Light gauge strings

[Danster]

Hey guys,

My guitar (electric) came with 10's when I bought it. Well, I fell in love with SRV's sound, and so I tried some 11's. I heard some of you guys talking about using 9's, so recently, I put some of those on my guitar, to give them a try. The 9's are definitely easier to play on, but the problemo is, the dang things won't stay in tune. I'm not using a whammy bar, and the strings are not cheapo off-brand strings. I've had them on my guitar for about 10 days, and have still been experiencing this problem (although my actual guitar time has been limited during this 10 days). Does it take the neck that long to settle after changing to a lighter string guage, or do you just have to stretch the heck out of the light gauge strings when you first put them on, or what?

Thanks,
Dan

[EricV]

Hi there,

well, usually it takes a guitar 2-3 days to "settle" for the new strings. At least that´s the time I tolerate any tuning probs when I change the gauge of strings.
I recommend to try putting some graphite into the nut slots ( maybe those slots are now too wide for the 009s, after there have been 011s on ).
Take a pencil and a knife, scrape off some of the core / tip ( the actual writing-part of the pencil ), scrape that onto a piece of paper, then pour a pit of it into the nut slot.

Other than that, regarding strethcing. When putting those strings on, I usually stretch them quite a bit ( don´t OVERstretch though )m to get the slack out of the string.
On non-whammy guitars, I do have no tuning problems with new strings whatsover, because of the stretching.

If all this does not work, have a luthier take a look at the nut and the bridge... maybe they are to wide for the 009s, which can be fixed easily.
Hope this helps
Eric

[RM II]

One other thing, well...maybe two, is that there are different theories regarding how to wind strings on the tuning posts. Some books I've seen talk about doing it "this way" and you will have no problems.

Another is that the tuners may be giving "backlash". In other words, they don't stay in the exact position they are required to be in to maintain correct tuning.

[EricV]

I dunno whether this is of interest for anyone here, but regarding tuners: due to using both a Fender Ultra Strat ( don´t own that one anymore ) and a Music Man Steve Morse model, I got introduced to the concept of locking tuners, and I like those very much !
Both do have the Schaller locking-tuners installed. On my standard Strat, I have Gotoh locking tuners.
It works like this: You do not wrap the string around the post at all. You simply put it through the hole in the tuning post, and then ( when using Schallers ) you tighten a screw at the back of the tuner. That way, the string is locked. This is quick, and the strings stay better in tune than with regular Kluson-style tuners. Also, you can change a string very fast.
With the Gotohs, you stick the string through the hole and started turning the tuner. After a while, the string locks and you can tune up the regular way.
I love that, and I recommend it to everyone for their non-lock-trem-guitars, especially for guitars with vintage trems.
Eric

[Bongo Boy]

Are we thinking here that the reason strings get out of tune is because of some movement up at the tuner--such as the string moving relative to the post, or the post turning? I'm just wondering what the prevailing thinking is on the topic of why guitar strings going out of tune.

It's interesting to me because I'm thinking that strings are only under relatively modest tension (less than 10Kg) and so some form of automatica, electronically-controlled stepper motor system seems natural to me. In other words, it seems totally feasible to design a system that auto-tunes strings continuously.

[EricV]

Hi Bongo Boy...

Well, there are several causes for a guitar going out of tune. First of all, when you wrap the string around the tuning post, it has to be wrapped around tightly. If it is not, it will slip out of tune, cuz there is some "slack". This is prevented by locking tuners, cuz you don´t have to wrap the string around the post when using those...
But the main reasons usually are:
-friction at the nut slot or bridge ( which was one of the reasons why the double locking trem was invented, cuz it eleminates these friction-points ). The friction at the nut can be limited by applying graphite ( see above ), at least a bit. I also replaced the regular nut with an LSR roller nut on one of my guitars, which has ball bearings in the slots, which limits the friction too.
- nut slots too tight
- too much of an angle between the nut and the tuners ( so when you bend a string, it will slip out of tune because of friction at the nut )
- On a Floyd Rose vibrato, you can get tuning problems too... when the knife edge or the pivot screws are dented / used up, the vibrato might not return to its original position when you use it, causing the strings to be out of tune.

More information can be found in my "Setting Up & Maintaining..." article...

About your motor-system. This has already been invented. I think it was called the "TransTuning System". It was a huge system, installed into a guitar, and it tuned your strings automatically... not only to standard tuning, but to many other tunings which you could feed into the system.
Jimmy Page ( who uses quite a few different tunings ) uses that system in one of his Les Pauls. It seems to work fine... you press a few buttons to choose the tuning you want, strum the strings once and the system does the rest.
It´s pretty expensive though, and requires A LOT of work on the guitar it´s installed to.

Eric

[Danster]

Hey Eric, thanks for your reply.

Originally posted by EricV
Hi there,

well, usually it takes a guitar 2-3 days to "settle" for the new strings. At least that´s the time I tolerate any tuning probs when I change the gauge of strings.
I recommend to try putting some graphite into the nut slots ( maybe those slots are now too wide for the 009s, after there have been 011s on ).
Take a pencil and a knife, scrape off some of the core / tip ( the actual writing-part of the pencil ), scrape that onto a piece of paper, then pour a pit of it into the nut slot.

Sounds like work :(

Other than that, regarding strethcing. When putting those strings on, I usually stretch them quite a bit ( don´t OVERstretch though )m to get the slack out of the string.
On non-whammy guitars, I do have no tuning problems with new strings whatsover, because of the stretching.[/B]

I suspect this may be the problem. I always stretch strings when I put new ones on. I suspect I just didn't stretch these light strings enough.

If all this does not work, have a luthier take a look at the nut and the bridge... maybe they are to wide for the 009s, which can be fixed easily.
Hope this helps
Eric [/B]

First I gotta decide whether I want to stick with 9's, 10's or 11's. Ya know, I find myself playing more and more songs that use drop-D tuning. I think the heavy strings sound better with those looowww notes, but it may be my imagination. :confused:

[EricV]

Hi there...

Sounds like work

Not really. It can be done in 5-10 minutes. Just take a knife or a razorblade, scrape off some graphite from the tip of any regular pencil, and pour a bit of that into the nutslots. Doesn´t take long.

When you stretch strings... tune up, pull ( takes a while to figure out how much to pull... don´t pull too hard, but pull some to make sure you pull the slack out ), check whether the string is still in tune. If it is not, pull again, tune up etc.

ABout lower tunings. It is not only your imagination... for tuning down, you should use heavier strings.
Because a string has lower tension once it has been tuned down. It loses some of it´s punch, becomes too "warbly". Also, if you hit it hard, it will sound out of tune for a second or so.
So, I recommend to use heavier bass strings if you wanna tune down.
Either use 010s or 011, or a "hybrid set", like the one I mention below...
Some players LIKE using light strings with different tunings, but most prefer to use heavier strings to have enough tension even when using Dropped D ( as an example ).
On one of my Vandenbergs, I recently started using heavier bass strings. Gauges: 009-011-016-026-036-046 ( hybrid set )

That is because for some songs I play with Perpetuum Overdose, I gotta tune down the E-String ( Dropped D-tuning ). And I like the tension, sound and feel of a .046 better when tuning down to D.
On my other Vandenbergs however, I play .009-.042

Eric