Intonation and tuning devices

Clip on tuners are fairly accurate for on stage & in the studio, but not so much for doing things like setting the intonation. Most gtr techs use quality meter, strobe or high tech digital tuners.
If you're even questioning the intonation, re-do it yourself if you can, or take it to a tech.
Greetings. Just wanted to close out on this and let you know that yes, it was a fix that needed to be done. It was the nut. It was replaced and now the intonation is spot on. Thanks.
 
Forgive my ignorance here but what is "sweetened" tuning?
I know this was a fairly old post, but OP resurrected this thread and I thought this info on sweetened tunings would be well placed here ;~))

Here is the Peterson page on shared "sweetened" tunings, including the factory sweetened tunings (near the bottom of that page):

https://www.petersontuners.com/sweeteners/shared/

Unfortunately, you can't just see the values, you have to connect a tuner and register with them to download to your tuner, but as you can see, there are hundreds of sweetened tunings ;~)) The most famous one that I am aware of is the James Taylor tuning. Here are the values for that:

E -12 cents
A -10 cents
D -8 cents
G -4 cents
B -6 cents
E -3 cents

Peterson tuners usually come with X number of their factory sweetened tunings. I have the clip and it has worked great for years although the articulation ball system failed within a year or two and it seems to eat CR2032's like they were cornflakes (at least in my experience)!
 
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As long as we’re on tuners, Peterson has a cool app to turn your phone into a strobe tuner. I run the guitar into an interface and plug in the phone. Seems to work well. It’s like $12 or so. Plus the computer interface if you need one.
 
As long as we’re on tuners, Peterson has a cool app to turn your phone into a strobe tuner. I run the guitar into an interface and plug in the phone. Seems to work well. It’s like $12 or so. Plus the computer interface if you need one.

I've seen StewMac videos where they use a phone with the Peterson app sitting on the body of a guitar next to the strings - just using the phone's mic.
 
Remember the guitar is a tempered instrument. If the open stings are in tune, the middle of the neck is usually out of tune. Personally, I tune the low E, and then use harmonics on the fifth fret. The G string is then tuned a few cents sharp. Then it’s the D and the B string in octaves, and the G and the E strings in octaves. I spent many years playing big band and theatre music. This gets you in tune with the horns and strings.
 
I have a few Peterson digital Strobo tuners (StroboFlip, StroboPlus HDC, StroboClip) and had a Peterson AutoStrobe 490-ST mechanical strobe tuner and I found the digital and clip-on Petersons to be as accurate and quite a bit faster than the mechanical. I sold the AutoStrobe as it was slow and noisy compared to the digital Petersons.
 
Remember the guitar is a tempered instrument. If the open stings are in tune, the middle of the neck is usually out of tune. Personally, I tune the low E, and then use harmonics on the fifth fret. The G string is then tuned a few cents sharp. Then it’s the D and the B string in octaves, and the G and the E strings in octaves. I spent many years playing big band and theatre music. This gets you in tune with the horns and strings.
I always tune by harmonics on the 12th fret.
 
Remember the guitar is a tempered instrument. If the open stings are in tune, the middle of the neck is usually out of tune. Personally, I tune the low E, and then use harmonics on the fifth fret. The G string is then tuned a few cents sharp. Then it’s the D and the B string in octaves, and the G and the E strings in octaves. I spent many years playing big band and theatre music. This gets you in tune with the horns and strings.
I don't understand this but would really like to. :)

I always tune by harmonics on the 12th fret.
I tune by plucking a pair of strings at a time. E/A, then A/D and so on.
 
I don't understand this but would really like to. :)
He's referring to what's called "sweetened tunings", where the guitar is tuned so it sounds best in the middle of the neck.
There's also a method where the intonation is set slightly off at the harmonic note and the 12th fretted note so that the intonation is more true at certain parts of the neck. Jazz players have their intonation set this way because they usually play in the middle of the neck and rarely play open string chords in the 1st position.

Most gtr techs do this for Jazz players by setting it where the 12th fretted note is slightly off on the strobe tuner. His method sounds a bit unique so I hope he'll enlighten us.
 
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Remember the guitar is a tempered instrument. If the open stings are in tune, the middle of the neck is usually out of tune. Personally, I tune the low E, and then use harmonics on the fifth fret. The G string is then tuned a few cents sharp. Then it’s the D and the B string in octaves, and the G and the E strings in octaves. I spent many years playing big band and theatre music. This gets you in tune with the horns and strings.

When being in tune is important enough (it's guitar after all) I start with a tuner then fine tune by playing the low E string and a fretted E on each of the A D G B E strings, then check 5ths and octaves on adjacent strings, finally I use triads to get the G string in tune with the chord.
 
I have a few Peterson digital Strobo tuners (StroboFlip, StroboPlus HDC, StroboClip) and had a Peterson AutoStrobe 490-ST mechanical strobe tuner and I found the digital and clip-on Petersons to be as accurate and quite a bit faster than the mechanical. I sold the AutoStrobe as it was slow and noisy compared to the digital Petersons.
I have a few of their digital strobes as well. I have a mini on my pedal board. I have a first generation Strobo Plus HD that I use for setups when I am not doing them at the desk where I keep the mechanical strobe. It does a good job as well. I am good with using these tuners but still wouldn't trust the job to a clip on tuner. I am honestly not a fan of the clip on tuners. I have had too much trouble with them. I much prefer using a tuner pedal.
 
He's referring to what's called "sweetened tunings", where the guitar is tuned so it sounds best in the middle of the neck.
There's also a method where the intonation is set slightly off at the harmonic note and the 12th fretted note so that the intonation is more true at certain parts of the neck. Jazz players have their intonation set this way because they usually play in the middle of the neck and rarely play open string chords in the 1st position.

Most gtr techs do this for Jazz players by setting it where the 12th fretted note is slightly off on the strobe tuner. His method sounds a bit unique so I hope he'll enlighten us.
I play all over the neck, including in the nosebleed section. If the middle of the neck is in tune, there are fewer tuning compromises below and above the middle of the neck. I can play open chords in tune, and also solo above the 12th fret. The fact that PRS have better intonation than the other brands is why I don’t have any interest in the other brands anymore. If you tune open strings, it ain’t going to sound good up at the high end. I used to have to retune my G guitars if I was playing up high.
 
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