Strat losing tune

Caesar_Bojangle

My sister bought herself a fender stratocaster a while back, i told her it was time to change the strings and precisely told her to buy 9's, what does she go and do but buy 10's and put them on herself. Needless to say it stayed in tune for about 30 seconds. Thats some 3 months ago, and the guitar was left idle for that time with the 10's still on.

Today, someone gave me a packet of 9's which i fitted to the guitar after i removed the 10's, but the bastard stays in tune for about a minute tops.

When it comes to the technical aspect of how a guitar functions, i know very little. So how will i rectify this? As its a shame to leave a nice guitar to rot, and neither myself or my sister have the time to bring it to the shop, so i'd rather sort it out myself

Karl Hungus

Your best bet is to take it into a shop for a quick once-over. Ask them to fit new strings and set the intonation, and they'll probably sort everything out for no extra charge.

Oeneus

There is a technique to restringing guitars in terms of how you wrap it round the pegs. Also, the guitar will generally go out of tune when new strings are fitted as they are in the process of stretching. If you just play the guitar on a daily basis for at least an hour it'll eventually stay in tune after a week.

Just let the strings stretch. And by the way, string size isn't going to make any difference.

Epitaph

Noticed something weird two nights ago as I was tuning my LP copy.

Whenever I touched the screw knobs on the machine head while picking an open string, it altered the pitch a fair bit. Didn't need the tuner to notice it, it was clearly audible without the amp.

Thought it was really strange. Would I be grounding the string somehow by touching (*not* even turning) the screw?

Hang on, that's not right...it wasn't plugged in...hmm.

Oeneus: what's that technique? I just thread them through, pull fairly hard and start turning. End up with very little string wrapped around it.

Smiler

Originally posted by AngelWhore
Your best bet is to take it into a shop for a quick once-over. Ask them to fit new strings and set the intonation, and they'll probably sort everything out for no extra charge.

Probably the safest bet alright.

I recomend Steve in Musician INC (Shaved head Red haired bloke) he does all the guitar stuff for me. And it's always a good job.

I shouldn't be to pricey either.

Oeneus

OK, here comes Oeneus' little tutorial on how to install strings:

This is for wound/coiled strings (The heavy strings (E, A, D, G))

1) Pass the string through the slot in the post leaving about 1.3 - 1.5 inches of slack (or whatever is enough to make 2 winds).

2) The first turn wraps the string over itself. In other words the first wind should be done above the slot.

3) The second turn wraps underneath it.

For the heavier strings like low-E, depending on the gauge you might want to wind them all underneath

This is for the unwound strings ( B, and E)

1)Pass the string through the slot in the post, again leaving about an inch of slack.

2) Pull the end of the string toward the headstock center, loop it back underneath the string and then up against the post.

3) Then when you start winding, it will wrap against itself. This is called a locking tie.

If it's hard to understand, just say and I'll make a diagram for you.

Oeneus

Here, I did a diagram anyway. Not the best but hopefully still helpful.

Epitaph

Oo la laaa! Le graphic! Il est magnifique!

Merci, M. Eus!!

feylya

I would have to disagree with people saying bring it in to get it done. Chances are you know someone who's knows a thing or two about guitars who can actually show you.

There's only a certain number of things to check when you're restringing:
Number of winds around the heads
The nut slots (wether the strings are binding)
Tremolo (if the springs are getting used to new gauge/tuning)
Neck Relief (wether there's much of a bow in the neck)
Strings stretching

One thing I will say about the last one is when you're tuning after restringing, tune the guitar a quarter step above the tuning you want. Leave the guitar over night and not only should you're strings be stretched but the guitar should be fairly close to being in tune.

Giblet

The biggest cause of a strat going out of tune is the trem. Try adding more springs to ir to keep it still, and bend the f*ck out of the strings after you replace them.

kanurocks

how can you do that to such a good guitar .your sister should be taken out to pasture.or sentanced to a lifetime of service in waltons .get nines and bring it in for a check up .god knows what her buffoonery has done to that poor poor guitar.
CIAO

feylya

Just learn to do it yourself. It's not completely impossible and you'll save yourself a few quid. Hey, you might even make a few by doing it for mates and stuff. There's only a hand full of things to check on a strat assuming it's a standard trem.