Anyone have any good ideas for keeping the G string in tune after whammy bar use on a std strat? ...not talking about third stone from the sun kind of burger flipping with the bar, just some tasty dives here and there to accentuate a passage. Just seems that even with relatively new strings (things settle a bit as the strings age, but worsens again as the strings get old.

Please - no floyd rose pokes. Dont want to go to a Floyd.

J.

I'd check to see if the nut is pinching. Maybe try some lube or something else to help with string travel at the nut during trem use.

Is your G wound?

Should have mentioned (my bad) when I said std strat, I meant non-floyd. Both my main guitars have roller nuts (primary baby is a 60th Aniv HSS American Deluxe QMT with a LSR roller nut and 2 point bridge, secondary baby is a 1987 Strat Plu with Wilkinson Needle bearing roller nut and 2 point trem).

Been able to control it to some extent with 3-in-1 oil on the nut and fresh strings, but it's a real annoyance that G string...no matter what I do, anythin beyond a light touch on the whammy sends it 1/2 step out of play...

Yes it's a wound G. I play Ernie Ball Rock-N-Roll classic nickle slinky (10 through 46).

...just running out of ideas...

What kind of tuners? are the locking F schaler kind? Wonder if there is something wrong there? I have one guitar with an LSR and vintage trem and I've been amazed at how little anything ever goes out of tune anymore! Of course I keep my trem flattened out to the guitar body as well.

Good lUck!

Catching on string trees?

Get locking tuners?

have you tried adding more springs to the trem? maybe one or two softer ones would give it just what it needs to quit cracking out.

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There's a lot of things that can cause this...pinching at the nut or bridge, string t's or even the way you have the string wrapped on the tuner. You also may wish to check how the string is seating inside the trem block as well. If you are using strings that use a "ball end" such as GHS or Ernie Ball, those things don't always seat as well as "Bullets" (at least in theory). Personally I'm not a fan of the LSR nuts...I put one on my MIM and the d@mn thing is more trouble than it's worth. A properly filed graphite nut works -much- better in my opinion.

My suggestion would be to go over the guitar step by step with a process of elimination. Start at the head stock...make sure you have the string(s) wrapped correctly (and make sure the tuner itself isn't slipping...I had that happen with a set of Gotohs on my old Kramer...had a bad tuner), then check the string T and make sure it's not pinching, then the roller nut, then the saddles, etc...work your way down until you've eliminated everything.

Okies...I hope this helps!
Jim

Try tightening up the tuner, that's what fixed mine.

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Hi js615, welcome to the Forum.

...And yet, when you've tried all the right and sensible suggestions that everyone else will give there is still the dread "G-stringitus" to contend with. On every guitar I own the G string tends to be less stable than the others, whether it is wound or unwound.

And I'm not the only one. I have a foggy memory of reading some kind of pseudo-scientific explanation of why this happens in a guitar magazine a long time ago. But perhaps it wasn't too convincing - because I promptly forgot it.

A real and observed effect, nevertheless. Most of us probably bend more on the G than other strings. But that doesn't sufficiently cover it.

Go figure...

Cheers - C

Have you checked the guitar's intonation, lately?

Depress each string at the 12th fret, and then strike it. It should make the same note (but higher) that it does when played open. For example, if you play G open, and tune it to a reference pitch of A440, then when you play it at the 12th fret (with the capo installed at the 1st), it should also play the note of G at A440.

If you do the above and it plays flat, then the string needs to be shortened. If it plays sharp, then the string needs to be lengthened. You do this buy adjusting the individual saddle bridge screw for the string, and also buy adjusting the saddle height screws (there's one on each side of the string). You should do this for each string.

Once you have done this for all of the strings, the guitar's intonation is correct, and it will help each string stay in tune for a longer period of time.

Hope this helps.

Yeah - I have tried everything...every Strat I've owned has demonstrated this "problem". I have found that making sure to tune up to pitch helps (when lazy or late in the set sometimes I found I was sloppy in tuning and for time's sake sometimes wound down the tuning key after going too far forward with pitch. My strobo stomp has help quite a bit here. Nonethelss, I am going to chalk this up to "one of those things" that we just deal with.

Anyone ever tried those graptech saddles? I wonder if they help...

J.

Picking up on Ceri's point:

As ridiculous as this sounds, I've found that while the tremolo arm is coming back up from the bend, if you simultaneously bend the G string from 15th fret up to the equivalent of two or three frets higher, easing off the bend as the tremolo is just about to return to its rest position, the guitar comes back in tune. I've done this many times with many Strats (premising everything relevant to the strings is in excellent working order such as the nut, etc, etc.). I have no logical explanation for this; I discovered it out of exasperation.

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