YJM Signature Strat.

After the open notes are tuned to pitch, I test the 12th fret. Everything is perfect. I try the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th and so on. Everything is fine.

But when I go down to the 1st fret, it is horrible. It seems the thicker strings are worse at this fret.

So basically:

< 0th > Bad Intonation (really sharp) < 5th fret > Great < 12th> OK (little sharp) <21st>

I tried messing with the truss rod, tightening, loosening, the problem doesn't change at all! I also tried lower action, no change.

whats going on??? could it possibly be the nut? help!

EDIT: The "bad intonation" is actually really sharp, never flat.

Sounds like the nut slots need to be deepened. Take it to a good guitar tech if you don't have the tools and know how to use them.

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Bill

I forgot to mention, the "bad intonation" <5th fret is always sharp, not flat. Does this change your recommendation? Perhaps I have to raise the nut a little rather than deepen the slots? Correct me if I'm wrong of course...

Just take it to a guitar tech for a full evaluation.

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Bill

Could the problem be over enthusiastic fretting on a scalloped board. The things do need a exceptionally light touch or will send the note excessively sharp. Because of the scope for downwards travel. Press too hard it's akin to bending a note. Also without looking at the thing and spending a good bit of time, I'd be very wary of lowering the nut slots. They have to be set to the fret tops, about .0015" higher. Not a easy task to accomplish on a scalloped board. You can't really sight the distance from the fretboard to the bottom of the nut slot. Which is the first step in assessing nut slots on a regular neck.

No1 Stop intoning open string to 12th fret. Instead intone 12th fret harmonic to 12 fret fretted by ear. With a bit of practice you'll achieve far greater accuracy.
No2 Ignore 5th, 4th, and the 3rd fret areas. The 4th and 5th intervals in the tempered scale are well out, as are thirds. Modern music isn't perfect. So not only tuning 5th fret to open string, but trying to reference those notes to a tuner are a big no no.
Fretted instruments aren't even accurate within the imperfect tempered scale. Once again the tuner becomes useless for fretted notes. Not only is the tempered scale wrong, the guitar fretboard further exacerbates that by being inaccurate at best.

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No no and no

Thanks for the reply.

I am aware of the sensitivity of the scalloped fretboard, and I tried pressing very lightly, still same problem. And, its actually sharp by enough that a chord up top (10th fret and beyond) sounds amazing, but, a chord down near the 3nd fret sounds like mush. So, ignoring the 3rd fret is hard to do. I know its a YJM strat, why do chords you say? well, I like chords sometimes

I just tried your method, it worked! Wow, I've been playing for 4 years now, I didn't know about the imperfect tempered scale...Why did they make it like that? Are all guitars like this?

The problem with the tempered scale is a problem with music, since the time of John Harrison (early 1700AD). Who used PI (3.14) to come up with the tempered scale. It exists on every musical instrument with predetermined notes designed since then. Yes, even piano's. The only instruments that really escape the problem are fretless stringed instruments. Piano's, brass, woodwind all suffer that problem. Violin and Cello can work around it. But you'd need a bloody good ear to hear the difference between A### and bbBb. Especialy when you consider all the music that is thrown at us constantly that is composed and performed using the tempered scale.
To make matters worse. Modular instruments (like the guitar) have the same note appear in multiple positions. But on strings of differing thickness. A low E string bends differently than a D string. So E played on the 2nd fret of the D string sounds a good bit different to E played on the 12th fret of the low E string. At least on linear instruments (brass, keys, woodwind) a note only appears once per octave.

Clear as mud eh?

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No no and no

" Instead intone 12th fret harmonic to 12 fret fretted by ear." For us newbies with minimal music theory knowledge, how is that done?

I've been playing for 4 years. But I can say, as a beginner, I still knew what a good pitch is. Just keep doing trial and error.

For a start, just just the tuner for only one string, then go through the rest of them by ear, by using harmonics, frets and such. Play a couple of your favorite chords (mine being the A major and the D major), and see if they sound "sweet", or hit "that spot". After you are happy with it, check the tuning again. If it is totally off, well, fix it!

I hope that helps. I was lucky to be born with perfect "relative" pitch, so I can do anything by ear as long as I have a root note.

Nikinija is spot on here very good and sound advice