Members Peter M Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 I bought a used Epiphone for my girlfriends boy for a gift and It was working just fine when I bought it,actually really great! I wanted to polish it before I gave it to him. There was some grub under the E,B,G strings between the pickups so I took the 3 strings off to get where I needed to comfortably. After re-stringing it the E&B strings now touch the first 3 frets on the board muting them. As far as I can tell I didn't bump anything, re-adjust anything or force anything. what could I have done and how do I fix it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Peter M Posted March 14, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 I apologize, I think this is in the wrong thread...I tried to delete it and re-post in the correct location but can not find the delete button Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mike42 Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Seems like a reasonable post to me for DIY. But dang, that's a strange issue. Barring some really strange event, such as someone having some kind of shim(s) at the nut that were supporting the strings, or some strange neck distortion occurring, that's a head scratcher. Are you using a tuner or something to insure that guitar is pretty well tuned to "standard" pitch? If it's way below standard pitch the strings may buzz badly, and the neck may not be pulled, or bowed by the string tension like it normally would. You don't say whether you're a "guitar" person or not, but I'm guessing you don't have a lot of guitar experience. Most new guitars, and unfortunately a lot of used ones, need to be adjusted or "setup" before they play well and that may be the case here. But, that still doesn't explain the sudden change when you took the strings off. Some other people will have some ideas about this. You'll probably get some more replies in the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Peter M Posted March 14, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Thanx mike. I am a "guitar guy" but my field is acoustic. To answer a couple of your questions... It is a used guitar but I gave it a good once over before I bought it by checking the harmonics 5th to 7th and then from 12th to 7th to be sure of intonation and it was dead on. Played E# G# then D# and there was no variation from note to note. I did also do the fret check as I have had this problem before by playing each string on each fret going up the neck, no buzzing or muting. I tuned it originally before cleaning it and I use a KORG chromatic tuner and like I always do, I used one of my other guitars to make sure I was in key. This problem didn't arise until I took the E,B&G string off for cleaning. Also, I never removed the nut because the D,A,E strings were still attached and never removed so I think we can eliminate any shims as a possibility. Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated and I thank in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SoldierStape01 Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Just a thought, and I mean absolutely no insult by it, but are you 100% sure you have the strings sitting correctly in the saddle? That is about the only thing other than drastically spinning the adjustment threads of the bridge would lower your strings that much. Although it is 0400 and I am quiet sleepy so... I might read this tomorrow and shake my head... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Peter M Posted March 14, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Ok I just had a break through!I was taking photos of the neck and bridge & My camera kept focusing on the floor so I rested the top of the neck on the amp to keep it from focusing on the floor. WELL for no good reason I strummed the high E on the fret board 1st fret,2nd fret 3rd fret and the strings were no longer muted!I lift the guitar off the amp, there muted again. all I have to do is place my thumb against the back of the head or key stock(un sure of the name) place the slightest bit of pressure and it rings true??? wtf. I just double checked with my tuner and its tuned properly so the correct amount of tension is being aplied to the neck BUT at the same time, not enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stratotak Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Have you tried loosing the truss road just a bit? Its wood..Sometimes {censored} just happens because of weather. Like my bedroom door. Couple days ago it started to stick because of weather change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Sounds like you didn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Duplicate post delete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tomm Williams Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 WRGKMC gave you some good advice, but if your guitar is so sensitive to how the strings are wound on the tuners, you have other issues. As mentioned by WRGKMC and others, check the relief of the neck. A little back-bow could fix everything. TW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mike42 Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Sounds like you'll get this sorted out. Only thing I could add now, is that the shims I was referring to originally was to the possibility somebody had used pencil leads or such in individual slots to jack the strings on a badly cut nut. If so, they probably dropped out when the strings were removed. From your last post, I too would guess backing off the truss rod nut a tad may fix the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tomm Williams Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Yeah, I've seen that and the use of a very small piece of a high "E" string used as a shim. Actually worked pretty good until it came time to change strings. TW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Def try new strings first. It may need a bit more relief. I'm really anal about my strings and probably change them more often than I need to. But strings average about 5 bucks a set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Peter M Posted March 14, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 WRGKMC. I dont know if your comment was directed at me(duplicate post delete) but just in case, I did mention on my 2nd post it was re threaded.To everyone else Including WRGKMC. I thank you all for your help.I changed the strings, did not help so I dug into the guitar and loosened the truss rod and it worked PERFECTLY!My thanx and from the boy also, have a great day and keep on rocking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mike42 Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 ?? I think he was just saying he had deleted a duplicate of his own post. And I've been meaning to ask, what's up with that? Seems like for the last few weeks I periodically have to shut down HC completely to get the post function from doing what ever it's doing. Seems to just get locked in an infinite loop. Anybody else having that happen? Kind of a pisser if you got a long post typed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted March 15, 2010 Members Share Posted March 15, 2010 WRGKMC. I dont know if your comment was directed at me(duplicate post delete) but just in case, I did mention on my 2nd post it was re threaded.To everyone else Including WRGKMC. I thank you all for your help.I changed the strings, did not help so I dug into the guitar and loosened the truss rod and it worked PERFECTLY!My thanx and from the boy also, have a great day and keep on rocking! HC freezes up every once an awhile when you submit a post. You hit the button a second time and no results. Then you get the schedualed maintainence message. You dont know if it posted or not. In this case it posted twice so I deleted the second one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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