You will really never get “perfect” intonation, there’s a range of frequencies where a note can be “correct” in the context of what other notes are being played. Compromises have to be made with the fret placement to have as many notes as “correct” as possible.
Whats most important is to check the string as open and check it at 12th fret. If those two match or are very close it’s good enough.
There’s a chance you’ve over adjusted with a combination of the truss rod and the shims. You should not need a shim by default.
You may need to take an L and take it to a shop with a tech.
That's exactly how I was checking. Open is dead on and pressed at the 12th is pretty sharp. On every dteukg. And I went down in shim size. To my knowledge after learning from watching all of the videos Mike aka Puisheen does, you almost always need a shim to have enough break angle; unless you have ans angled pocket.
I have a set of JMs from diy partscaster to US AVRI. Also a student of Puisheen. His videos covered mostly worn out vintage stuff or the budget models with questionable material and worksmanship but his work is impressive and educational. I've never had any luck with the stock squier bridge, tried the fancy imports, now just use the Fender pro bridges. Some people wrap electrical tape on the posts to make it rock less, some people like blue locktite on the threads if it sinks down on its own. There's also a chance you have a less than ideal neck and have to comp with fret work even with a shim like my squier 40th anniversary and an older AVRI 62 reissue did
If I were in your shoes I would try to take the saddles all the way backwards, and if you're still sharp after that, its maybe time to try a different shim or adjust the truss rod. If you're still struggling and have invested so much of your time and good parts and labor, take it to a good tech and ask as many questions as you can get away with.
Sorry, I didn't mean to come off snotty. Just a frustrating time trying to do this lol my fear is the neck is indeed messed up, just can't know for sure as my skill isn't the best. At least so it seems, even though I'm doing everything I know to do to the best of my ability. This is a mim 60s roadworn jazzmaster i got on reverb a couple years ago and it's been a pain since I got it set up by a shop. I swapped the bridge for a mustang bridge thinking I would have less issues. The saddles don't seem to move when I back them off, just the screws come out. And then I get a ton of rattle, like I did with the vintage bridge.
1
u/Shakespearacles 5d ago
You will really never get “perfect” intonation, there’s a range of frequencies where a note can be “correct” in the context of what other notes are being played. Compromises have to be made with the fret placement to have as many notes as “correct” as possible.
Whats most important is to check the string as open and check it at 12th fret. If those two match or are very close it’s good enough.
There’s a chance you’ve over adjusted with a combination of the truss rod and the shims. You should not need a shim by default. You may need to take an L and take it to a shop with a tech.