Electric Guitar Intonation

[CartoonFan]

I don't know jack about electric guitars, but a friend of mine is having some difficulty. To make a long story short, he's got an expensive guitar with a broken intonation, and no amount of reverse knob-turning seems to fix it. He needs an inexpensive way to take care of this.

Oh, and he doesn't have much money. He's actually in debt from this guitar. It's a long story.

Help me help him. >.<

[Roph]

So tune it properly? See attach.

If he doesn't know how to tune from a correct bottom E as a reference while having bought an "expensive" guitar (not getting a normal one to learn to at least play on first) he needs to kill himself.

[Jonesy]

A quick google will show how to fix intonation. I'll give ya a link to a bass site with the best instructions i've seen - don't worry, it's applicable to guitar too.

http://www.tunemybass.com/bass_setup/setting_bass_intonation.html

Hope it helps.

[chewey]

So tune it properly? See attach.

If he doesn't know how to tune from a correct bottom E as a reference while having bought an "expensive" guitar (not getting a normal one to learn to at least play on first) he needs to kill himself.

I don't think that's what he means.

Intonation (if perfect) pretty much means all notes of the same name will sound the same no matter where you play them on the fretboard. If you have problems with intonation, your E at the 12th fret might not be the same note as the E played open.

[Moss.]

Tell him to change his strings, first. Old strings mess with your intonation and make it impossible to fix until you get new ones.

[CartoonFan]

Him: Oh, the intonation is okay.
Him: But the tension on the neck is going to warp it.

Me: What does that mean?

Him: Meaning, I'll give it a week before the neck bends.
Him: There are springs keeping the bridge in place that had to be tightened.
Him: I have a choice of bending the neck, or snapping the bridge.

What do I tell him to do about that? I gotta help him before permanent damage is done. He can't afford a new guitar. x.x

EDIT: Apparently he had someone local look at it, and it's just fine now.

[Jonesy]

http://www.tunemybass.com/bass_setup/bass_neck_relief.html

Same site , still applies to electrics. He'd be better going to a music store than trying himself though.