Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey everyone,

This is my first post. I'm a beginner when it comes to knowing how to troubleshoot my guitar. So I decided to come on here and see if anyone could help me out. When I play on the frets closer to the headstock most of my strings (most obviously the G, E, and D) seem to fall in and out of tune. It really depends on how hard I'm pressing. If I press to hard they come up sharp and if I let up too much they'll fall flat. As I play it's way too obvious to ignore. If I could get some elaboration and some advice on how to fix it that would be awesome. Thanks you guys.

Sounds like your guitar is not in tune with itself....

And guitars should play in tune with a light touch - don't play hard just to sharp the string.

Oh, welcome to the OLF!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

well, the strings are in tune played open and just about any other position on the neck, it's just when i'm playing in anything in the first 3 frets on the neck. those are the only frets that do this. so if i wanna play an open position D maj chord, my A note from my G string just sounds terrible. same thing if i'm playing an open A chord or open E chord. If I'm playing a rhythm the tone changes within the notes are way too obvious and off putting. I'm wondering if it's a neck problem, fret problem, or an intonation problem.

post a video (here) of you demonstrating the issues and i bet someone could help you....

I find that most issues at the first frets can be traced back to the nut. Sounds like some of your slots are to high causing the notes to pull sharp when fingered normally. This its due to the extreme break angle generated between the nut and the fretted note stretching the string and causing a rise in pitch. This effect diminishes as you move up the board and the angle softens. Unless you have access tho a proper set of nut slot files you may want to take it to someone and have a proper set up done, including setting the nut slot heights.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Are the frets tall jumbo style?
What guitar model are you playing?

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