Telecaster tuning problems

Stompbox

Good folk of Instruments, my Tele is giving me a bit of trouble. First of all, my open G string sounds very 'pingy' when struck (I wouldn't call it a buzz, it's just not as sharp as I'd expect) and I'm finding it difficult to exact a tuning. This brings me on to my next problem, the tuning heads for my bottom three strings are very unresponsive and it's tough to obtain a perfect tuning which results in me taking ages to tune the guitar to satisfaction. I was thinking of taking to getting it set-up but if anyone could suggest a home remedy, well Gee, that'd be swell!

Demeyes

How cheap is your telecaster and what brand tuners are on it? It sounds like you might have cheap tuners on it which aren't holding it's tuning very well. To help with your problem make sure you have wound the strings the correct way around the tuning pegs and with some extra windings, which can help with tuning stability. It might sound stupid but many people have no idea how to string a guitar, watching a few short youtube videos will help you there.
One more thing to look at is the nut. If it is poorly cut it can affect tuning because of the string getting caught in the slots. You can use graphite(pencil lead) and vaseline to help strings from getting stuck there and it should make it easier to tune and stay at pitch.

Stompbox

Thanks for the reply. It's an American Tele with Fender brand tuning heads. It's a pretty good quality guitar, save for the tuners. Slight intonation problems also which I'm gonna try tackle over the coming week. Whenever I try turn the tuning heads, the bottom three strings don't seem to respond appropriately to however much I turn the head. Would tightening with a screwdriver solve this? Seemed to work on my uke!

Demeyes

Sweet wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. It's an American Tele with Fender brand tuning heads. It's a pretty good quality guitar, save for the tuners. Slight intonation problems also which I'm gonna try tackle over the coming week. Whenever I try turn the tuning heads, the bottom three strings don't seem to respond appropriately to however much I turn the head. Would tightening with a screwdriver solve this? Seemed to work on my uke!

Tightening screws around the tuners will only make it tighter to the headsdtock and not tighten the tuner like it does on the open geared ones you'd have on a uke. An american tele should have decent tuners on it stock so they shouldn't be much of a problem, especially if it's happening on several tuning pegs. I'd suspect the nut is the issue here.
Intonating your guitar should only take you 5 minutes and is really easy to do. I don't know why people don't do it more often! I'd suggest a quick youtube search for how to do it. Please use a tuner and not your ear as a lot of people tend to do, it's just much easier to be accurate and find out if you're sharp or flat.

groovie

You could try squirting a little oil inside the tuner to see if it loosens the gears, they may have a small hole for this purpose. Perhaps take the tuners off and see if you can open them and soak them for a little bit in some light lubricant. It might help. Check if your nut isn't causing the strings to stick, sp if you have gone up in guage strings recently. You can lube the nut too. Hope it works out for you.
There's always the TDPRI on the net, those guys know telecasters better than leo.

balducci

clean your string trees, they're the little pieces of metal on the head stock that hold your strings down. spray a bit of wd40 on the back of them and clean it with a bit of steel wool. if you don't have steel wool, use an old d, a or e string, a wound string. No-one ever suspects the string tree

Malice

How old are the strings that are on it? It's happened me a couple of times that strings that are long-overdue a change become slightly more difficult to tune. Maybe they get stretched or something?