my strings tighten themselves

Calvin Walley · From: colorado city colorado, USA

after i tune my mullen i play it for a few days and i start noticing it getting out of tune , normal right ?
but instead of them all being lowered they are all raised 4-6 cents , the room temp is pretty steady as is the humidity level so my question is this : why do they tighten all by themselves ?

calvin

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Mullen SD-10 3&5 / nashville 400

John Groover McDuffie · From: LA California, USA

On my xtnd E9 s-12's my 11th and 12th strings always seem to go sharp between tunings. The 6th strings on my Telecasters seem to do the same. Always seemed counter-intuitive, but I have no ideas about why.

Ivan Posa · From: Hamilton, New Zealand

Calvin, I have a similar problem on my Rains SD 10 with the 5th and 6th strings always going sharp, just enough to be annoying. Anyone have any ideas why?

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Klaus Caprani · From: Copenhagen, Denmark

I've noticed this phaenomena on all stringed instruments that I ever came into contact with, et least with metal strings. Especially bass guitar.

When you tune your instrument and start playing, the strings will warm up to some extend, and subsequently drop in tuning as the metal expands. When you adjust that during the set, the strings will have cooled off, retracted and gone sharp after the intermission.

Just an observation.

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Klaus Caprani

MCI RangeXpander S-10 3x4
www.klauscaprani.com

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

Well Calvin ole buddy, I gotta be honest with ya, stating that after the Steel sits a few days in the same room..ALL the strings go sharp a FEW cents ..now thats a new one on me for sure..

I have never heard of that before so I am anxious to hear what the String Zarrs say the issue is...

the applied physics is the strings get loose ..and go FLAT..and it may not even take a few days...

Maybe you should go back to a Starter

just kidding..

good luck

t

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 13 August 2006 at 04:25 PM.]

Joey Gaskins · From: New Bern, North Carolina, USA

I thought this was the norm. I've played Derbys for several years and it seems that mine has gone sharp on several strings after setting a day or so. Never thought much about it.

Glyn Bone · From: Halifax.Nova Scotia. Canada * R.I.P.

Same thing here with my Carter...but I find it is (usually) pretty even across the strings...just a couple of cents sharp....sometimes I don`t bother about it and after playing for a few minutes they are back to normal.....I generally only re-tune if they are more than just a couple of cents.....no biggie in my book.

Glyndwr.

Carter SD 10 4x5 ( black of course

)
Peavey NV 112 ( also black)
Hilton M262B VP ( sorta black

)

(soon to add BJS bar.....not black

)

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

Never tune your guitar when you first sit down to it. Play it a while and then tune. If you do it the other way, after the strings warm up they will be flat.

Steve Alonzo Walker · From: Spartanburg,S.C. USA (deceased)

My 3rd (G# .012) "open" goes flat between tunings so I tune it +1/2 cent higher and my 6th (G# .022) "open" goes flat so I tune it -1/2 cent lower. After playing a few songs, they end up just right.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

The ONLY way they can go sharp without some mechnical influence (i.e. tuning it, pressing pedals, etc) is some sort of environmental condition. Minute temperature and humidity changes can seriously affect acoustic guitars, as an example - and the highest-grade guitars, where tolerances are more finely determined/constructed, are the most likely to be affected.

With steel guitar, it would seem that the nature of the construction - a lot of metal, and any wood being typically hard - would preclude weird phenomena like this.

But I think that it's simply the huge amount of variable, moveable parts - changers, rollers, rods, levers, barrels, springs, and the strings themselves - that makes it MORE likely for a pedal steel to go sharp from slight changes in environment than, say, a 6-string lapsteel, or a Tele.

[This message was edited by Jim Sliff on 13 August 2006 at 08:12 AM.]

Calvin Walley · From: colorado city colorado, USA

well i guess i'm not the only one this happens to, i just can't get my mind wraped around how it happens, its not what anyone would call a major problem , just odd
i'm with Tony , it would seem that they should get loose not tighter

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Mullen SD-10 3&5 / nashville 400

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

If you tune after playing it for a while and then let it sit and check the tuning a few hours later, it will be out. But once you've warmed up the strings with your hands by playing a song or two, it should be back where you left it.

I always play for a few minutes before I tune. Also, I tune at the end of a set, not before the beginning of a set. If you don't have time to play before you tune, rub your hands vigorously over the strings for half a minute before you tune, to warm them up.

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Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6 or A6) My Blog

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

I have found that when the Band opens with Rocky Top the strings warm up REAL FAST !

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TPrior
TPrior Steel Guitar Homesite

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 13 August 2006 at 04:27 PM.]

Don Barnhardt · From: North Carolina, USA

I've been playing various stringed intsruments since the late 1940s. They all get out of tune. Sometimes they're flat sometimes they're sharp. When they're flat I tighten them and when they're sharp I loosen them. End of problem.

Bill Ford · From: Graniteville SC Aiken

I find that both my guitars (different brands)go sharp after a couple days. I've been blaming it on the "sharp fairie".

BF

Larry Bell · From: Englewood, Florida

It has very little to do with the composition of the guitar. Strings stretched across a 2x4 will do the same thing.

The strings warm up when you play them. They EXPAND (get longer -- less tension) as they warm up. ALL STRINGS GO SLIGHTLY FLAT.

THEN YOU TUNE THEM. They are warm from being played. You keep playing and tuning and playing and tuning.

NOW YOU LEAVE YOUR GUITAR THAT YOU TUNED TO ACCOMMODATE THE WARM STRINGS.

WHAT HAPPENS? The strings COOL DOWN (get shorter -- increase tension). As the tension increases the strings GO SHARP.

Wanna test it?

Tune your largest unwound E9 string to straight up on the tuner. Rub the string between your thumb and forefinger the length of the string back and forth 3 or 4 times. Check the tuner. YOU'LL BE SHOCKED.

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
My CD's: 'I've Got Friends in COLD Places' - 'Pedal Steel Guitar'
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

Gene Jones · From: Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)

*

[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 16 August 2006 at 01:47 PM.]

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Just remember: All constants are variables...

Kenny Forbess · From: peckerwood point, w. tn.

What Bobby Lee and Erv said.

If you have no time for a warm-up,
gently rub the string's with the "Steel Guitar Rag", to get them to ambient temprature.

But,If you tune it right away,,, you're gonna be tuneing it again,
and that's embassasing !!

my findings,
Kenny

Robert Leaman · From: Murphy, North Carolina, USA

It was once said that, "There is nothing so constant as change."

Fred Nolen · From: Mohawk, Tennessee, USA

My Rains does the same thing - so does my Legrande. I have never actually seen him, but I am reasonablly sure that it's a Gremlin in my practice room.

Ol' Fred

Doyle Mitchell · From: Loraine, Texas

I try to get to my gig at least 30 minutes early, when possible, to set up my Rains and let it reach room temp, removing it from a hot car trunk and sitting it up on a cool stage will certainly cause a tuning change. Out of the hot trunk it will be flat, but 30 minutes in the cool room temp it will be back close to right, but if I tune it when arriving I will go sharp later. I have noticed that when I get cold I tend to draw up too!!

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Avoid tuning your guitar unless it sounds out of tune. Simple, right? Well, I've seen player after player setting up, and the first thing they do is pluck a string and stare at a tuner, and then commence to twisting. PLAY the guitar first! Does it sound okay? Is it reasonably close to the lead man's guitar? If so...don't go screwing around with it. If it sounds okay, don't even worry about hooking up the tuner.

Don't go "fixin" if it ain't broke.

Also, next time you're practicing at home, and you notice a string sounds "out", before you go 'a twistin', try playing a whole song with that string "out" of tune. Dedicate yourself (on this one song) to trying to adjust the bar to make up for the out-of-tune string.

It will make you a better player.

[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 20 August 2006 at 07:13 AM.]

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