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Recommend A Guitar That STAYS IN TUNE!


DammitJanet

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I've decided that the one thing I want out of a new guitar (other than a pleasing tone) is one that stays in tune like a motherf#cker. I want to spend somewhere between $500 and $700 for this beast. A few friends have recommended the Gibson Faded SG Special and the PRS SE Singlecut as good candidates. Any thoughts on these?

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I have no experience with the PRS stuff but I do have a faded SG and if I let it sit for a week after a jam session I can come back to it and it'll still be in tune.

 

I think most modern non-whammy bar guitars should offer what you're looking for. It is mostly a matter of initially winding and stretching your strings correctly in my opinion. If you want some pointers on that I'd be glad to share what I do with you. I'm sure there are 100 other people on this forum that do it differently with the same success though. So, my way works but it isn't the only correct way...

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By far, the most important thing is properly winding the strings around the tuning posts. A guitar with cheap tuners and a poorly cut nut, if they strings are properly wound around the posts, will tend to stay in tune better than a guitar with top-notch tuners and a good nut which has the strings improperly wound around it's tuning forks.

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A guitar not staying in tune has one of two things...

 

1 - Malfunctioning hardware.. Take it to a tech if you can't figure it out..

 

or

 

2 - an incompetent player..

 

Sounds to me like you need to educate yourself a bit more on WHY it won't stay in tune rather than whipping out the checkbook for another guitar (that likely won't be any better than this one once you get ahold of it...) Not trying to be insulting, just honest and save you some wasted $$$...

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A guitar not staying in tune has one of two things...


1 - Malfunctioning hardware.. Take it to a tech if you can't figure it out..


or


2 - an incompetent player..


Sounds to me like you need to educate yourself a bit more on WHY it won't stay in tune rather than whipping out the checkbook for another guitar (that likely won't be any better than this one once you get ahold of it...) Not trying to be insulting, just honest and save you some wasted $$$...

 

 

/thread]

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I've decided that the one thing I want out of a new guitar (other than a pleasing tone) is one that stays in tune like a motherf#cker. I want to spend somewhere between $500 and $700 for this beast. A few friends have recommended the Gibson Faded SG Special and the PRS SE Singlecut as good candidates. Any thoughts on these?

 

 

 

 

 

Something with a locking bridge and nut would be as rock solid as it gets (imo). I imagine A stop bar / fixed bridge system with locking tuners would be second best.

 

Of course if you have a heavy fret hand then a solid neck joint is a must if you do not want intonation hassles. For example I would not recommend SG types with a vintage neck joint if your that type of player.

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I've decided that the one thing I want out of a new guitar (other than a pleasing tone) is one that stays in tune like a motherf#cker. I want to spend somewhere between $500 and $700 for this beast. A few friends have recommended the Gibson Faded SG Special and the PRS SE Singlecut as good candidates. Any thoughts on these?

 

First of all, what guitars do you have that won't stay in tune? If you have a well set up and correctly strung hard-tailed guitar, it should stay in tune very well. Obviously, changing weather conditions, handling, etc will change the tuning. But that has to do with materials and how they react. Nothing you can do about that. Anyway, does the PRS have the 1-piece bridge/tail? If so, you won't be able to dial in your intonation, which means it may not play in tune exactly all over the neck.

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A guitar not staying in tune has one of two things...


1 - Malfunctioning hardware.. Take it to a tech if you can't figure it out..


or


2 - an incompetent player..


Sounds to me like you need to educate yourself a bit more on WHY it won't stay in tune rather than whipping out the checkbook for another guitar (that likely won't be any better than this one once you get ahold of it...) Not trying to be insulting, just honest and save you some wasted $$$...

 

 

Agree, In my experience some budget guitars I've had won't hold tune as long

sitting on the stand or in the case as a better quality guitar.

Quality of the wood maybe, not cured as well?

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Something with a locking bridge and nut would be as rock solid as it gets (imo). I imagine A stop bar / fixed bridge system with locking tuners would be second best.


Of course if you have a heavy fret hand then a solid neck joint is a must if you do not want intonation hassles. For example I would not recommend SG types with a vintage neck joint if your that type of player.

Locking tuners don't help if the guitar is strung up properly.

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Agree, In my experience some budget guitars I've had won't hold tune as long

sitting on the stand or in the case as a better quality guitar.

Quality of the wood maybe, not cured as well?

 

 

Not likely.. Most likly it's poorly strung (not enough wraps, do 3 wraps on the wound strings, 6 on the plain strings) or binding at the nut (when strings corode, it can come off and get in the nut slot.. Clean it out and put some nut sauce in there).. The odds of the wood actually moving enough to knock it COMPLETELY out of tune are nil.

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Well I wouldn't say it's my playing. ;)

 

I've had the same mexican strat for almost ten years and I've never been satisfied with its intonation stability. Granted, it's been set up maybe two times in that amount of time, but I feel like I'm more than ready to step up to a guitar without a bolt-on neck, and that just has an overall more solid feel. My fingers have never gotten used to the thin Fender necks, so I'm looking forward to something withe more space between the strings.

 

That said, I go to GC and Sam Ash now and then looking at new axes, and a lot of the budget models seem to go out of tune fairly quickly, while the high end stuff stays in tune much better. So I know you get what you pay for, but I was hoping I could finally take that step up to a Gibson or PRS (even if it's an SE). I'm just the kind of guy who only needs one electric guitar (and can only afford one), so I want it to be the best I can afford.

 

Know what I mean?

 

Appreciating all the feedback so far, by the way! Keep it coming!

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I believe that the sense that a guitar is not staying in tune is, sometimes, actually a guitar that is not intonated well.

For example: someone plays something in the first or second position, bends some notes in the process, moves to a higher position, plays a chord that sounds sharp, and thinks that the guitar went out of tune. However, the guitar didn't go out of tune; it was not in tune up and down the board in the beginning.

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