My Gibson Les Paul Studio Refuses to Stay in Tune! Help!
 

I have a white Gibson Les Paul Studio.

The G and High E strings constantly go out of tune. Has anyone experienced this with Les Pauls? What is causing it?

My SG did it terribly. I had a friend file the nut slots and
Do a set up. Perfect now. Find a good tech and go for it.

Gibsons and other guitars with an angled headstock have this issue often. My 335 studio was no different.

In most cases it is the strings binding in the slots due to severe break angle - as you tune up or bend strings while playing the section of the string between the nut and the tuners becomes slightly tighter than the main section. If you sometimes hear a ping as you are tuning and the string drops in pitch slightly then that is evidence for this problem.

Getting a tech to widen the slots very slightly is one solution as well as using a nut lubricant when changing strings. These options worked for my 335.

isn't it a normal behaviour for new (replaced) strings ? :confused:

I used to get that all the time. It stopped once I started playing in my underpants.

Well that could be misleading. It stopped once I started playing whilst wearing only my underpants.

Have you tried putting graphite, from a pencil, in the slots? You can draw/shade the slot with a very sharp pencil. Or an automatic pencil with a 0.5mm lead.

Get it setup man.

95% of all tuning isses on LP or SG is the nut. Gibson does a lousy job of prepping these for proper setup.

Test the theory... take a tooth pick and schmeer a little Vaseline in the slot for those strings if it gets better, than you know it's the nut binding up those strings.

you can also order a tube of big bends nut sauce. but a properly filed nut, you shouldn't need a lot of lube in the slots.

Talk to the tech that will do the set up (ps: do not go to guitar center, they honestly suck at this) and tell him what's going on. any one worth the money you will pay them will know how to address it. it wont be expensive, and it will play much better.

Another possibility is you have the pickups too close to the strings. If you've adjusted the pickup height or switched to lighter gauge strings before the problem started, that could be hint.

It is typically because the nut slot angles haven't be cut properly. They seem to sometimes have this problem from the factory. Every Gibson I've sent to my luthier/tech for a setup has come back completely able to keep tune.

Bob

+1, Pieter.

aeisen93 (OP): Another possibility is that your intonation is not setup correctly and that's what you're hearing as opposed to tuning issues. Can you rule out intonation?

STRING BIND!-the string 'detunes' itself when now fretted[or bent].Another common symptom...fret the string and a distinctive 'Click' is audible at the tuner[s]/nut..the string instantly loses/drops its pitch etc.STRING BIND traced..another symptom..The 'OPEN' note sounds ''IMPURE!',as if strangulated,Sitar like tone,fuzzy,buzzy,muted...but when same string now fretted..the note rings'PURE & TRUE!'
Rectification:WIDEN the slot by a few thou''...to accept the diameter of the string.,but AVOID deepening the slot whilst filing the 2 side walls!If you do,.. it affects the string height!!
String bind can suddenly 'occur' if/when you change the string gauge EG: .10 to.11 etc.

This was a weird response but I think I can decipher it...[emoji6]

Roughly translated, it's what most of us have been saying.

"it's the nut, get it fixed"

:)

I was just watching a Tim Pierce video. He has what looks like a custom shop Les paul. He says he can’t keep his g string in tune.

All guitars should be designed to keep the strings straight all the way to the tuning peg. Common sense really. ;-)

sounds like Tim needs a setup! :)

Tuning Issues
 

More than likely it's an issue with the nut slot needing to be slightly opened up towards the head stock side at an angle equal to the angle of the string to prevent binding. Another thing to try is "Big Bends Nut Sauce"
I put it on all points of my guitars the string touches. You can literally feel less restriction in the tuner right after doing so. It's wonderful stuff!

https://www.bigbends.com/