Diagnose my intonation issues...please?

[narpin99]

I have a lovely avalon guitar that i am in love with the sound of. It's only a silver as200, but I think it is a great instrument all the same.

As i have progressed in my playing over the years i have become really picky about slight intonation issues.

This guitar,lovely as it sounds, has some of those issues.

I play a lot in alternate tunings especially drop D. I find that i have to tune the low d (or E) string slightly lower than concert pitch for all the other chords up the kneck to sound in tune. Similarly if i'm playing with a capo I have to retune with the capo on or the lower strings are sharp.

If i strap a capo on the first fret and then tune up accordingly; Every note on the guitar is perfect all the way up the kneck. If i then take the capo off and play the newley tuned guitar it is way off on the open notes.

This leads me to think that the issue lies somewhere around the nut and the first fret? As intonation issues are completley sloved when the nut/first fret is effectivley bypassed with a capo.

Any ideas anyone?

[Jimbo]

You will get a bit of detuning with a capo. Someone on here suggested not doing the capo up so tight may help with that. As for your other problem, it sounds very peculiar. My (rather uneducated) guess is that the nut is a bit sticky. The next time you restring your guitar try putting a little linseed oil or something similar on the strings around the nut area before you tighten then up and see if that helps.