weird out-of-tuneness...

[HTH AMPS]

Just wondering if anyone has come up against this before.  I gig the same Les Paul standard every weekend, had it for over 16 years now.  Last night the low E wouldn't tune against the A string.  If I got the E in tune in the open position, it'd be flat up past the 5th fret, and similarly if I tuned the E to be in tune up above the 5th fret, it'd be sharp in the open position.

Nothing has changed on the guitar except the strings - same brand as always (Pyramid 11s), just a new set.

Is it possible to get a 'dud' string that could cause this?

I'm gonna break open a new set of strings just to be sure, but this is the oddest thing I've come across for a while (save for floyd roses, but thats another story).

Any help/advice/experiences appreciated.

[AndyR]

Yep, all other things being equal I'd suspect a dud string.

If you weren't MR HTH, 4.5K posts and all, I'd be thinking "noob! yer intonation's up the spout...", but I'm guessing you've got that covered... :lol:

I always check my intonation with a new set of strings anyway, but if they're the same make/gauge I don't usually expect to have to adjust it. Occasionally there's a duff one. I'll give it a tweak and put up with it. But I've never had a really bad one.

EDIT: Just had a thought, no chance of damage to the nut (or bridge) that you haven't spotted yet? That has happened to me before - it was behaving weird, and then a day or two later I noticed a big chunk of nut had disappeared somewhere!

[38thBeatle]

I'd go with the dud string theory first of all too. I have , albeit rarely, had a set that wasn't any good and a change solved it.

[Denim n Leather]

Bad string.

I had the same thing happening with my D/G strings; would not intonate to save my life. Put new strings on, and problem vanished.

[HTH AMPS]

gonna replace the string as that seems to be all it could be - will let you guys know.

[Pete24v]

i had the same thing on an ernie ball A string a few months back, bugged the hell out of me until I changed it

[HTH AMPS]

ok, strings changed (E and A), no difference - still the low E that is out of tune.

this is doing my head in.

anyone?

[Twinfan]

Bad batch of strings?  I've had the same problem in 2 sets before.

It happens...

[MrBump]

I had it, a bad string, and posted something on here about it a few months ago - when I bent the string a full tone, the pitch barely moved a quarter tone.

But that was the first bad string I'd had in 25 years!!!

[HTH AMPS]

I'm kinda ruling out the bad strings theory - its only the low E (wound) that is playing up, and thats two E's and A's I've installed now.

Any other theories?

Just to rule this out, I'm gonna buy a set of D'Addario 11s in 'toon' tomorrow and see if that helps - I'm really loathed to waste more sets of strings; I hate waste.

[Denim n Leather]

Stupid question:  Did you check/adjust the intonation at the 12th fret?

[Matt77]

Stupid question:  Did you check/adjust the intonation at the 12th fret?

Has the neck twisted? :?

[HTH AMPS]

Stupid question:  Did you check/adjust the intonation at the 12th fret?

Has the neck twisted? :?

I hope not, however this would have needed to have happened in the space of a day or two as it was playing fine, then out of tune within a few days at a subsequent gig.

no intonation check, nothing has changed on the guitar in 12 years in that respect - always used 11s on this Les Paul.  but fwiw, I've just checked the intonation and its fine.

[hunter]

sometimes a weather change can twist the neck quite fast, check truss rod and intonation, check if the nut looks good, lubricate with some pencil/graphite, check if the saddle is tight or wobbly, pickup height, or maybe the tuner got loose somehow (happens on Klusons).

Gazillion possible reasons, and yes, it can be a pita to isolate the actual issue.

[HTH AMPS]

This is baffling everyone that I've asked about it.

I've just got a set of D'Addario 11s and am going to try them in a last ditch attempt before handing it over to a guitar tech.  My reticence to do this until now is due to nothing changing on the guitar - same routine string change I've done countless times.  We don't have severe weather changes here in the north of England, its fairly consistent.