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Squire tuning issues...is it the tuners?


steve_man

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Could you post a close up of the back of the tuners so that we can see what it's got?

Are your nut and bridge properly set up and lubricated? Is the neck firmly attached to the body? Do you play real hard? Any sudden temperature changes between home and rehearsal room?

 

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It is rarely the tuners. Either the nut is binding and you don't notice it, or the neck is not securely attached. Lube the nut by running a pencil through the slots, or putting some ChapStik in them. If that helps, it's the nut. It also may not be correctly cut.

 

Also lube under the string trees. Make sure the bridge has enough of a break angle.

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Those are vintage style sting trees - swapping them for roller trees can help. Also worth making sure the string ball ends are seated properly in the trem block.

 

You could try tightening up the tuners by adjusting the screw that holds the finger pad onto the tuner shaft - that will make them harder to turn (both ways) and reduce any chances of slipping. TBH though I've never known the cheapest tuner to slip but I have known plenty of nuts bind, even on 'good' guitars, and in most cases, that's the source of the problem.

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Ancient Mariner wrote:

 

You could try tightening up the tuners by adjusting the screw that holds the finger pad onto the tuner shaft - that will make them harder to turn (both ways) and reduce any chances of slipping.

 


 

They only way for a tuner to "slip" is for it to skip teeth on the gearing. The loosness or tightness of the pivot screw probably isn't going to affect that.

I once bought a set of mini tuners to spruce up the functionality of a mini guitar. They cost like six bucks. They hold tune perfectly today, over a decade later. Tuners function like an adjustable wrench, so outside of gear slop, they can't slip until they're basically broken, which one would tend to notice.

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ermghoti II wrote:

 

 

It's never the tuners.

 

+1

Almost never, anyway, for a guitar built after 1975.  And guitars older than that have to be really cheap to have tuner slippage.

I'm sure tuner companies love the idea that a guitar that doesn't stay in tune needs new tuners.  But it's usually the nut.  And if not, it's the bridge or string tee or some other place between the tuner and the other end of the string.  I've fixed guitars where the tuner was fine but it wasn't firmly mounted to the headstock.

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Ancient Mariner wrote:

 

Those are vintage style sting trees - swapping them for roller trees can help. Also worth making sure the string ball ends are seated properly in the trem block.

 

 

 

You could try tightening up the tuners by adjusting the screw that holds the finger pad onto the tuner shaft - that will make them harder to turn (both ways) and reduce any chances of slipping. TBH though I've never known the cheapest tuner to slip but I have known plenty of nuts bind, even on 'good' guitars, and in most cases, that's the source of the problem.

 

The more I look at it, the more I do think it's probably the nut.  Took it in to my guitar tech, and he is going to take a look at it and replace the nut.  Not something I wanted to tackle...hope to have it back by Friday.

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Yeah, it's usually the nut.  I'd suggest a bone nut (it's traditional for damn good reason) or a tusq nut if you regularly go nuts with the whammy.  I had the same problem with my Les Paul; it went away as soon as I had a bone nut installed.

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Alecto wrote:

 

 

Yeah, it's usually the nut.  I'd suggest a bone nut (it's traditional for damn good reason) or a tusq nut if you regularly go nuts with the whammy.  I had the same problem with my Les Paul; it went away as soon as I had a bone nut installed.

 

 

Probably going to go with a bone nut.  That's what the guy at the shop recommended.  Will call and check on it's progress in the morning...  Hoping it was that simple.

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