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Mgfoster
Username: Mgfoster

Registered: 07-2006
Posted on Saturday, July 22, 2006 - 10:49 am:   

(As you can see, I'm new here!)
Two questions:
1.How do you know exactly where to position the moveable bridge on the AF85? I changed the guage of strings from the ones of the previous owner and am not sure if I should alter the basic position or just rely on individual saddle positioning.
2.Since this is kind of an acoustic as well as electric, do you use acoustic strings or electric? (I have electric on it now, but before I experiment, I wanted to know if the experts have already done that!)
Thanks for any/all suggestions.
Funkle
Username: Funkle

Registered: 12-2001
Posted on Saturday, July 22, 2006 - 11:07 am:   

MG,

It's best to try to keep the bridge from moving, by removing and installing one string at a time. But some movement is almost inevitable. You will have to re-intonate the bridge: Using a good quality tuner, compare the low E open string pitch to the 12th fret pitch. Both notes should be in tune, if the 12th fret pitch is sharp, carefully push that end of the bridge slightly toward the tailpiece. If it's flat, move it the other way. Re tune the open string after each adjustment. Do the same thing with the high E. Just keep working like this until the guitar is in tune.

You need to use electric strings if you want to be able to use the guitar through an amp. Some people (myself included) favor flat-wound strings for a mellower jazz tone. Stay with round wounds for a brighter tone.
Gemberbier
Username: Gemberbier

Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Saturday, July 22, 2006 - 11:39 am:   

What Funkle's suggesting is one possibility, but then you have a difference of an octave. So you need a pair of good ears...
But it's a start for a good intonation.

After you did this, you should compare the pitch of the 12th fret pushed in and the pitch of the 12th fret flageolet on each string. They should be equal. If not, there are two possible causes:
the position of the bridge or the height of the bridge.

Now you do the same test Funkle proposed, but then with the 12th fret flageolet. Is you finger exactly above the 12th fret and is it in pitch?
If so, you must adjust the bridge height.
If the pushed in string on the 12th fret sounds higher than the 12th fret flageolet, the bridge is to high and should be lowered, and if it sounds lower, the bridge should be raised.

Because you changed your strings:

If your new string gauge is heavier, then you mostly have to lower the bridge a bit.

If your new string gauge is lighter, then you mostly have to raise the bridge a bit.


Kind greetz,

Ginger Ale
Mgfoster
Username: Mgfoster

Registered: 07-2006
Posted on Sunday, July 23, 2006 - 4:57 pm:   

Hey, you guys are fast! I do understand about the fretted note vs the harmonic to adjust the intonation, (does "flageolet" sort of rhyme with "chevrolet"? And is that something you can do in public?) and I do use a chromatic tuner so I don't have to trust my ears. I just wasn't sure of my guitar's parentage, nor of who actually decided where to put the bridge in the first place. So I guess it is right, since I can control the intonation with the saddles, so far! And thanks for all the string advice. I probably won't try any flatwounds unless I can see them on someone else's guitar, and I'm not a jazz player anyway. I play acoustic or rock or somewhere in between, and I just have always like the look and feel of the Ibanez hollowbodies, so I took a chance on eBay and at least in my own mind I feel I lucked out.
Gemberbier
Username: Gemberbier

Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Sunday, July 23, 2006 - 5:37 pm:   

Flageolet tone is harmonic tone. Is there anything you can't do in public in the "land of the free"?
In Holland anything to release a lady's "overtones" is permitted, in any car.
In Italy though there was a trial where it was accepted as a fact that it's impossible to do this in a Fiat 500. But a Chevrolet will do... even when she's the size of an AF85.


Ginger

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