Guitar Stuff » guitar-setup

What is Intonation on the Guitar?

Matt — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 13:47:26 +0000

In a previous post I said I was taking my guitar into the shop to have the intonation (among other things) set. So what is this thing called intonation?

Intonation refers to the notes on the guitar being in tune all the way from open to the high end of the fretboard. If a guitar’s intonation is set properly every E note played on the fretboard will have the proper pitch. If the intonation is off, usually the notes at the nut end of the fretboard will be correct, but they will slowly become sharp or flat the further you move up the fretboard.

A manner of producing or uttering tones, especially with regard to accuracy of pitch.

Source: Dictionary.com

For the average person (like me) it may not be out enough to notice while playing. However, if it is out, once you get it set properly you will notice the difference for sure.

Checking the intonation

The intonation is pretty easy to check, especially if you own an electric tuner. First tune the strings to the proper pitch. After all of the strings are tuned, play the open note on the E string, and then right after play the E note on the 12th fret of the same string. If the tuner shows the right pitch then that strings intonation is set properly. However, if the tuner shows a change in pitch whether it he sharp or flat, the intonation is out. This process can be done on each string to determine if the intonation is out.

Setting the Intonation

If you find that your intonation is out, take your guitar to a shop to have them set it. It shouldn’t cost you too much to have it done. It is best to have a professional do this as you can make the tone worse if you try to do it yourself and don’t succeed.

Not so Obvious Tips About Tuning a Guitar

Matt — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 23:55:22 +0000

Tuning is probably one of the most basic things you can learn about guitar. There is a lot of basic guitar theory that you can pick up in the process of learning to tune that can be essential down the line. For example one of the most important things you can learn is the notes of the strings in standard tuning. When reading guitar instructions quite often the writer will use phrases like “fret the A string on the 5th fret”. Once you have the string names memorized things like that will become natural.

At this point I could go ahead and write another set of instructions on how to tune a guitar, but there really is no point. There are so many resources out there which do just as good of a job if not better than I could. The tuning guide at WholeNote for example is a great set of instructions for the beginner.

Here are some quick points I would like to mention though:

A guitar can be tuned many different ways, but standard tuning refers to the most common configuration. This tuning starting from the low string to the high is E – A – D – G – B – E.

A string should always be tuned up to pitch. This means you should tune the string slightly lower than the note you want and then slowly tighten the string until it gets to the desired pitch. If you go beyond the pitch you wanted, turn the peg back below the note and tune back up again. Tuning this way will lower the chance of the string going out of tune as you play.

When you put new strings on a guitar you will have to tune it more often. As the strings get worn in and stretch a bit they will stay in tune better.

You want to make sure your guitar is always in tune when you are playing it, especially when you are learning. You want to do as much as you can to train your ear to the way the guitar should sound, and playing out of tune won’t help you there.

Once you get the hang of standard tuning play around with some alternate tunings, like dropped-d, open, or step down tuning.

If you are going to play with alternate tuning remember that your guitar is setup specifically for a specific tuning and gauge of strings. If you change the tuning of your guitar you may have to get it professionally setup, and in extreme cases you may cause damage to it. If you change the tuning and your strings become hard to play or start buzzing a lot, it’s probably a good idea to change back to standard tuning.

As I said above, the guitar tuning guide at WholeNote is a great resource. If that one doesn’t do it for you just do a simple Google search for guitar tuning and you’ll get a hundred other how-to’s.

Guitar Gear: Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom Guitar & Amp Setup

Matt — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 13:00:37 +0000

Alexi Laiho is definitely one of my favourite guitarists. While his sound might not be as unique as that of Eddie Van Halen or Zakk Wylde, it is different enough to pick out. Someone once said to me “How does he make his guitar sound like a Nintendo?”. I believe they were mistaking the keyboard in the song for Alexi, but thats what I like about it. His sound really does harmonize with Children of Bodom’s keyboard very well.

The surprising thing is Alexi Laiho’s rig is very simple. From the single EMG-H4 pickup in his signature ESP to the effect free rack setup, it is literally just plug-and-play. One thing you may have noticed about Alexi’s guitar sound is it has above average amount of base. This is due to a custom gain boost built right into his guitars (copy of a Jackson boost made in the 80s). I personally like that sound a lot, it adds that extra ka-chunk to his rhythm riffs.

Alexi’s setup starts with an ESP Signature Alexi Laiho guitar. As I said above, this guitar is unique because of its single EMG-H4 passive pickup and the built in boost. Alexi uses a Shure UHF Marcad Diversity MKII wireless receiver for connectivity. He patches that through a Lee Jackson Perfect Connection GP-1000 tube preamp and further enhances his low end with an RSP 2400 Hush/Enhancer/Exciter. Alexi splits his signal into stereo using a Rocktron Intellifex and then sends it to his VHT Two/Fifty/Two Stereo tube poweramp. The whole unit is hooked up to a Marshall 1960B straight front 300W stereo 4×12 cab with 75watt Celestion G12T-75 speakers. Yeah, I know, like I said… it’s a simple setup.

Alexi Has 3 guitars for his live shows, all of them being Alexi Laiho ESP Signature models. The guitars all have Dr. Tite-fit JH-10 set strings and are tuned down one whole step with drop-d. The guitars also feature a Floyd Rose bridge.

Just to overview the setup, here is what Alexi is sporting:

3 ESP Alexi Laiho Signature guitars
Shure UHF Marcad Diversity MKII wireless receiver
Lee Jackson Perfect Connection GP-1000 tube preamp
RSP 2400 Hush/Enhancer/Exciter
Rocktron Intellifex
VHT Two/Fifty/Two Stereo tube poweramp
Marshall 1960B Straight front, 300W Stereo 4×12 Cab
2 75-watt Celestion G12T-75 Speakers

I think this is probably one of the simplest rigs I have seen, but it defiantly gets the job done. I think there is something that can be said about simplicity. It lets you focus on the important thing: playing guitar.

Guitar Gear: Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden Guitar & Amp Setup

Matt — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:00:14 +0000

We have all had our Iron Maiden phase right? I know I have… It came just slightly after my Metallica phase and just before my Zakk Wylde phase… Although, I don’t know if I can call it a Zakk Wylde phase if it never ended. Anyway… back to Adrian Smith. Maiden was always known for their harmonizing guitar licks. So lets see what Adrian uses today to bring his music to the ear.

Adrian Smith’s Guitar Rig

Adrian uses a combination of Marshall all tube heads (30th Anniversary) and digital effects to create his sound. One thing that is uncommon is for a guitarist to go both ways… thats right, I’m talking about Fender and Gibson. Adrian uses both American Fender Stratocaster’s (with Floyd Rose) and Gibson SG Standard’s. He has two of both, a main and a backup. The SG is usually tuned to drop-D and is stock. The Strat has SRV Texas Special pickups in the neck and middle pickups with a DiMarzio in the bridge and is in standard tuning. Adrian says that he prefers to use a patch cable to connect his setup to his guitar as opposed to wireless. In fact, he usese a 60-foot Peter Cornish patch cable. He says that he just prefers the sound, whether it actually makes a difference or not, he’s not sure.

From Adrian’s guitar he hooks into a Whirlwind Multi-Selector 4-channel selector which is then fed into a Dunlop DCR-1SR Rack WAH. From there he hooks in a Mike Hill B.I.S. Isolation box, a Digitech Whammy Pedal, an Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer, and ends on his Marshall 6100LM 100-Watt All-Tube Head. On the FX loop of the Marshall head he has a Peavy Tubefex Tube Preamp & Multi-FX Unit. The FX unit hooks into a Yamaha MFC10 Midi Foot Controller which also allows him to switch channels on the head via the head’s MIDI facility. This MIDI function is exclusive to the 30th Anniversary Head.

Finally everything is broadcast using two 300-watt Marshall 1960A angled-front 4×12 cabs sporting 75-watt Celestion G12-T75 Speakers. All in all it is a pretty impressive setup.

Guitar Gear: Michael Amott of Arch Enemy Guitar & Amp Setup

Matt — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 22:33:53 +0000

In about 2 hours time I will be heading down to the MacEwan Ballroom at the University of Calgary to see Arch Enemy with guests Chimaira. I’m pretty excited for this show, I have never seen Arch Enemy play and I think Michael Amott is a wicked guitarist. In light of this I thought I’d do a post up about Amott’s guitar setup.

Michael Amott uses some complex midi switching on his live setup. Since he does a lot of switching in his songs and he didnt want to go with a multi-effect setup, he settled on a MIDI-controlled Providence looping/switching system.

From Guitar to Amp

It’s not that simple to describe Michael’s setup in list form since he uses multiple effect loops connected to his MIDI switch, but I’ll do my best.

His guitar is an ESP Ninja V Michael Amot Signature and he hooks it into his effect rack with a Shure ULXP4 Wireless Unit. The following effects are all hooked into the loop connections on a Providence PEC-2 Routing System.

Jim Dunlop Custom Rack Wah DCR-2SR
Rocktron Hush Super C Noise Gate
Roland SDE-3000 Digital Delay
Ibanez AD-9 Analog Delay
Boss OC-2 Octave Pedal
MXR Phase 90
Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer Reissue
Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner

The output from the MIDI controller is then sent to two Krank Krankenstein heads and then out to four Krank Revolution 4×12 Straight cabs with Celestion Vintage 30s.

With this setup, Amott has a chromatic tuner and a Providence PEC-2 routing system controller with him on stage. He also has a wah pedal near his PEC-2 and one at center stage.

Michael Amott’s Guitar Setup

On his guitar Amott uses D’Addario custom set 11-15-18-32-44-59 strings tuned down two whole steps (C F Bb Eb G C). He uses a Seymour Duncan ‘59 (SH-1N) pickup in the neck and a Seymour Duncan JB (SH-4) pickup in the bridge.

Fret Buzz Information at Guitar Daily

Matt — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 19:31:13 +0000

Serg has posted some great information about fret buzz on his site Guitar Daily. He goes into perfect detail on the causes of fret buzz and how they can be rectified.

To sum up his posts causes could be:

Old strings
New strings that have not settled
Action is too low
Bent or warped neck
Inconsistent fret heights

If you are experiencing buzzing on your frets I suggest you head over and read his posts.
Top Reasons For Guitar Fret buzz
Fret Buzz – Guitar Action
Fret buzz – low and high frets
and Fret Buzz: Neck Relief, Bow And Back Bow at Guitar Daily.

Guitar Gear: Mark Morton of Lamb of God Guitar & Amp Setup

Matt — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 13:06:57 +0000

Mark Morton’s stage setup is really geared towards mastering the mids. He splits his guitar signal into two channels using a Whirlwind Selector and then runs it through two Mesa/Boogie Mark IV heads. He then sets one of the heads with the mid frequencies scooped and the other with them boosted. Before each show he and his sound tech work together to balance the two heads and get the best sounding mid frequency.

Morton uses three different guitars. His main guitar is a Jackson MM1 Mark Morton Signature. His second and third are a Jackson Swee-tone Archtop and a Jackson RR5 Rhoads. Each guitar has a Seymour Duncan Invader pickup in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck. GHS Boomer 10 – 46 gauge strings are strung on the guitars and tuned in either a drop-d (D-A-D-G-B-E) or a double drop-d (D-A-D-G-B-D).

From Guitar to Amp

Jackson Custom MM1 Mark Morton Signature
Sennheiser EW100 Wireless Unit
Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
Whirlwind Selector

From this point on the guitar signal is split into two channels. Each channel goes through the compressor, a noise gate, and into the Mesa/Boogie heads.

DBX 266XL Dual Compressor
2 Mesa/Boogie Mark IV Heads
Rocktron Hush Super C Two-channel Noise Gate via the FX loop of the Mesa/Boogie heads
9 Mesa Rectifier Straight-front traditional 4×12 cabs with Celestion Vintage 30’s

I think the idea for splitting the sound between two heads is really sweet. I would love to have a chance to play around with something like that one day.

Guitar Gear: Phil Sgrosso from As I Lay Dying Guitar & Amp Setup

Matt — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:53:13 +0000

When recording As I Lay Dying’s 2005 album Shadows are Security, guitarist Phil Sgrosso was introduced to the Krank Revolution Series One head by the album’s mixer Andy Sneap. Since then he wouldn’t dare use anything else for live shows. He is often told how much the live shows sound like the album, which is always great to hear.

As far as live setups go Sgrosso’s is pretty simple and straight to the point. The main focus of his setup is distortion. He has two Krank Revolution Series One 100-watt tube heads (a primary and a backup) hooked into four Mesa/Boogie Recto-Standard straight-front 4×12 cabinets. The cabs house Celestion Vintage 30s. Something that is interesting is that the two upper cabs are not even plugged in.

From Guitar to Amp

Phil Sgrosso’s setup from his guitar to his amp goes like this:

2005 Black Cherry Gibson Les Paul Standard
EMG 85 Active Pickups (both neck and bridge)
Sennheiser EW 172 G2 Wireless Receiver
Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
Maxon OD808 Overdrive
Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor
Krank Revolution One Series 100-Watt Head
2 Mesa/Boogie Recto-Standard Straight-Front 4×12 cabinets with Celestion Vintage 30s

Phil Sgrosso also has 1 backup Krank head and 2 cabs which he doesn’t use.

Guitar Strings and Tuning

On both of his guitars Sgrosso uses 11-15-20-34-44-56 gauge strings. The guitars are tuned down one whole step with an extra drop-D (from low to high: C G C F A D).