Intonation and Setting Up Your Guitar

I've had my current guitar for about 2 or 3 years now, and even though I'm soon buying a new one, I'm definitely gonna hold onto the Ibanez. But over the past 2 or 3 years, I've changed string guages multiple times, tuned it all over creation, and noodled all day with the action. Recently I noticed that as I play higher up the neck, the strings go out of tune, indicating bad intonation. I understand that this is because the guitar needs to be adjusted and fine tuned again from all the years of humidity fluctuation and playing, but I'm cheap and curious, so I'd rather just learn how to do this myself than pay someone else to do it for me.

Do any of you know how to do this, or are you able to direct me to some place I could learn? I understand that it has to do with changing the sliders on the bridge, but beyond that, I have no clue. I also use a Floyd Rose bridge, so all the knobs and screws appear to be in different places than on a regular bridge.

nope

Well that's not very helpful.

I found this on the internet that is for intonation adjustment on floyd rose, check if this help

http://www.glowingtubes.com/p/FloydTuning.htm

i'd just take it in for the $35-40 setup. i watched my local guru
setup my hardtail with the fixed bridge, it seemed pretty simple.
though i hear floyds can be a total nightmare.

You could look here, maybe? I have no idea about Floyds.

Well, I found a webpage detailing the bridge that I have, The ZR Tremolo (Zero Resistance). There's a little tool that is screwed into the bridge, which I have to remove and screw into the saddles in order to adjust them. My big question is: After adjusting the saddles, is there anything else I have to do?

I assume your playing an electric?

you need a very good tuner and it does take some time.

1. tune the guitar based on the open notes
2. Play the string on the 12 fret, is it sharp or flat
3. if it's sharp the you need to turn the screw that holds the bridge saddle further away form the nut, opposite if it's flat. Just move it a little bit not a lot.
4. repeat step 1-3 until your guitar is intonationified

there is nothing else that needs done but you should do this every time you change string gauges (maybe not but big changes like for 8's to 11's) or when ever it starts sounding like crap.

Gotcha, thanks a bunch Tele.

@foog, sorry for the lame comment, I have no helpful advice and I was bored. nuttin personal.

It's all good bud.

what tele said :)

@ Tele.... you should post that "how to setup your guitar" in the
lesson/tools area. maybe do a video.
being able to perform a setup on your own guitar is invaluable.
i just learned myself,though my dean is a fixed bridge so it's simple.
my local shops charge 30 bucks for a setup, which to me is just
insane for such a small amount of work.

Yeah my bridge has all kinds of stuff to unscrew and move to fix it. I also have to level out the tremolo using the springs.

one thing i always do is lower the action so my strings are touching the neck, then i tune the guitar to open strings. then i raise the strings so they are just off the neck and check EVERY fret for buzzes, then i tune the guitar again using harmonics.

yeah, but a lot of times floyds lose their intonation every time you change your strings, so its much better to learn how to do it yourself. im not going to lie, it can be a nightmare if you dont know what your doing, but if you learn how to fix a floating bridge, you can learn to fix a lot of fixed bridges. its all about making a balance between the tension of all the strings. you dont want to put too much tension on the thin strings, but if you dont put enough, the heavier strings wont tune.