Two years ago my sweet wife granted me my birthday wish: a brand new Ep. Les Paul, blue! (My favorite color.) So.. she's been wondering why I don't play it. Here's why - it sounds horrible.
Every string, once tuned perfectly in the open position, is *way* sharp on the first fret. The second fret is almost as bad. The third, almost as bad as #2, and so on down the neck until perfection is reached at #12. I have perfect intonation at the 12th fret, and the action is fine. I am *not* pushing too hard - this happens with the guitar flat in its case and pressing gently from above. (I bought a good gizmo for accurate tuning - just listening to this guitar was making me dizzy.)
What in the heck is wrong?! I took this back to the store twice and they say it's fine. I've taken it to other guitar shops and they say the same thing. I even had a professional guitar player try it (after his show at 2 am) and he says it's fine. But he was playing lead way up the neck. I play a lot of first position cords and I sound ridiculous.
My guess is that the nut is about 1/16" too far away from the bridge.
Is this just the way these guitars are? I have a Yamaha acoustic and it doesn't do this.
Frustrated!
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