[Deleted]

Costs are rising and times are tough.
Please consider a donation to keep this
place going.

Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.

We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.

[Deleted]

You are logged in as Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >>Discussions >>Lutherie >>

Page: [1]

Message

<< Newer Topic Older Topic >>

Guest

[Deleted]

[Deleted by Admins]

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 23 2008 7:27:39

Sébastian

Posts: 11
Joined: Feb. 21 2007
From: London, Ontario Canada

RE: Tuning problem (in reply to Guest)

Hey I'm new here. I have had problems like this before on several guitars. Sometimes it is an intonation problem, this is a bit more troublesome to deal with on classic style guitars. Other problems might be fret wear which will make open notes sounds in tune but fretted notes will be off.

More drastic problems will occur from warping of the neck.

Hope that will give you a start to diagnosing the problem.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 23 2008 9:04:42

Guest

[Deleted] (in reply to Guest)

[Deleted by Admins]

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 23 2008 9:57:32

Ricardo

Posts: 14822
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Tuning problem (in reply to Guest)

Is this a sudden problem, the guitar used to be tuned fine? New guitar?
This will be a lengthy but important process:

Step 1: change all the strings. Even if they are brand new, try a new set.
Step 2: Same problem? Try a different brand/different tension. I find higher tension strings are more "on" in terms of intonation, partly because of what you read from me, fingers applying uneven pressure. Try multiple brands if you keep having bad results. If you don't like the harder tension it is OK, at least you know the guitar is not defective...
Step 3: If high tension fixes the problem, but guitar is no fun to play, investigate lowering the action if you can, at the bone saddle only. Don't mess with the nut yet. If you can't, then you can't.
Step 4: If action is high, but you can't go lower, try putting extra humidity in the guitar case. I find in the dry season, or winter, the action comes up a bit. In the hotter humid season, the action comes down. Lots of guitar owners have a winter bone (lower) and summer bone (higher) to help this problem.
Step 5: if action is very low already, and hard tension strings don't fix the problem, then you have a problem with the guitar. Check the straightness of the neck, fret wear, nut defects, etc....might be fixable but still very bad news....
Step 6: if high action is the problem, can't be lowered, humidity did not help at all? You might still be able to fix the guitar/intonation if you have enough break angle into the tie block. The Bridge saddle can be filed down a little to allow the bone saddle to be lowered too, so long as you still have a bit of break over the bone into the tie block. I have seen this job performed beautifully in the past with good results for action/tuning.

OK from there I guess it gets more complex. I can't underestimate how important it is to have patience trying out different string brand and tensions. Daddario, labella, luthier, savarez, try as many as you are willing...

Good luck

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 23 2008 10:30:07

Guest

[Deleted] (in reply to Guest)

[Deleted by Admins]

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 23 2008 10:48:52

Gummy

Posts: 495
Joined: Nov. 27 2005
From: North Carolina, USA

RE: Tuning problem (in reply to Guest)

I had a guitar once that had similar problems tuning. On mine, the nut was actually pinching and grabbing the strings where the strings line up with grooves. You might check that your strings slide easily through the nut(if there are grooves on your nut).
Rod

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 23 2008 13:51:41

HemeolaMan

Posts: 1514
Joined: Jul. 13 2007
From: Chicago

RE: Tuning problem (in reply to Guest)

shroomazord

i have solutions for thee!

i know the guitar is well made, of that we can be sure. but, i think your nut may just not have proper lubrication. grab a pencil and give the slots a good old rub down, and get messy, judicious application is key.

afterwards, when you've strung it up, clean up with the eraser =)

i doubt that the nut is too high, but i have a handy trick for that. take a straight sdge i use a pencil which i have cut in half lengthwise) and rest it on top of the frets, then using the pencil resting on the frets, mark the nut . the lowest part of the string groove should be just at that line. thats how you tell good nut height.

also, buy a new tuner. or replace the batteries. korg makes good ones, and sabine has a tuner metronome that i use, the metrotune or something like that.

keep in mind that the saddle is not slanted to compensate the notes as you go up the scale, most classical guitars are, and you'll notice adjustable saddles on electrics. flamenco guitars usually dont have compensated bridges, so a certain out of tune ness is inherent no matter what you do.

_____________________________

[signature][/signature]

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 23 2008 16:01:13