Jayson - Is it me?

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Yo Madmax. Quick question for you. Since rebuilding my Strat I've noticed she holds intonation very well now. Now I did put a new fretboard so the frets are new, and I did convert the tremelo to a hard tail. But the guitar holds intonation so well now. Now it did take me an hour to set it correctly as I think my "ear" has really developed over the last couple of years but its amazing how you can take a mediocre sounding axe and make it hum like gold by a few simple turns at the saddle. Myquestion is this: Is intonation so dramatically altered by small things such as any slight changes in action. I put a new nut on the strat too and I think between all these changes and the lower action I can't tell if its me, my ear, or simply I understand more about the setup of a stringed instrument with this modification to the strat. i will say that I'm not sure if its teh new components or just the humbucker pickup but the sustain on this baby is unreal.

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

Andy,
Yes, intonation can be affected by a variety of things. The first basic rule is that your Low "E", and "B" strings need to be slightly shorter than the other 4. Other factors can affect it too. Action that is too high will affect intonation in it's own way because when you push the strings down on "too high" action, you stretch the sting down to the fret board, which get's it out of tune w/ open strings...frets make a difference here as well, frets that are worn, uneven or too low will have the same effect. The nut will come into play if your slots are uneven distances from the fretboard an/or the slots are filed too small for the strings causing them to bind when tuning/detuning and then "breaking free".

A sure fire way to test intonation is comparing the 12th fret harmonic w/ the open string.

Here are some good websites talking about "setups" - even though they are mostly geared towards Acoustic Guitars, the fundamentals carry over:

http://www.bryankimsey.com/music/lutherie.htm
http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/pagelist.html

And here is a specific reference to intonation:
http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/General/faq.html#Steelstringintonation

Hope some of this helps explain what you've experienced w/ a properly setup guitar!