intonation?

[Tom Wright]

As I explained, in my case taking the slots down to almost choking still left fret 2 sharp. Now I can bar ten strings at the first, or other frets, with sweet intonation.

I thought I liked a low nut, but my modified fingerboard, allowing higher nut, has good tone and also excellent intonation.

There is some unconvincing mystique about the non-sounding string behind a fretted note. But it really seemed a tiny bit richer, deeper tone from the higher nut on fretted notes. And a big sound for open strings.

[sgosnell]

If you've found something that works for you, and which you like, play on. I agree that mandolins are more difficult to get good intonation, and the room for error decreases as the scale length decreases. On a bass, intonation is much easier, but on a mandolin the frets have to be crowned absolutely perfectly, and poorly crowned frets can certainly cause intonation issues.

[lammie200]

I don’t think that it is realistic to say that there is one magic bullet for fool proof guitar intonation. Sure nut slot height is one factor because the excessive downward force for fretting strings can produce sharp notes. But if you consider a true temperament neck, nut slot heights aren’t the only factors why the frets squiggle. String lengths come into play. I guess you could argue that a true temperament neck does not exhibit better intonation than an equal temperament neck but I don’t think that is factual. But I agree. What ever works for you is the most important thing after all.

Here is someone that is knowledgeable and admittedly obsessed with intonation.