Tuning after restringing

[Joel]

I just started playing acoustic guitar about 6 months ago and decided to borrow a friend's electric. While tuning it for the first time in 2 years, a string broke, so I decided to replace all the strings. I had recently gotten my acoustic strings replaced, and had watched the guy at the store restring and tune it, so I figured I could do it myself with the electric.

I had no problem physically putting the strings back on correctly. However, I can't get all the strings to play in tune. Whenever I tighten one string, all the others go flat, because the metal piece holding the strings on the body of guitar bends upward.

How do I tune the guitar properly? There must be something I'm missing here.

[gck]

Hmm.. You should try to tune all strings "approximately" to the correct note first (do this by ear), then do the fine tuning for which you might use a tuning machine or also do it by ear. I think that once you've tuned i.e. increased or decreased the power the string puts on the guitar's neck, the neck my slightly bend and put the other strings out of tune... At least, all this applies to an acoustic.

however, maybe you're missing something else and somebody who has more experience with electrics might help...

[Joel]

Perhaps I should be more specific. I tune the low E string, then the next, then the next, and so on until I finish the high E string. Then I go back to the low E string to check, and it is flat, so I tune it again, and then move through the strings again. Everytime I go back to the low E string it's always flat.

(I'm quite good at tuning a guitar, I just don't know how to tune a newly-restrung guitar)

I noticed after a while that the metal part on the guitar body that holds the ends of the strings in starts to bend upwards due to the tightness of the strings.

[Levinson Blade]

If your bridge (The metal thing) is bending up that is an indication that you have gone up in string size ie from 0.9 to 10's you will either
A.
have to re set up the guitar for the bigger strings, Not recomended if you don't know what you are doing.

OR

B
Buy some more strings of a smaller gauge

You say you can tune a guitar well its just the same with new strings but they go out of tune a bit untill they 'settle down' my tip is to strech the string slightly and re tune then strech re tune until it stays in tune

[F-art]

I have had the same problem when I restrung my guitar too. it could be a few things.

2 questions beforehand:
1. Do you have a tremolo bar (that's the metal piece holding the strings on the body)?
2. Did you took off all the strings and then put them on one by one, or did you take off a string, and put it on, then went to the next string?

If your tremolo bar is moving up while you are tuning your guitar up, this could indicate that the feathers( inside your body, which pulls the tremolo bar back if you use it) have suffered some damage and they have lost their stretch. You have to go to a guitar technicus( a store has one most of the time) to replace the or re-tune them. ( it's rather difficult to do this yourself so it's worth the costs)

Another reason why this could happen, is that you have up-tuned the strings too far. you will not hear this on the first instant but your strings in total are putting to much pressure on the tremolo bar. For this you should also go to a guitar expert( same shop is best most of the time:rolleyes: ), because he can get it in the right tune within minutes, while you (and some guitar playing friends) are struggling for days and still don't get it perfectly right just because the strings are to tight. Most of the guitar experts will do this for free because it is part of the service that they provide and it will not take him more than 5 minutes.

The way to prevent this from happing:

DON'T take off al the strings in one time. Take off your E-string, replace it, tune it and then move on to the A-string and so forth. When you are done, you'll find out that you still have to tune them, because you will get the E-string out of tune the minute you take off the A-string( and so forth) but you will find out that it is now easy to re-tune the strings because they have the right pressure on your tremolo bar.

Pff, quite a story:rolleyes:

[Joel]

Thanks, F-art, that's the most helpful response I received. The tremelo bar did in fact rise up out of the body (before I saw it and quickly loosened the pegs), but I'm not sure if it's broken. I'll have to take it in to a guitar place.

I do have a problem in that when I tune the guitar using one method (ie: 5th fret on lower to tune upper), some of the strings aren't in tune when I try a different method (ie: 7th fret on higher to tune lower). I'm not sure why this occurs.

[smfulla]

Well if you've got a floyd rose tremolo it's normal for it to raise when retuning a guitar. Infact it has to be raised for it serve it's purpose. If it's lying on the cavity, then you can pull it back, and that would defeat the purpose of a floyd rose. Btw it should be raised to somewhere about 3-5 degrees above being parallel with the body. Assuming this is a floyd rose still, have you tried using the locking nut? This is to keep it in tune. It does this by holding the strings, instead of letting the tuners hold them. When the tuners hold the strings, the strings tend to slip tightening the coils and thus making the string more slack causing it to detune.

If it isn't a floyd rose, then maybe you're getting worried over nothing. (The tuning part I mean) You have to tune a guitar a couple of times before it stays in tune, this is for (as above) the strings coils to tighten around the tuners and stay there. A good way to shorten the amount of times you have to tune the guitar, is with each string, before you tune it to pitch, get it so it's a little slack and a little tight, the tugg on the string. This helps cut out tightening part a little bit.

But anyway, lol, if you can get a good guitar tech to take a look at it for free, go and do it, even if you're not worried =]

[I_cant_play]

That's all normal. It happens to me too. New strings stretch a lot after you put them on. What's happening is after you tighten them they stretch and loosen really quickly. Just stretch the strings after you put them on by bending. Then tune afterwards.