The intonation of your guitar is very important, because if your guitar is properly intonated, that means it is in tune.
If the intonation is out, you’re playing out of tune – guaranteed. Even if you just tuned it (to the open strings) and it looked good.
If you want to check the intonation on your guitar, it is actually pretty easy. Simply use a digital guitar tuner to first tune your guitar as you normally would, plucking each of the strings in the open position.
Now, try using your tuner at different points on the fretboard. Try plucking each of the strings at the 5th fret, or the 10th fret, or at the 12th fret where the octave is. Is each note still in tune?
If so, then your guitar’s intonation is correct.
However, if you start seeing some variances then you need to get the intonation fixed.
If you’d like to learn how to correct your guitar’s intonation, it isn’t that hard, and Greg Voros has done an excellent course on guitar setup that covers this.
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Just wanted to comment on the Guitar Set-up. I have read this page over and over for a while and finally it dawned on me what I should be doing. I have actually been doing most of the things you talk about but did not know about the Intonation, Now I am just a bit more confident that I am doing things correctly. I checked all of my guitars and they are in really good shape intonation wise and cleaning wise. I will get some Strap Locks and have been thinking of them for quite a while now. Thanks for all the information. Gene