I'm having some tuning issues with my 50's Road Worn Strat. The bottom two strings will not stay in tune for more than a couple of minutes when playing. I've sparingly applied some graphite mixed with Vaseline to the string grooves in the nut, and I also applied some Chapstik (with a toothpick) to the undersides of the string tree. Once I bend the strings while playing, they go out of tune. I'm still using the stock Fender Super 250 strings. Any suggestions on how to cure this problem?

Thanks,
- Tom West

Yes. Do a proper setup:

http://www.fender.com/support/articles/ ... etup-guide

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Bill

Try changing the strings first. Did you buy it out of a shop or online? Most guitars (especially roadworns) sit in shops for a couple of yrs and the strings dont get changed. That should be the first thing you do when buying a guitar is change the strings, and get some quality ones to really get a sense of what your guitar is capable of. I bought a '09 50's Roadworn from GC and the strings were just NOT DOIN IT FOR ME!

Ignore that little sticker on the back plate that says to always use Super 250's. They are good, no doubt, but there is certainly better

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I've already done a proper setup on my Strat, but as stated in an earlier post, I haven't changed the strings yet. I'll try some new ones and see if that helps. Oh, and I bought it online from a shop in Minnesota.

Thanks,

- Tom

I'll prolly get a bunch of hate filled responses to this but ... are you using those cheap useless D'Addario strings? I have had some experiences with those strings to make me swear off them forever, including one situation that bears directly on your problem. I had a B string that insisted on going flat after several minutes or so. When I first encounted it I just assumed it was an absent minded mistake on my part when stringing the guitar up and that it was slipping on the tuning post. I was wrong. No problems with the tuning post. I monitored the wraps and the position of the bent and cut off end poking out the hole on the post. It did not change. I put up with the annoyance for almost a month as it gradually got worse. At first the string would lose about a quarter tone in about 10 minutes. Just before the real problem revealed itself it would lose a whole step in under two minutes. It finally got to the point it would lose pitch even while I was tuning it up. I could hear it get higher while I turned the peg and then fall back immediately. Suddenly, SPROING!. The string popped out of the bridge end and I could hear something rattling around inside the trem claw cavity. It was the ball end rolling around in there. The wire had been slowly slipping and unwinding from around itself while I kept winding up the slack on the other end. As the number of wraps around itself decreased it continued to lose it's ability to hold tension until it eventually just let go. I had other tuning issues with those strings as well. If I hadn't made the mistake of buying a whole box of 10 sets I may have thought it was just a fluke and perhaps bought them again.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Take the strings off and see if the two strings that are giving your a problem fit the nut correctly. You should be able to hold a string in it's nut slot, put some down-pressure on it, and move it back and forth a couple inches in the slot without any binding. See if that's the case. If not....lemme know / let's fix it.

Have the guitar set up properly by a luthier.
Things that I do to a guitar with tuning problems:
1. I replace the nut with bone.
2. Have the nut properly shaped (They almost never shaped correctly).
3. A proper set up by a pro. (I'm leary of GC or some small music stores).
4. Find an experienced luthier in your area who is reputable. In my area I swear by Phil Jacoby. He does the best work on any guitar neck I've ever seen.