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So, I have this guitar I built. I have verified with saddle-Mattic that saddle is located correctly. I verified relief. Owner complained that intonation off. So, with iPhone GuitarTuna, I checked harmonics and 12th string measurements. It’s driving me nuts. Nothing can be 1000 cents off. What am I doing wrong? Go easy on me. Plz

Do I need to invest in a strobe tuner? Should I be using higher settings for intonation?

Guitar Tuna sucks. Try some other apps. I have a stand alone strobe tuner and wouldn't be without it.

The Petersen strobe app (iStrobosoft) is a good piece of software, and worth the money, especially for situations like this.

I never relied on tuners, I trained my ear.

Just looked at Peterson strobe app. This is nuts. My ear tells me GuitarTuna is wrong

I downloaded a cool tone generator (java) that u can set cents with. I tested GuitarTuna with that. It absolutely cannot deal with harmonics

Just tested the Peterson’s iPhone strobe. Way more like it!!!

Does anyone else remember the days when you had a cheap little pitch pipe you blew into and you matched the tone by ear?

Since the problem is solved I digress ... I do not intonate the 12 fret to the harmonic. I intonate the 12 fret against the open note. Does it make any difference.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

I remember one guy I did a partial refret for came back about 3 months later with the cowboy chord frets all worn out again. I was flummoxed, he was pissed. I'm glad I never shook the guys hand because he would have broken mine. He must have had a death grip on the guitar.

Point being?

One persons 12th fret harmonic test is a LOT different then another.

I use my ear too!

I've been using Srobosoft since our fellow OLFer and Doctor without borders Andy Zimmer turned us all on to it over 14 years ago here. Since then this has been my only tuner and I've tuned or set intonation on thens of thousands of guitars with it now and it's always flawless. Peterson makes a pedal too that I have and use on my board, love it.

My one beef with it is that dang food truck that delivers once a week and parks out front. My Peterson hears it's motor and says it's in the key of C.... Pretty annoying.

When you described the issue initially I knew it was picking up a harmonic or overtone, that's not unusual and happens frequently.

If it comes to pass that the client's intonation issues are not what you saw on your tuner I would be wondering about the action if the scale length is spot on. Bad strings are a possibility and DR strings are well known with us for causing intonation issues.... When the action is high, nut slots too the string stretch is exaggerated and it throws the intonation off.

It’s all good. GuitarTuna good for getting tuning in the ballpark. But ain’t worth a dam for checking harmonics and 12th fret tones. Not sure why. Peterson’s strobe was way better. Matched what my ear was hearing.

On some strings, GuitarTuna would zero in on open string tuning. Then, hit a harmonic, and I would get 250-1000 cent errors. That makes no sense. I’d appreciate it if others would verify this issue.

Heath, scale length is spot on. I can switch between GuitarTuna and Peterson’s Strobe (iPhone). GuitarTuna never reads the harmonics correctly. http://www.Radkon.eu (look on products page, scroll down for the guitar tuner, its free) has a tone generator that can be set for guitar. U can adjust cents. I see what the problem with GuitarTuna is now. It will only detect E2,A2,D3,G3,B3, and E4. Add 1 to each number, that’s where the harmonics are.

When I set Radkon tone generator for harmonic scale, GuitarTuna fails to recognize it and gives large cent values.

Note: I am not using the pro version (costs too much!!). Perhaps it can do harmonics better.