Tuning Problem

[tony-adr]

I just got my first electric guitar; it's a Fender Showmaster FAT HH. The strings keep going out of tune. When they go out of tune they get higher rather than lower. This "de-tuning" happens very quickly; by the time i get all six strings tuned, the first string i tuned is already a little high again. It's like i'm treading water. Also, when i strike a string, it sounds pretty solid then falls noticibly lower after about a second.
More info: it has the fender 2-point tremolo, i think this may have something to do with the problem. The problem didn't really occur until i changed strings for the first time.
Any ideas?

 

[Dogman]

Did you go with lighter guage strings? It sounds like the tremelo springs are a bit too tight. I'm not sure if lighter guage strings could cause this, but it's a thought.

 

[tony-adr]

I went with the strings Fender recommends for this guitar .09's. That may have something to do with it. I'm considering adjusting the trem a bit, i'm just cautious about that at this point.

 

[ggunn]

I just got my first electric guitar; it's a Fender Showmaster FAT HH. The strings keep going out of tune. When they go out of tune they get higher rather than lower. This "de-tuning" happens very quickly; by the time i get all six strings tuned, the first string i tuned is already a little high again. It's like i'm treading water. Also, when i strike a string, it sounds pretty solid then falls noticibly lower after about a second.
More info: it has the fender 2-point tremolo, i think this may have something to do with the problem. The problem didn't really occur until i changed strings for the first time.
Any ideas?

There is a trick to tuning a guitar with a floating bridge. Every time you change the pitch on a string, you change all the others a little. The brute force approach is to start at the low E and go all the way through to the high E, and then start over, making smaller and smaller adjustments each time. You aren't done until you can go from E to E without turning a peg.

Once you get used to it, you can shorten the process a little by "overtuning" each string in anticipation of what tuning the rest of them will do.

There's also the issue of friction in the headstock which may give you tuning probs when you use the tremelo. If you have a plastic or brass nut , change it to bone or graphite, and make sure the slots are cut for the gauge strings you use. Lube your nut and replace metal string trees with graphite or rollers.

A floating bridge guitar requires much more attention to this stuff than does a rigid bridge guitar to stay in tune.

 

[ez_willis]

Stretch the strings.

That's right. Stretch the strings. Grab them and lightly pull on them, tune them again, and go up the neck bending the string up an octave or so. Tune them again.

Your problem probably isn't related to not stretching the strings because they're going up in pitch, but it won't hurt.

 

[Light]

First of all, always tune up to a note.

Assuming you are already doing that, then you have two likely culprits; the trem, and the nut. Given that you the strings are going UP in pitch, I would guess it is a problem with the nut, though I of course can't say for sure without seeing the guitar. My guess is the nut slots are too tight (which is odd if you are using .009's, as they are on the light side for an electric). This is something you probably don't want to deal with yourself, as it is very easy to mess up, but you can frequently get some improvement by rubbing a pencil in the nut slots to lubricate them a bit. The best thing, of course, is to get the nut slots adjusted by a good repair person, which shouldn't be too expensive (about $30-35 in my shop), but if you go that rout I would probably suggest you just go ahead and get a full setup (about $80-90 in my shop) while the guitar is in there. It almost certainly needs it, and a good setup will make your guitar much more fun to play.

Assuming you always tune up to the note, the reason I don't think it is a trem issue (though you are sure to have those too) is that as you tune a string up, you add more counter tension to the trem's springs, which makes the other notes go DOWN in pitch.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[mrface2112]

Every time you change the pitch on a string, you change all the others a little.

yep, sure does. on both my ibanez hollowbody and strat, once i've got it close to "in tune", i then tune starting with the middle strings--the D and G and then move outward from there (A and B, then the E's).

i've found that this helps mitigate the effect of one string affecting the others. YMMV, of course.


cheers,
wade

 

[TelePaul]

yep, sure does. on both my ibanez hollowbody and strat, once i've got it close to "in tune", i then tune starting with the middle strings--the D and G and then move outward from there (A and B, then the E's).

i've found that this helps mitigate the effect of one string affecting the others. YMMV, of course.


cheers,
wade

Yup I do this too, a trick I saw Eric Johnson do. His rational was that when you tune a piano, you don't start with the lowest key and work up.