I hope this is the proper forum for this post...
Got a brand new electric and brought it home. Spent a half day tuning and retuning the new strings, nothing odd, and definitely a standard tuning. Over the next week and a half the tuning seemed stable. Never once did I have to adjust a single string. Wow, great tuners I thought. Until I played against a backing track...I was WAY out of tune. So I played an E7 at the 5th position, sort of my default chord for 'which string/s is off'. Everything was cool.
But when I tried tuning against my computer tuner I discovered the problem. The guitar had 'detuned' a half step across the board! The intervals from string to string had remained the same but I now had an Eb tuning.
I thought this was the weirdest thing. In my experience, it's always been individual strings that drift. Never the whole guitar in lock step. Is this a common thing? Strange? Good? Bad?
Since the retune (maybe 2 weeks), it's remained rock solid in E tune. I like to think the guitar was itching to play all that Eb Hendrix tuning, so I promised it I'd spend more time on 'Little Wing':...javascript:emoticon(':D')
Don
New strings need to be stretched-in. When you put them on they will start to strech-out due to the tension on it. This, in a simply way, will mean the string gets longer and the tuning drops. If you bend a lot you will find the top strings (which are bended most) will be detuned faster, but if you mostly play chords the detuning is somewhat consistent. by now the strings should have strechted out about as far as they can and should remain in tune a lot better. This effect (my experience, no idea if it makes scientific sense) is worse with steel strings, gauge matters as well. If you play with thin strings this could explain it. To prevent it in the future stretch the strings manually before you put them on and bend the crap out of all of them for a little while.
Cool, man. Great explanation. I was mainly chording through those initial days. Thanks...
Don
I've got guitars that are very stable in their tuning, and will stay in tune with themselves (sufficiently to play solo and sound good) sometimes for months at a time. But whenever the ambient temperature changes a few degrees, the overall tuning changes significantly.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Yeah, temperature can really throw your tuning off, especially in the winter. When playing gigs, you can't help but transport your guitar in cold temperatures. I will always warm my car up before putting my guitars in, but it always throws the tuning way off. When we get to a club the first thing I always do is take my guitars out of their case and put them on a stand so they can adjust to the warmer temperature. I will tune the guitar up, but even 15 minutes later it will need to be tuned again. It usually takes at least a full hour and 3 to 4 tunings for the guitar to settle and stay in tune.
And playing the guitar can throw the tuning off as well. Your hands and body warm the guitar up. This will cause the wood to expand and throw off your tuning. So often you find you have to tune after the first couple of songs, but then the guitar will stabilize.
And I can't prove this, but I believe electronic tuners are also affected by cold temperatures. Sometimes I think it is the tuner that is off, not the guitar.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
And I can't prove this, but I believe electronic tuners are also affected by cold temperatures. Sometimes I think it is the tuner that is off, not the guitar.
That sounds like something that needs to be researched further. I'll try and find my tuner and drop it in the fridge for a few hours and let you know how it goes.
While you're at the fridge, Arjen, I'll have a tuner and mayo sandwich please.......
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Hehe, sory Vic, nothing but cheap beer and a tuner inside. I'll leave it in during the night and will report back with full details tomorrow.
When we get to a club the first thing I always do is take my guitars out of their case and put them on a stand so they can adjust to the warmer temperature.
I've always heard that's the worst thing you can do for the finish (and possibly structure) of a guitar.
The conventional wisdom is to let your guitar acclimatize to the room in it's case.
Here's a fun experiment. Take a beer out of the fridge and put it on the table. Watch what happens to the outside of the bottle after a few minutes...
If you take a cold thing into a warm(er) area, there will be condensation form on the surface of the cold thing.
I'd rather that condensation form on the outside of my guitar case.
'course, being Canadian, my understanding of the terms "winter" and "cold" might be a bit different than yours. :wink:
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
I believe with Arjen, I belive it may be, may I say, the Elasticity of the strings. Everytime I restring I pull up on the string around the 7th-12th fret, and then retune it until it stays in tune. I do that for each string. I usually have no problem retuning unless I overuse the wammy bar. Give that a try next time and see if you have many problems.
Thanks Dudes!
Keep on Rockin'
Pat
Here's a fun experiment. Take a beer out of the fridge and put it on the table. Watch what happens to the outside of the bottle after a few minutes...
That's impossible! All the Canadians I know(My mom is still a greencard carrying citizen of that great nation) keep their beer in the basement and drink it at room temperature I always have to throw a few in the fridge when I visit, and when I take a beer out of the fridge it becomes empty fairly fast 8)
Chuck Norris invented Kentucky Fried Chicken's famous secret recipe, with eleven herbs and spices. But nobody ever mentions the twelfth ingredient: Fear!
ChuckNorrisFactsdotCom
I've always heard that's the worst thing you can do for the finish (and possibly structure) of a guitar.
The conventional wisdom is to let your guitar acclimatize to the room in it's case.
Here's a fun experiment. Take a beer out of the fridge and put it on the table. Watch what happens to the outside of the bottle after a few minutes...
If you take a cold thing into a warm(er) area, there will be condensation form on the surface of the cold thing.
I'd rather that condensation form on the outside of my guitar case.
Well, it probably doesn't get as cold where I live as it does in Canada, but pretty close. But I've never had condensation form on my guitars when I take them out of the case. I always warm my car up well before I put my guitars in. So, they get cold, but not as cold as outdoors.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
I always warm my car up well before I put my guitars in. So, they get cold, but not as cold as outdoors.
Good point. I've seen guitar cases come out of a truck after 12-18 hours traveling, and they've been pretty frosty on the outside. After letting the cases sit closed and undisturbed for 3 or 4 hours in the room (while un-packing everything else) the guitars seemed to come out un-scathed. Definitely needed re-tuning, but no apparent harm done.
But there was moisture on the outside of the case for a while.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Hey Arjen, I'll take a cheap cold one. :-)
"Nothing...can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
