Conference napalm::guitar

Very bad intonation on a guitar that is not worth having a professional fix is
a big problem.  Have you thought about the For Sale note?

Jim

Sounds like your neck suffered greatly in the time lapse between
playing...

Also, your probably right about cost/vs-repair, but a good/decent luthier
could give you a better assesment of wether or not it's worth a fix.

In any event, there isn't a heck of a lot one can do on
intonating an acoustic, other then to first see if there's
anything you can do with the neck, and then see if that fix alone helps 
the intonation.  Also, since you've shaved off some of the saddle, 
you may have to put some small peices of wood under the saddle to compensate
once and if you get the neck looked at.

Good luck,,,.

    WHAT KIND OF GUITAR IS IT?
    
    You might need a fret job or a grind and polish.
    The neck could be bowed.  The top could have caved in or warped.
    A great deal could have happened.  However a guitar should only
    given a value judgement by its owner.  What was purchased for 100
    dollars X amount of years ago could contain sentiment.  If you
    feel it is worth something to you, have it fixed......but depending
    on the repari(s) it may be costly.
    
    good luck.
    
    rb

    There are two things that can be done to improve the intonation
    of a guitar with a fixed-bridge like an acoustic. 
    
    First of all acoustic bridge saddles are usually filed to provide
    a shorter distance for the treble strings and longer length for the
    bass strings. The top half of the bridge saddle is filed with the
    leading edge facing the end-pin like this...\ 
    
    The bass side of the saddle is filed with the leading edge facing
    the neck like.../  The differance in strings length is equal to the
    thickness of the saddle (usually about 3/16"). 
    
    The saddle can also be peaked ^ to set the string length in-between.
    The resulting saddle could look like this (now try to imagine this
    in 3-D)
    
    		      	\
    			\
    			^
    			^
    			/
    			/
    
    
    Another thing you can do to change intonation is to experiment with
    differant gauge strings. Changing from heavy gauge strings to light
    strings usually requires you to adjust string lengths to compensate
    for the differance in gauge.
    
    When all else fails, I usually seek out chord positions that work
    with one tuning, and avoid chord voicings that are out-of-tune. 
    The safest bet is tune to a bar chord and play mostly bar-chords.
    
    
    Mark (Who made due with a cheap korean-made acoustic for more years
    than I care to remember).
    
    
    
    The easiest way is to experiment with string gauges.
    

    I have an Hohner acoustic/electric bass with a thinline pickup under
    the saddle.  I have always had problems with the intonation of the 
    D string.  In particular the string needs to be longer (12th fret is
    sharp).  I have made a new saddle, etc.  It presently has extra light
    strings on it (I think that's the right direction...) and the action is
    very low.
    
    I once saw an adjustable bridge on an acoustic guitar.  Does anyone 
    know if a similar such thing exists for a bass.  I'd like to avoid
    making a new saddle slot or moving the bridge (ie the block of wood
    which has the saddle slot in it).  Also, if something like that exists,
    will it work with my pickup ?
    
    				Jon Sherred

    Jon,
    
    If the strings need to be *longer* to intonate, using heavier gauge
    strings and higher action would seem to be more appropriate.  
    
    						Brian