string guitar... finely calibrated machines, they are. Usually pushing down on the G string behind the nut is enough to stretch it to where it has to be, but the B string needs a bit more attention if you're going to be hearing a lot of the D at the 3rd fret and the open D together. Heh. I'd tweak it if I was going to be taking a bit of an excursion into dropped-D tuning for a few pieces.

I think it's a bit easier to come up with a workable generic tuning method for electric guitars, but each to their own... I'm not so likely to be mixing fretted notes high up on the fretboard (like, past the 12th fret) with the open G, B and E strings, so I just need octaves and a couple of open chords to be in tune with themselves. Plus, I mostly stick to the blues... where anything goes... heh.

But yeah... that custom shop guitar... I swear I was worried that there was something wrong with it at first, but in the shop I looked at it and decided that if there was a problem it would be an easy fix. Guess it had hung on the wall for a while... the strings hadn't seen much wear, but were pretty corroded, so I suppose it hadn't been wiped down after some rock pig had had a bash.

My theory was that the unwound G lent itself to sharp stretch's when fretted. The B at a maj 3rd above that could never sit right in relation to the unwound G simply because of problems on the G. Notice the problem is not so apparent with a wound G. No doubt due to the string mass being nearer correct for the tension of the tuned string. I found a whole diatribe on the subject with a particularly coherent theory. It involved 4th's & 5ths to the open strings and how fretted instruments can never be true temperd. I didnt really understand a lot of it so i wont go into it here.
I'll post a link when i find it again.

_________________
No no and no

here we go.
http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21685&highlight=tuning+guitar

_________________
No no and no

heh... I remember seeing that thread of yours and thinking it looked very interesting, but right over my head. I seem to remember that all of Western tuning is tempered one way or another... maybe we should have more fretless guitars. That one that gets posted every so often with all the squiggly frets looks interesting, too. Our old friend EJ has quite a lot to say about tuning in his Art of Guitar video, but it's not significantly different to most of the techniques I've seen guitarists use... and of course unless you have a carbon/zinc battery in your booster pedal it won't work for you!

Thank you for your explanations.
You understand my problem.
I know I won't be able to know the real situation until I change the strings but now the problem is mostly in 3rd string (G). For example, if I tune the guitar all the chords opened and fretted will sound in tune except opened G major.
But I've noticed this problem long time before I got this guitar. Every time I would visit some music shop here in my city and tried out el. guitars most of them would sound out of tune. There were maybe 2 or 3 el. guitars in last 10 years that sounded OK to me. I even thought one time that the problem could be because I'm classical guitarist and the way I play the guitar (we press strings much harder on classical guitars) but that off course wasn't the case.
I have no problem tuning the guitar by ear if the guitar is OK, so I don't thing that's the problem also.
Probably all I need to do is to adjust guitar for me.
The guitar was bought in England at official Fender dealer shop by my friend and he brought it to me as a birthday present few days ago.
I let you know what's the situation as soon as I change the strings.

Once more, thank you all !!!

Wow - what an interesting thread this has turned out to be.

On temperament: there was a (brief) stage long ago where I wondered whether I was going to get interested in the lute. Partly the appalling expense of even a beginner's instrument put me off. But also when I discovered that some lutes have gut frets which can be slid up and down the fingerboard to adjust the temperament - at the time I just thought that was way over my head.

Shame, cos now I don't think it would have been as challenging as I'd imagined; but there you go...

BTW: Marin, what a NICE friend you have! Would he like some more friends?

Cheers - C

Yes I'm very happy to have such a friend. We know each other since we were kids.
I helped him make his first CD (I did song arrangements, playing guitars, composing, singing backup and harmony vocals, keyboards, etc.).
Here's video of one song I composed for him. I played all guitars except guitar solo before the end of the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnJj1pbwrRs

He actually lives in Ireland now, but comes here occasionally.

Whoa, cool job, Marin!

I was obviously way off target wondering about your experience level on the previous page. (Not the first time that's happened...)

But that is not you in the green hat?

Cheers - C

Thank you.

No, that's not me in the green hat. Just some guy they found to act in video clip.
Here is me playing at home. It is instrumental version of one song from my friend's album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REZw1M4VBrI

Hey, again: that's very nice! My nylon playing is awful: I think I shall keep that video and study it a little. Some stuff to learn there for me - thanks!

And a nicely shot video from the point of view of a guitarist too. Compliments on that.

By the way: I don't know how it is in your language, but Dragan is a very cool sounding name to an English ear!

Cheers - C

Wow thanks Marin. After seeing that video i can tell you that your left hand technique is a thing of absolute beauty. I think i noticed a couple of times where you slightly bend a fretted note to get it sounding bang on. It appears that you do that without even thinking about it. Simply stunning.

After seeing that i can pretty much diagnose the knopfler as needing a slight bit of nut work, some strings and maybe a little less of a critical ear. Its entirely likely that your noticing a small problem that seems huge to you. A lesser player probably wouldnt notice it at all.

Truly fantastic mate. I feel privileged to have seen that. Now i need to go and practice, a lot.

_________________
No no and no

Lovely! That's a beautiful composition. That's what YouTube is for. Occasionally I think about putting something up, but I just sound like a poor man's Sabicas. Heh... although I did learn some tricks from little-known flamenco albums of the late '80s that I could probably pass off as my own...nah, let me think about it for another few years. Oh, and practice.

Hi mondo: I was pretty sure I would never put anything of my own up on YouTube. After seeing that, now I'm absolutely certain I won't!

Inspiring though. I bet right about now there's several people round the world pulling out their neglected Spanish guitars. I know I am!

See y'all later...

- C

Thank you all for your kind words.
I would like to hear you all playing.

And for my Fender I'm sure that it just needs new strings and a little bit of setup. Anyway, I'll let you all know what's the situation as soon as I change strings. I got to look for someone here in my city who knows better on these things.