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My brother in law plays guitar for our band. Lately he has been having trouble with his guitars-keeping them in tune. He tunes one up, sounds good, and then he begins playing and...pow! sounds like crap. He bought a new Gibson...same problem! The only thing I could think was his intonation was out, or maybe his frets needed some work (open strings sounded fine, it was only when he fretted chords that it went out).
He sat down with a friend who is very experienced with guitars, and they made some adjustments. The other guy would play the guitar and it would sound fine. Then my bro-in-law would play it...and it would sound like crap! Finally, after working on both guitars and messing with them for about 45 minutes, Mike (the other guy) realized the problem.
Turns out that when Jim (brother in law) makes a "D" chord, he keeps his thumb parallel to the neck, rather than using it to anchor his fretting hand. Instead, he is anchoring into the position with his fingers-and the pressure is pulling the notes out of the correct pitch!

I just thought it was funny, because after all that time, the problem was...HIM!!! We're trying to come up with a good nickname for him now.

Hey,
Yeah, I play BG with some old dudes who hook that thumb around on the big E pulling it sharp.They'll tune with a tuner and say, hey its right on .Ill say well, then its YOU dick beat.. ..I do the same thing actually when playin the les paul copy cause Im use to playin acoustic with med guage.Ill push too hard on notes up the neck making them sharp.Yeah , fret size will be a factor. We call ole Ray, "death grip" becuase of the way it looks when he catchs chords..

Karma is a bitch! The joke's on me...I just came from practice and my bro-in-law is so self conscious about it that he's trying too hard-and bending that "D" chord out of tune way worse than before!

On the other hand, "Deathgrip" would make a cool nickname for him...maybe it'll get him to loosen up a bit!

I discovered my propensity to kill the strings while setting the intonation on my Strat.
Death Grip or Fickle Fingers of Fate, yea it sucks.

I had the same problem when I went from my green 3/4 scale acoustic with 13 electrics and the electric pick up to a regular electric with 11's.

I believe that I posted this story on the forum before, but I'll repeat it because it fits nicely in Joe's topic.

In the late 70's (if my memory serves me right), I played in a four piece with a young guitarest who proudly purchased a beautiful Travis Bean six string.
For the benefit of those unfamiliar with them, they were made from a solid block of Hawaiian koa wood, supposedly to enhance sustain. (also made them heavy as hell! )
The more interesting aspect of these guitars was their solid aluminium necks.
Now, the guitarist's dad was a master carpenter, and said that,although he wasn't a guitar builder, it was his opinion that that guitar was going to be thermally unstable ant won't stay in tune.

I'll never forget the first gig with that guitar! The whole friggin'thing went out of tune with the band, but stayed in tune to itself!. Another Words, you could probably play it solo and not notice.

Sure enough, after the guitar was warmed up to room temperture, (about the second set) it played fine.

New strings can cause tuning issues as well , as I'm sure you seasoned gitfiddlers are aware.

Howlin'

didnt some german company just make a self tuning guitar for gibson

..yes..

you play alot of guitars crip have you seen one in the music stores? wasnt it a les paul

heh. If you have jumbo frets, you can make a little vibrato/trem action by pressing the strings down harder. If you tune open strings, then play with a death grip, I can see how you might play a little out of tune for having gorilla hands

Cap'n, we've hit bottom!

My Strat has the jumbo frets and this New Years I took it out for a gig, I dont take it out much. But I noticed I was going a little sharp at times and thats all it is is your technique when you play.

Learn to play a little lighter handed.

I used to be a real ham fisted player and used to break a lot of strings cause I just pushed them too hard all the time.

ghost 62 wrote:you play alot of guitars crip have you seen one in the music stores? wasnt it a les paul

I honestly would consider one if I actually got to hold it in my hands... We do a lot of drop D tuning as wel as other crazy tuning.... I wonder if it just stays in tune:E-A-D-G-B-E 440??? Or do you think you can program other tunings into it???

I would have to believe you could tune it to whatever you want.all my guitars are tuned down a half step ,plus like you we do alot of drop d .im sure that good old german know how took that into consideration.

I dont know for sure but I would have to imagine it is like the Fender Strat that can be electronicly switched into differing tune modes.
Some thing mechanical that could sense and compensate for string length and tension would prolly weigh more than I do.
Or do I master the obvious here.
If said instrument just "magically" made whatever sound you want it too, would it not be a synthesizer with strings?