MojoTooth said:
jmac said:
I guess I also need to do more research on intonation and the role it plays with a guitar. I know it is important, but maybe it is more important for some kinds of music than it is for others.
Intonation is often confused with "tuning", but that's a language question more than anything else.
Intonation, assuming your guitar's nut is cut correctly and not too high (easily checked with a tuner playing first fret notes), really only comes into play once you get to the seventh, eight fret. A badly intonated guitar will start playing out of tune around there.
If you're playing by yourself, and you don't play a lot of big chords higher up on the neck, you might never really notice your guitar is a little off. The more complicated the music you play gets, and the bigger the band you play in, the more critical intonation becomes.
In a three piece band with bass and drums playing blues and rock, it's not nearly as big a deal (assuming your guitar's "close" but not perfect) as it would be if you play jazz chord melody, solo fingerstyle arrangements, or share chordal/melodic duties with multiple guitars, or a keyboard player.
If you're a strummer who only plays open-position chords, you might never even notice your guitar doesn't intonate that well.
I have a couple of guitars with fairly primitive bridges (vintage Danelectro, anyone?) that are close but not perfectly intonated, but I rarely get in trouble with them in the situations I play in - even with a plain G string on a straight, uncompensated saddle.
Another thing about playing single notes and leads is that a halfway accomplished player often bends strings a little automatically to compensate for slightly sour notes, something that's near impossible to do with chords, of course.
In any case, it's nothing to obsess about if things sound "in tune" to you and other people you play with.