Hello guys (and girls), I have a bizarre sounding low E string. I wonder if you have experiment this or know the solution.

When it comes to play it on the 12th fret and higher, it starts to wave in and out of tune. It is really annoying to the player ears and also for the listeners. My guitar tech check it with a strobe tuner and told me that the string has some constant heretic movements when it is played.

The intonation is perfect and I have change the strings 3 times just in case it was a bad string.


Help,
Chris

It does in fact sound like the intonation is off. I would suggest placing a capo on the first fret and check your action, then, re-check the intonation. Tune to pitch, then fret the string at the 12th fret and check against a tuner. If you're going sharp/flat at the 12th, adjust the screw at the back of the string saddle until you have pitch. Try yourself before you take to a tech. This something I learned the hard way, I took my jazzmaster to a tech, who told me the neck needs a shim in order to set the action and intonation. It turned out, I just had a lazy tech. I bought Dan Earlwine's book on guitar set-up and repair, and now I am my own tech.

While it doesnt apply for intonation problems (you may have your pickup too high), i didnt like the sound of the low E on mine for along time. I changed the wounds to pure nickel, and it sounded great. The nickel plated steel gave it a very unmusical KRANNGGG sound, the pure nickels souded like a note.

Thanks for the trick I will try that !

I have tried different height for the pickups so the magnetic field does not interfere.

Thanks for the post,
Chris

I should mention also that the string goes below and above pitch in a wavy manner and it seems that it helps when it is a bigger string and brand new. That begins on the 12th fret, 13 th, 14th, ...


Also have 6105 frets and I know that if I push to hard on the string it can make it sharp. But it just goes off pitch when i play it.


Chris

Let me ask this; do you own more than one amp, and if so, does this happen with both? If you only have one amp and can't compare with another one, try one at a store. This may have nothing to do with the guitar at all, it may be an issue with the amp, or a pedal.

I've repaired amps and pedals. Sometimes when tubes are on their way out, they can produce all kinds of strange audio phenomena; some of them all of a sudden get a tremolo or vibrato type sound. It may be that the low E is putting out the most output. If you own a compressor, turn the compression way up, so its really clipping the signal and balancing all the strings; turn the output down, and see if it stops.

By your description, it sounds like stratitis, but you say the pickups are low, so then that shouldn't happen. If you brought it into the shop, the first thing id do is lower the offending pickup considerably and see if it went away, and if so id raise it until I heard the problem, then drop it to where it goes away, then set the rest of the pickups accordingly. But if they're low already, id focus on your amp, pedals and power supply.

I have to say though, everything you describe, even the fact that it goes away with new or heavier strings points to a pickup pole piece too close pulling the string out of its normal vibration into an elliptical one, this would answer why it reacts the way it does

Thanks for your expertise. I agree, the pickups height can cause the problem that I described. But It does the same when I am unplugged.

If it where the pickups height would it do it with the other strings also?

Chris

I may have had too much beer tonight, but WHAT?

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The odd Parker and PRS

Right?? Unless theres some strange thing happening with a saddle, even then i dont know how it would cause it; the strings tension should keep it taught. The only thing that will make a string vibrate funny (besides some strange picking that i cant even imagine), is a pole piece too close pulling the vibration out its normal path. EVERYTHING points to that.

It absolutely would do it unplugged. Its not the signal that's getting messed up when this happens; its the magnet on the pickup. When you pluck a string, it oscillates in a circular motion, how it should. When you have a pickup too close, the magnet pulls that oscillation from its normal round path, into an oval eliptical, because as it vibrates, the magnet is pulling closer to the pickup. This is what causes the up and down pitch change, and the fact you cant get it to intonate. If this is the issue, its probably killing your sustain too, its not letting the string ring out as long as it should.

Drop the pickups, all of them, WAY down. Set them so you can hear the notes through the amp, but bring them lower than you would ever keep them. Try it out, and see if it goes away, it has to be that. Your tech should know that.

Thanks very much for everything Windwalker. I will run some tests.

Sincerely,
Chris

The pickups' magnetic flux should be synchronized.

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You dig?

Yes, that is a good point.

Thanks Martian,

Chris