Help! Intonating low B-string on my new JP12-7

[bryand23]

Hi,

Just got a brand new JP-12 7 string. Beautiful Bali Blue Burst. Played extremely well out of the box, but it had 9 gauge strings.

I'm not very mechanically-savvy, so I brought it into my local guitar tech to have it setup for 10-59 D'Addario XL strings.

Now the intonation is sharp on my low B string- after hours of making adjustments to the trem/bridge/neck/saddles, they told me that this guitar simply wasn't built for anything larger than the 9 gauge strings that it came setup for.

Sounds like nonsense to me...I find it hard to believe that a $3k 7 string guitar can't be setup for 10's.

I've scanned these forums enough to know that a likely response is, "We can't fix your guitar over the internet". I understand this- I just wanted a second opinion on the string gauges.

The other 6 strings are intonated just fine, and it stays in tune fairly well- but the low B is about a quarter step sharp at the 12th fret, even with the saddle pushed all the way back towards the bridge.

Thanks for any input!

 

[rutgart]

Hey Bryand23,

if your in the US, address your concern straight to EBMM Customer Service, If your not in the US go back to where you brought the guitar and/or the Distributor for your country as these guys are the best in the business.

 

[dt89]

My suggestion would be to replace the .059 with a .056. Normally, a 7-string set of strings will have a .056 for the low B, for some reason D'Addario does .059. 56 should be heavy enough unless you're tuning to drop A or lower.

 

[DrKev]

Sounds like nonsense to me...I find it hard to believe that a $3k 7 string guitar can't be setup for 10's.

Get in touch with customer service, it's what they are there for. Petrucci sometimes switches between 9s and 10s, and the production guitars change to match. Currently JP7s are listed as 9-52 from the factory, but that guitar should take 10-56 without any modification. The only thing that might be an issue is the nut slot, which perhaps might need a gentle widening for a large string to avoid the string binding in the nut. That may be the case for your 59 gauge B-string but any guitar tech worth their salt should be able to fix that in a few minutes. Bad intonation could be due to a bum string (which happens sometimes). So first port of call is always to change that string for a new one.

As I said, get in touch with Customer Service. It's their job to help and advise. Let them do it.

BTW, welcome to the forum! We have an unofficial forum rule here - your guitar doesn't exist without pictures!

 

[bryand23]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try calling EB tomorrow.

I've replaced the .59 to see if it was a bum string. Same problem. Saddle is as far back as it goes and still goes sharp.

I'll try a .56.

 

[bryand23]

BTW, welcome to the forum! We have an unofficial forum rule here - your guitar doesn't exist without pictures!

Here you go. I put a .56 on, sounds fine now. Thank you all for your help.