I recently installed a Warmoth neck on my 2008 American Standard. Nice neck. I had to do just a little sanding on the Corian nut to get a good fit with my 10-46 strings. I fiddled with it until I could easily slide a string through the nut with no binding.

Once I tuned up, I found that the guitar tuned and stayed in tune farily well after bending and using the vibrato. But I want it to be better.

Time to add some sort of lube to the nut. We all know the options...graphite from a pencil, expensive stuff from the guitar shop, etc. and so on.

I always keep a roll of teflon tape in my case, as a little square of it keeps the wiggle out of the arm of my Wilkinson VS401 tremolo.

So here's the deal...I cut little pieces of teflon tape and put them under the strings at the nut, effectively lining the bottom of the nut with teflon. WOW.

For the last ten minutes I've been doing whole step bends on the first 3 strings, and diving with the tremelo. It's staying in tune better than any guitar I have ever owned (been playing since 1962).

As I tune the guitar, there's absolutely no "ping" sound. And there's absolutely no lag in the pitch changing as I turn the tuning key (by the way, I'm using locking tuning keys). As I aggressively wiggle the trem arm, there's no pinging.

Once I put the teflon tape on and put the string in the groove, I just pulled away the excess tape. It's almost invisible on the guitar (the tape and the nut are both white). I can detect no change in tone (of course, it could only possibly effect the open strings, not fretted).

We'll see how long it lasts, but I would assume I'd be putting it on fresh with each string change.

Hi siamese: that's a very interesting tip and one that's new to me. I have some teflon tape so I will give it a go sometime. I presume the slots need enlarging very slightly to allow for it, would that be right?

Thank you for telling us about it.

The bit of your post that's confusing me is this:

The VS401 has taken over from the VS100 in my affections and I've used several of them in the last year or so. An excellent bridge! As you know, they have a tiny allen key screw in the block beneath the trem plate that adjusts the turning tension of the arm. To be sure, you can't adjust that screw without removing the bridge, which I'm sure we'd agree is a disadvantage compared to the earlier model.

However, once that screw is set I have absolutely no unwanted "wiggle" in my trem arm, so no need for tape.

For the record, I like my arm adjusted just tight enough that it will stay put in whatever position I place it, but loose enough that I can knock it out the way with the merest flick of my pinky. So it's not like I have it tightened stupidly much or anything. I wonder what are we doing differently, you and I, that you need the tape on there?

Anyway. I'm off to mess with my nuts - if you see what I mean. Thanks for the idea!

Cheers - C

I see that you have been playing since 1962...I started around '66 I guess,can you remember the first time you ever tuned with an electronic tuner?
I couldn't believe how good it sounded and realized that no matter how I had tried I couldn't get that close with my ears.

I remember when I first started playing i couldn't afford a tuner so we used the engaged tone of my parents telephone which is a G

Great days

Andy

_________________
Pending Greatness

Hi Siamese, thats a cool tip, reading the post ,wondered if these type of strings existed and wadaya know , maybe your answer

wyres for example http://www.wyresstrings.com/store/categ ... ategory=76

I read this thread yesterday and then happened to be in Home Depot today trying to fix a bad pipe connection. I ask if I should put teflon tape on the joint and the store expert recommended TFE Paste. Didn't know it existed!
I have been using Nut Sauce on the Strat and this paste is $3.00 for a lifetime supply. Brand name was Harvey's TFE Paste.
Next string change will have a little goo on the nut. Much easier than using tape.

Tape's not hard to use.

Yeah it seems the nut and tuners make all the difference as far as staying in tune. Some blame the bridge but if the guitar is properly strung the bridge should have no negative effects unless somehow the spring tension is changing if a floating trem is utilized.

"Pinging" sounds when tuning or whammying can also be due to the string trees...which this issue was the inspiration for roller trees and staggered tuners.

Good find with the teflon tape..thank you for sharing as staying in tune is pretty important to us players.

_________________
I'm almost out of stuff to sell.

LOL. That's brilliant. Never knew that trick!

I find tuners are the start of good tuning. Especially if the guitar has some sort of a trem (which always destabilises tuning).

Use the tuner to get into the ball park then use your ears for the last 5%. I acknowledge that I'm fortunate in having a good sense of pitch however.

What do people use? I'm a classic Boss TU2 man myself..

As for the teflon tape in the nut, a friend of mine uses white plumbers tape. Does exactly the same job with similarly great results. Can look a bit scruffy and untidy though as it's awkward to trim afterwards. Pencil lead for me.. and chapstick for the underside of the string trees.

_________________
Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

In the beginning I had a pitch pipe and then progressed to tuning forks.The first electronic tuner I had was one with a needle that jumped around.
Now I use a Boss TU-2...I love it...I saw there's a TU-3 now,I wonder if it's an improvement?

TU-2 for me as well...I have two of them..one for a back up, they are great. I have not tried out a TU-3 yet but posted the specs to compare...

SPECS Boss TU-3
21-segment LED meter with brightness control
High-Brightness mode enhances meter visibility outdoors
Accu-Pitch Sign function provides visual verification when tuning is complete
Chromatic and Guitar/Bass mode (tune by string number, with support for 7-string guitars and 6-string basses)
Flat tuning is supported with Guitar Flat mode, which allows for drop tunings up to six semitones below standard pitch

SPECS Boss TU-2
Mute/Bypass select for silent tuning with a single stomp
11-point LED indicators and new "stream" meter display tuning discrepancy via speed and direction of LEDs (speed of LED movement gets slower as pitch becomes more accurate)
7-segment LED displays string and note names, easily visible on dark stages
Seven easy tuning modes include Chromatic, Guitar Regular, Guitar Flat, Guitar Double Flat, Bass Regular, Bass Flat, Bass Double Flat
Tuning mode setting and display style choice stored in memory
Adjustable reference pitch from 438 to 445Hz
8-octave tuning range--the widest in its class
# Footswitchable Tuner Off mode preserves battery life by disabling LEDs

_________________
I'm almost out of stuff to sell.

Basically the TU2 is old and inaccurate.

Now you may a love affair with it but its +/- 3 cents.
The TU3 is +/- 1 cent accurate. Still not true bypass.
I've had a Korg tuner for 20 years that's 1 cent accurate so this is nothing exciting.

Enter the Turbo Tuner ST-200 +/- 0.02 cents accurate.
True bypass and a load of other goodies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD_U7YPFqKg

I'll have to check that Turbo tuner out,even.....though the old TU-2 could be off,it's not enough for me to hear but if that one will get it closer that is fine with me.....then it comes down to playing the blues and bending the notes.....do I bend them to the correct pitch???? probably not but it sounds good to me.

Thats the glory of the Blues! Those 'bad' pitch bends are really expressive.

_________________
Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

tag along for this subject

_________________
63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."