At 11/13/09 01:47 PM, CapnCrunchDaPimp wrote:
I can't figure out how to tune my guitar. I tried to down tune it once to a D and since then it's been fucked up. No matter what I do when I lock it, it falls out of tune quite a ways. I've tried tuning lower, and higher, but it always falls out of tune. The fine tuners don't work right either. It makes me sad. This weekend I thought I'd get to play a lot, but this is frustrating and discouraging.
Tunings:
With a floating-bridge, the player can not switch to any tuning aside from standard; without the necessity of readjusting the springs located inside the spring-cavity on the back of the guitar. The alternation of the spring-tension is necessary to compensate for the different tension that the new tuning places on the strings.
The floating-bridge needs to be perfectly balanced to be fully operation and allow for maximum diving and raising of the unit. This can be easily checked by looking at the guitar from its side and seeing how the bridge lines up with the flat surface of guitar. Tuning the guitar to even Drop D (Alternation of only one string..) will cause a noticeable drop on the bridge, keep that in mind.
Adjusting the springs can be a several hour job for beginners. Even for professions it can still eat up a solid half hour of time because simply put; it's a precision job. Also, this can be at times risky and quite possibly impossible to return back to normal if one' decides to quit midway. This often comes down to having to visit a store for a professional setup of the instrument.
Tuning:
- Whip out a digital tuner and cord (Unless your ears are trained better than Paul Gilbert's, this is going to be painfully difficult.
- Make sure that all the fine tuners are perfectly leveled to mid-point of their full-extent.
- Unlock the locking-nut.
- It's not necessary but I personally find that tuning all the strings a bit below what they should be at, helps. Just don't tune it to the point where the bridge will drop... or else more problems will arise.
- Start tuning each string as it would normally be done; to its according note.
- Keep rotating through the strings. Each rotation should cause them to go out of tune a bit less than the last until to the point where they will all stay perfectly tuned.
- At this point lock the locking-nut with the provided wrench to the point where it's a hard to budge. (Doing it with fingers will only bring failure).
- The slight bit of tension the locking-nut might now place on the strings might cause them to go a bit out of tune (Mainly only happens with the E and A; thickest strings).
- This is where you use the fine-tuners to finely tune them back to perfection.
If it still goes out of tune; the floating-bridge is fucked. If it goes out of tune on a freshly opened package of strings; it means that you didn't stretch them out enough before tuning/locking.
P.S. You can still get the guitar into working order before Saturday starts. I was in the same situation as you were on the first night with my Jackson two years ago, it was depressing & frustrating till good ol' Google helped out.
