Paging Shawn.....or other technical issue experts

Well, if the compensation results in a more true intonation up and down the neck the reduction in disonance could potentially be heard as "sterile" if those minor disonances are perceived as "complexity". Their removal would make the sound more "sterile". To me its just the opposite. As intonation issues are removed the sound just gets bigger

I had a 12-string acoustic that got notably louder (and more rich) when it was perfectly in tune.
 
]-[ @ n $ 0 |v| a T ! ©;27031 said:
I had a 12-string acoustic that got notably louder (and more rich) when it was perfectly in tune.

Most parsimonious explanation: That's because when it wasn't in tune, you concealed the tone from others and played it very quietly, and when it was perfectly in tune you PLAYED it louder. :D
 
Well, if the compensation results in a more true intonation up and down the neck the reduction in disonance could potentially be heard as "sterile" if those minor disonances are perceived as "complexity". Their removal would make the sound more "sterile". To me its just the opposite. As intonation issues are removed the sound just gets bigger
I think you missed my point mate, the OP made reference to the term "tone" not "sound". I actually find it harder to hear a guitars "tone" when a 6-string chord is fretted, and easiest when one note is being played at a time. To me, a lot of things affect "tone", guitar wood, guitar components, strings, pickup windings, pickup magnets, the lead, the amp, the players fingers, whether or not the luthier had his mojo working that day or not etc (you get the point). Let me put it this way, ever heard someone do a solo and think "wow, nice tone!"...?
 
So, maybe I'm missing something here, but even if the nut was closer to the first fret, wouldn't it only affect the intonation of open strings? That's something I've never understood about the Earvana or Buzz F systems.
 
A couple of comments:

Putting the nut (as a whole) just very slightly closer to the 1st fret than the pure math would indicate, does help with intonation. It's easier to visualize this if you don't think of it as the nut being moved closer, but rather that the nut is where it's supposed to be, and ALL of the frets are moved just slightly closer to the nut. (Of course, the two are really the same...) The open string is tuned correctly (by definition). Then, by having ALL of the frets moved slightly closer to the nut than the pure math would indicate, the pressure applied on the string to fret any of the fretted notes is compensated for (on average).

In a true compensated nut, the adjustment is very slightly different for the different strings, since the different strings react slightly differently to the pressure of being fretted. All of this is a compromise, based on the the string set that's used.

The idea of a zero fret is that at separates the dual purposes of the nut into two pieces - string separation and spacing (still done by the nut), and the establishment of the open-string length (by the zero-fret). With a zero-fret, nut wear, or un-careful nut-filing, doesn't throw off the intonation. (With a regular nut, if you file it improperly, you can throw off the actual point of contact of the string in the nut-slot.) The down-side of a zero-fret is that you can't really adjust the string height at the nut-end, at least not separately for the different strings. And of course you can wear little grooves in the zero-fret, over time, just like nut slots can be worn down.

Locking nuts help preserve tune with trem-equipped guitars. PRS takes the different approach of trying to minimize friction at the nut, and having locking tuners. And the PRS headstock is designed so that all of the strings are fairly close to a straight pull over the nut, also to avoid friction and binding.
 
Is he sure that he is not playing his "Esteban" guitar from the infomercial? . They can sound sterile.
 
Wow guess I'm wrong for wanting to get rid of my Sg to help fund my prs . 33 years of playing gone down the tube because somebody at Mlp says I'm wrong. Going to sell all my gear and take up knitting lol

P.s...dude is just narrow minded..
 
I don't know anything about this compensated nut business... For all I know PRS nuts may be compensated, but I'll take a 5% improvement in intonation over a 5% improvement in tone any day. Nothing makes a guitar sound like crap more than poor intonation. That being said, I don't hear anything hurting the tone of any PRS I've heard!
 
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