A question re: tuning....

[Mikegarveyblues]

do older guitars intonate and /or tune better that new ones?

NO!

Infact, an older guitar is liable to have issues such as a worn nut or saddles or frets if it isn't maintained. That'd lead to intonation issues.

Keep your old / new guitar well maintained and setup with fresh strings you won't have any real issues.

[captdg]

Thanks..

So much for the urban legend that a 20 plus year guitar sounds better than a new one. I am learning a lot here.

[Herr Squid]

I have read about this before, partly because I was intonating a guitar (a PRS) and it was driving me crazy. I could get it to intonate on all strings and on most frets, but the D major chord (the basic one, played with open D string, G string fretted at 2nd fret, B string at 3rd fret and E string at 2nd) still gave me trouble.

This tuning method: My favourite method can help a lot with sour D chords and other problems. I use a variation of it when I don't have a good tuner handy. It does a good job of getting all the standard chords more or less in tune. That web page also talks about why the "fancy" 5th- and 7th-harmonic tuning method doesn't really work.

[Boogie]

If you play hard enough to make the guitar sound out of tune, you might consider heavier gauge strings.

A sure sign you're doing something right. Beat 'em like they owe you money.

[garrett]

I prefer having the open G and B a tad flat since they intonate sharp in the lower frets. I noticed this when recording because it became painfully obvious that the chords were out of tune and that drives me up a wall.

[Harker1440]

I tune to what my tuner tells me to

[Serious Poo]

I set intonation with a somewhat heavy touch, tune to concert pitch for the top 5 strings and tune the low E string just slightly flat. I use 9-46's on my humbucker guitars and 10-46's on my soapbar guitars.

[Albrecht Smuten]

Beat 'em like they owe you money.

Haha