Re: Strange intonation issue with new strings
If your former Thomastik A-strings were plain, and your present A-strings are wound: that may be your problem since they have different scale-lengths (shorter for the wound ones). I don't remember the underlying physics, but I do remember having to custom-make a bridge saddle when I went from regular D'Addarios to flat-wounds.
The default pattern on a regular saddle (assuming wound G and D, plain A and E) as you proceed from low to high is long, shorter, longer, shorter -- the transition from wound D to plain A calls for a longer scale on the A; and for either wound or plain, the higher-pitched string needs a slightly shorter scale.
If you have a wound A-string instead, the low-to-high pattern is long, shorter, shorter, longer: as the wound strings progress to a higher pitch they need slightly shorter scales; and when you finally transition to a plain string the scale-length becomes slightly longer.
I went through this with switching to flat-wounds on my (former) Lyon and Healy, where the A-string was driving me nuts. Joe Cleary (of Campanella Strings) teamed with me to make string-by-string fine measurements of the optimal scale length. From the results we created a plus/minus chart of how much front-end to remove from a blank saddle, at appropriate points, to get correct compensation for the new strings. The outcome was fabulous. I'm sure he under-charged me. -- Paul
Last edited by twaaang; Jul-17-2019 at 7:33pm.
Reason: momentary reversed logic
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