Hi everyone,
I have mostly played (MIM) strats over the years, but picked up a Gibson SG Standard recently. The guitar sounds incredible and plays very well, but it seems to go out of tune very easily, especially when playing leads. It has strings that are only about a week old (and have been stretched/played in) and has been set up properly.

I was just curious if anyone here owns a SG in addition to a strat and if you have the same problem. My strats almost never jump out of tune no matter how much I bend the strings, so I am finding it a bit annoying that my SG can't get through a couple of songs with out needing to be tuned again.

I'm considering trading it in towards a MIA Strat if I can't get the tuning issues under control.

Thanks

Hey man, this problem happens to just about everyone with gibson tuners, they are very unreliable and are just for show. Ive herd of people who have swiched out there gibson tunerrs for grovers or stuff like that and have given great improved reports about it. I am a huge sg fan too, they are great guitars!

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You cant always get what you want

Don't fret about your SG you're not alone,a jamming friend of mine paid over $3000 for a Gibson Les Paul and that brute refuses to stay in tune at all yet my $500 Epi Les Pauls with the Grovers stay perfectly in tune.Your best bet would be to switch to a good set of Grover Imperials or some other good tuner if in fact you've covered all other possible bases such as string tension and string winds etc.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Thanks for the replies...the strings are wound correctly so that shouldn't be an issue. I am going to try putting pencil lead or graphite in the nut slots first, if that doesn't help things I'll probably try new tuners, and if all else fails I will probably trade it in.

This may be getting a bit off topic...but how is the humbucker in the American HSS Strat? I realize it won't give me the same tone as a SG but just curious if it has good tone for some of the current hard rock bands out there (not metal).

Even if I wind up keeping the SG, I definitely want an American Strat at some point. If I keep the SG, I would just get an American Standard, but I may consider a HSS if I end up getting rid of the SG. My MIM strats have been great guitars....

Wow...some Les Pauls have the problem too huh? Crazy...I also have an Agile 3000 Les Paul copy which has no tuning issues. It's not a Gibson Les Paul, but it is a very nice, great sounding guitar in it's own right.

Gibson nuts are usually cut poorly, even on the custom shop guitars, and are responsible for most of the tuning problems. It's a cheap fix with any tech. Get the nut attended to and use a little Big Bend's Nut Sauce when you string up. My Les Paul stays in tune for days.

I just sold my sg to get a strat, I played the SG for three or four years. I pretty much instantly put grovers on it, it helped kind of. But the saddle system was junk they are way to sharp no matter how much you file them down(every string I broke was at the saddle), so I switched the saddles to graphtech ones, I didn't break any more strings at the saddles and the guitar didn't sound as harsh anymore. The strings did however continue to go out of tune and it seemed like I would get two or three days of "good" tuning after a week or two of breaking in but than the strings would go bad, I was so irritated that I just went and bought a strat. A side story, when I brought the strat home it went way sharp when I played and I spent about eight hours trying to figure it out, just the tremelo... re-adjusted it and The guitar still goes a little out of tune now and than (I blame the crap tuners it came with) but nothing like the SG.

Interesting...from what I'm reading online it seems like there are 3 main experiences with SGs:

1) My SG is an incredible guitar and I have no problems
2) My SG went out of tune and/or had other problems but they were all easily fixed with graphite/pencil lead/Big Bend's Nut Sauce/new tuners, etc., and now my guitar is great
3) No matter what I did I couldn't get my SG functioning the way I wanted it and got rid of it.

I'm still hopefull that mine will fall into #2. I'm going to put pencil lead in the nut slots when I have free time this weekend and see how that works. If it's not something I can fix relatively easily I think I will go look at some strats though.

I'm surprised you had tuning problems with your strat. I've never had any issues with mine - they hold tune great. I hardly ever use a tremolo though...maybe that's the difference.

Don't forget the part about having the nut done. Lube will only do so much if the slots are binding. Tune up your guitar and then press on each string a little between the nut and tuner. Check the tuning again and if it's now way out of tune, your nut needs attention.

You should be able to get that done for less than a new set of tuning machines and I think it'll help more.

I own a SG and a Strat both. My SG is a Classic model which has the white button, Kluson-type tuners without the slotted pegs and I don't have really any tuning issues to speak of.

My SG, for a newer Gibson, was made very well. Luckily, it has a solid, ONE piece body unlike other SGs I've ran into where I've counted up to four pieces of wood and none of them remotely the same in size (next time you're in a shop, try to find the seams on a gloss finished, newer SG and, 7 times out of 10, I'll guarantee you'll be repulsed). The nut was actually cut well, although the stock setup was a tad sloppy. Now I've gotta rip that stupid PCB and 300k pots out of it and it'll be an excellent guitar.

My new Strat is the same way, rarely goes out of tune and once again it has Kluson-type tuners.

I'm sorry Grovers do not do anything for me. They're clunky, heavily, ugly things that I can't stand to use. If they work for you, great. We all have our preferences. Some older Schaller tuners were alright, but give me regular old Kluson-type tuners any day of the week and I'll be fine.

For me, I just try to stay consistent with my string windings and the break over angle I can get out of them, and once in a blue moon dust the nut slots with a little graphite just for some reassurance. I'm constantly bending strings too and I have a heavy picking hand to boot, so don't think I just play around.

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2006 Fender AVRI 70s Stratocaster: Natural Ash | Sovtek MIG 60 & A No Name Cabinet | Pedals & Junk

Of course you could sell the Gibson SG and buy an Epiphone G-400 Custom (SG body)for about $550 and have a fabulous sounding 3 pup guitar with no tuning problems.My daughter's boyfriend says that my Epi is head and shoulders above his Gibson SG in every respect especially in sound and playability.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

These are Grovers......



I'm not sure what's "clunky, heavy, ugly" about them.

The guitar is a one-owner 33-year old Les Paul Standard and the tuning stability is rock-solid.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

lots of good info on this thread. 99% of the time a guitar that goes wildly out of tune can be fixed.

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

I gonna go with others and say it's the nut. When it comes to staying in tune, the machine heads are rarely, if ever, the issue.

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American Standard Strat, Sienna Sunburst
Gibson Les Paul, Desert Burst
Gibson SG '61 Reissue, Heritage Cherry

Nice photo; it's unusual to see those Grover-made keytsone Deluxe-style tuners these days; I believe Gibson was the only company to use them. Then they would turn around and use Schallers on the LP Customs of the same era (the guy I took lessons from circa 1979-1982 had a '79 Silverburst LP Custom with Schallers).

Only people at least say 40 or older (I'm 48) remember this type of Grover; I'm sure most people think of the sealer tuners (Rotomatics if I'm remembering correctly) when someone says "Grover tuners".