Stay in tune

[Magicbisket]

Understandable. Getting a dozen international strangers to give each other money to then sell it and give the money to someone else must be a logistical nightmare.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Warmoth frowns on it.  PayPal has deactivated accounts over it.

 

[Magicbisket]

Damn, didn't know that. Well I'm glad ya told me before I or anybody else got in some deep gówno.

 

[-CB-]

Locking tuners... ahem.

If folks would learn how to string up correctly... locking tuners would never be needed.

With practice, you can string up with 1-1/2 wraps on the post, or a little less on wound strings.  If you do it right, they will not slip. 

may I humbly suggest, again, that folks go over to www.frets.com and have a look see at the correct way to string things up!

A potential problem when stringing, are wraps on the post of the tuner, which will give you some grief as the wraps stretch and contract as you tune.

Which brings me to..... when tuning, we learn to "tune up".  Thats easy.  But what is not usually taught, is to radically tune down before tuning up.  In that manner, you've stretched any wrap on the post.  If you overshoot, go way down, then up again until you have it right.  Going down "just enough to hear that the string is flat" will often result in problems.

 

[stubhead]

I can submit two factoids:

The guitar of mine that stays in tune the best has a quarter-sawn boatneck and Warmoth's double truss rod. Locking Schallers, top mount Schaller 475 bridge. I have heard responsible people say the  flat-sawn neck and a single-rod neck will give you a "springier" sound, as does a floating trem. It does make a certain kind of sense. And totally contradicting that, Neal Schon says he uses a Floyd because his strings stay in tune for a whole show.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Floyds should stay in tune better, but not because they are magic.  Rather, once both ends are locked and new strings are broken in, it can only stretch between the nut and bridge instead of the tuner and where the ball end is anchored.  The only problem is you're left with the Floyd.

 

[sduck]

You're going to have to eliminate any neck and body material that will expand or contract with temperature and/or humidity changes. That rules out most materials. Wood - forget about it. Aluminum would be better, but even it changes quite a bit with temperature changes. Probably your best bet would be some sort of stone material - I've heard of people making basses with granite necks - ??? Tuners, bridges - even the best of these aren't going to fix the expansion/contraction of the wood used in most guitars.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

The differences you speak of usually don't make themselves known in an afternoon of playing or gig at a bar once an instrument is acclimated and conditions don't change.  Traveling with your stuff in a hot car or trailer then taking it into an air conditioned environment or vice versa, yes.

A sound man friend tells acoustic players one hour before their set to get the thing out of the case and put it on a stand so they aren't retuning for the first 3 songs.

 

[JonatanOTG]

Again, thanks for the input! 

A sound man friend tells acoustic players one hour before their set to get the thing out of the case and put it on a stand so they aren't retuning for the first 3 songs.

I've heard of that as well, sounds reasonable to me.