'My guitar tuner says my acoustic guitar is in tune… but it just doesn't sound it when I play' – if this feels familiar you've probably had intonation issues. And there could be a number of different culprits. The good news is they're all fixable, and the Gibson Gazette has honed in on how.
Intonation is when an instrument is able to achieve accurate pitch across the entire fretboard. Any note you play will be pitched accurately. When your instrument isn't intonated properly it may sound fine when you're using it with a guitar tuner playing open strings, but not when you start fretting notes. There could be a number of reasons for this.
