Guitar goes out of tune too easily.

chris01

I have an Epi Les Paul and almost everytime i bend a string in a song, by the end of it that string has gone out of tune. Its mostly in the G & B strings.

I cant get it set up professionally (live in a small place) so does anyone have a quick fix to this or can point me in the direction of a site that might help out?

Yielded

Epiphones aren't exactly known for their tuning stability. Short of just changing the tuners, you could try rubbing graphite into the nut slots when changing the strings and see if that makes things better - although I doubt you'll see a very significant improvement.

All Those Yesterdays

Well the G string is common for going out of tune for some reason. The questions to ask are, what gauge strings are you useing, and do you stretch your strings out when you put new ones on?

chris01

Im using guage 10 at the moment.

...and i try to stretch the strings out before i put them on but its pretty tough to do on the ones which aint wound, lol.

Drew263

chris01 wrote:

Im using guage 10 at the moment.

...and i try to stretch the strings out before i put them on but its pretty tough to do on the ones which aint wound, lol.

My 1st guitar is an Epi LP and I suffered through the same problems but now it stays in tune almost as good as my Gibson LP.

Here's what I do with it, I tune, then stretch, then re-tune. After about 10 minutes of playing, I'll tune again. After that, I can go on and on without it going out of tune. Try that and see if it helps.

The G-string goes out of tune easily on a LP b/c it has the longest distance to travel of the thin strings.

chris01

Drew263 wrote:

My 1st guitar is an Epi LP and I suffered through the same problems but now it stays in tune almost as good as my Gibson LP.

Here's what I do with it, I tune, then stretch, then re-tune. After about 10 minutes of playing, I'll tune again. After that, I can go on and on without it going out of tune. Try that and see if it helps.

The G-string goes out of tune easily on a LP b/c it has the longest distance to travel of the thin strings.

Thanks, ill give that a go too.

Pearl Jam and toast

Drew263 wrote:

My 1st guitar is an Epi LP and I suffered through the same problems but now it stays in tune almost as good as my Gibson LP.

Here's what I do with it, I tune, then stretch, then re-tune. After about 10 minutes of playing, I'll tune again. After that, I can go on and on without it going out of tune. Try that and see if it helps.

The G-string goes out of tune easily on a LP b/c it has the longest distance to travel of the thin strings.

I have an Epi LP with the same problems, do what this guy does, and he's right, it stays in tune fairly well after that.

xtremehardy388

My SG is doing that. Get the intonnation set on it.

MLC2006

xtremehardy388 wrote:

My SG is doing that. Get the intonnation set on it.

yep, if the intonation is set right, it is less likely to go out of tune. and the other suggestions help too. there should be somewhere on the tuner to tighten the screws down which would make the tuner harder to turn (therefore making it less likely to slip out of tune). the G string is the one that bent the most by most guitarists, so it's naturally going to be the first to go out of tune.

Pauk

I find it helps if the string is wound round the tuning thingy a couple of times. May sound like an obvious thing to say, but quite a few of my friends string their guitars in a way that means the string is only wound round maybe half a turn. Having a couple of turns in just helps string stability, less snappage and slightly better at keeping tune.

xtremehardy388

fowls wrote:

I find it helps if the string is wound round the tuning thingy a couple of times. May sound like an obvious thing to say, but quite a few of my friends string their guitars in a way that means the string is only wound round maybe half a turn. Having a couple of turns in just helps string stability, less snappage and slightly better at keeping tune.

+1...my friends always made sure that when I began stringing, I always wound round the string a few times.

SteveMurray

i was about to sell my epi LP because the G string kept going out of tune, i had tried all those little tricks and none of them worked in my case.

As a last ditched effort before selling it, i replaced the tuners with some grovers and its now good as gold, stays in tune no matter how big the string bend is.

lucylespian

Also, check the nut, make sure the string is not binding there when you bend. If the slot is too small it will do that. After tuners, teh nut is where most of theese problems occur.

mca47

fowls wrote:

I find it helps if the string is wound round the tuning thingy a couple of times. May sound like an obvious thing to say, but quite a few of my friends string their guitars in a way that means the string is only wound round maybe half a turn. Having a couple of turns in just helps string stability, less snappage and slightly better at keeping tune.

+2

I've found even on my acoustic that you need to go around a couple times or it will get out of tune pretty quick.

When I put my strings on I tune, play and bend the hell out of them then tune again.
Usually does the trick.

Drew263

Voiceless wrote:

i was about to sell my epi LP because the G string kept going out of tune, i had tried all those little tricks and none of them worked in my case.

As a last ditched effort before selling it, i replaced the tuners with some grovers and its now good as gold, stays in tune no matter how big the string bend is.

Mine came with Grovers, what did yours have before?

chris01

Drew263 wrote:

Mine came with Grovers, what did yours have before?

Pretty sure its grovers on mine too, ill double check.

Tbh i think its the string stretching thing i need to do more of, just needed some advice on how to do it the right way.

Drew263

chris01 wrote:

Pretty sure its grovers on mine too, ill double check.

Tbh i think its the string stretching thing i need to do more of, just needed some advice on how to do it the right way.

I noticed last night how I hadn't stretched the strings in awhile. It's now just always in tune. As much as my Gibson.

I took my Epi to my lesson the other day..considering it was hot outside, car ride, etc etc..I didn't need to tune during the lesson at all. First time in over a year that's happened.

I think my epi is just behaving b/c it knows the Gibson is now in the house as well.

SteveMurray

Mine came with grovers, but i believe they are made in china grovers, not USA made ones.

Don't quote me on that, but they are definitely different in quality. The stock ones were sloppy as when i took them off, the USA ones were really tight and high quality.