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Every time I take my guitar out of its case...


hugbot

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This happens often for my electric guitars too... sometimes after they sit on a stand. This might suggest a flex in the neck but I can't imagine it leading to damage. Or it has to do with the strings settling in the nut and going sharp.

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Temperature change, it's to be expected. I tune up before I play regardless, it's part of playing guitar. Don't get me started on guys who don't. Okay, you have started me...

 

I have a mate, I love him to death but he thinks its cool when his guitar is flat or sharp compared to others we are playing with. As soon as he goes to the toilet, I tune his guitar and he comes back and remarks how well his guitar sounds...?

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I think the wood expands or contracts, resulting in tuning changes.

 

This is the correct answer. It's simple physics. The wood on your guitar has more mass and only contracts a small amount while the strings contract more. That means the guitar SHOULD be sharp. If it isn't you may have tuners slipping, sloppy string winding or something else physically wrong with the guitar. When you find a guitar that's sharp, but still in tune with itself when pulled out of the case, keep that mutha!

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Well, the first thing you have to do is find and capture the tuning gremlins that are probably living in your case, or perhaps even in your guitar. They like to hide in the cracks and crevices... inside folded paper, guitar string packs, etc. They are pretty hard to see with the naked eye. Your best bet is to trap them. You do this by putting sticky double-sided tape on your tuning buttons. Leave it overnight, and the next morning put on a pair of leather gloves and tightly squeeze each tuning button... hopefully you will kill them. Do this a couple times and that should take care of your tuning problem. You can also spray your guitar down with bug killer (that's what tuning gremlins really are... just little annoying bugs). If you do this, you should test it first in an area like under the pickguard to make sure it won't harm your finish. Poly is usually OK,... I don't recommend using it on nitro.

 

...or you can do what everyone else is suggesting... just tune your guitar each time. Your choice.

 

Good luck!

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This is the correct answer. It's simple physics. The wood on your guitar has more mass and only contracts a small amount while the strings contract more. That means the guitar SHOULD be sharp. If it isn't you may have tuners slipping, sloppy string winding or something else physically wrong with the guitar. When you find a guitar that's sharp, but still in tune with itself when pulled out of the case, keep that mutha!

 

 

THANK YOU.

 

That's the first simple, cogent explanation of this phenom that I've seen.

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I never believed those people who say that their guitar always stay in tune. Metal expands and contracts depending on the temperature, that's how thermostats used to work.

 

 

Some of us have FR/Edge equipped guitars. Or Steinbergers. Those stay in tune for a very long time.

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Well, the first thing you have to do is find and capture the tuning gremlins that are probably living in your case, or perhaps even in your guitar. They like to hide in the cracks and crevices... inside folded paper, guitar string packs, etc. They are pretty hard to see with the naked eye. Your best bet is to trap them. You do this by putting sticky double-sided tape on your tuning buttons. Leave it overnight, and the next morning put on a pair of leather gloves and tightly squeeze each tuning button... hopefully you will kill them. Do this a couple times and that should take care of your tuning problem. You can also spray your guitar down with bug killer (that's what tuning gremlins really are... just little annoying bugs). If you do this, you should test it first in an area like under the pickguard to make sure it won't harm your finish. Poly is usually OK,... I don't recommend using it on nitro.


...or you can do what everyone else is suggesting... just tune your guitar each time. Your choice.


Good luck!

 

 

:facepalm::lol:... damnit, i wish i knew how to sig stuff... too damn funny...

 

to the OP... all 11 of mine do this... nothing to worry about...

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I still don't understand the physics... but it happens. Flat I get, sharp makes no sense to me. But quite common.

 

This may help. I'm an airplane mech. Take a small airplane like, say, a Cessna 150 with aluminum construction and steel flight control cables. As you go up in altitude the temperatures drop considerably. That means the flight control cables will get tighter right? Wrong. Aluminum expands and contracts more with temp changes than steel. So these cables actually become looser. The airplane has contracted more than the cables meaning less distance between the points contacting the cables.

The wood in a guitar has way more mass than them skinny little strings. So they will contract more than that big guitar. So the exact opposite happens. A guitar warms up by coming in contact with your body. So this process reverses itself as you play.

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