Downtuning problems

[TheDan]

Maybe someone here knows the problem and can offer some help: I keep having trouble with downtuning my Chaps and TLE. I tune down one full step and the intonation is just way off, especially on the first 3 frets. Of course I adjust the springs, the fine tuners on the Floyd rose, the neck tension, I even removed the saddle shims, the whole bit. If I check the intonation on the 12th fret it's perfect. However, as soon as I fret a chord it's obviously out of tune.

Since this only happens with my Floyd Rose guitars and not with Gibsons and my Vector, I'm guessing it's got something to do with the Floyd and/or the saddle. Can anybody offer some advice, it's much appreciated!

Cheers,

Dan

[MCChris]

Are your Floyd-ed guitars Fender scale? Maybe it's a scale length thing.

That said, you should probably go up a string gauge for every whole step you're tuning down. I'd imagine the more slack the strings are, the less they'll hold intonation.

[Jeff R]

Long shot, but do your shredders have huge frets compared to the guitars without the tuning issues?

I know when I've played de-tuned strings on guitars with massive frets and played in the lower register of the neck (aka, more physical distance between the frets), I've had to ease the aggressiveness of my left hand because the normal downforce of my fingers against the board would push the slackened strings slightly sharper in pitch. Similar to the problems players see when they pick up a scalloped fretboard for the first time. Try relaxing your left hand a little more and see what happens.

[velorush]

What MCChris said and Jeff R said, and you may want to compensate with your intonation adjustments - that really doesn't explain what I mean so: given that intonating a guitar is a compromise at best, you may want to explore moving the bridge pieces where its 'as in tune you can get' in the more used areas of the neck (still not a very good explanation).

I've had guitars where, if they were intonated perfectly at the 12th fret they were poorly intonated in the first few frets. Moving the bridge piece to where the first few frets were 'more' in tune moved the 12th fret a bit out of tune, but overall the guitar sounded better. Since the majority of my chord playing was typically lower than the 12th fret, it was a reasonable compromise.

I hope that made sense, because it did work for me...

[TheDan]

Thanks for the advice guys, some good points there! It's true that with a heavy string gauge and the low tuning I tend to push down more aggressively, especially on the first couple frets. I'll try to ease up my left hand and move the intonation a bit that should make a difference. Thanks again!

[carfish7]

This dude tells you all about it:

http://www.guitarplayer.com/guitar-player-101/1025/get-smart-dropped-tuning-dos-and-donts/47927