tuning up damage?

[thingthatisdone]

I tuned up a whole step on a solid topped guitar and forgot to tune it down for about 3 days, just wondering if this would cause any damage.

[Brucebubs]

No.

[Osage]

I couldn't tell you without seeing the guitar but it's doubtful.

[Misifus]

As a rule, I only ever tune down.

[heavy_picker]

Next time use a capo.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by thingthatisdone

I tuned up a whole step on a solid topped guitar and forgot to tune it down for about 3 days, just wondering if this would cause any damage.

Something that relying on electronic tuners has done is to make us forget how often stringed instruments got tuned sharp and left that way back in the decades that passed before we started having these inexpensive digital gizmos on hand to use as references. Bluegrass musicians in particular were infamous for starting out at concert pitch - more or less - then gradually creeping ever sharper as the music got loud and they couldn't hear themselves very well. One guy tweaks his guitar just a tad sharp, unintentionally, but then the mandolin and then the banjo players follow suit, until at the end of a stage set or clamorous parking lot picking session, the stringed instruments everyone's been playing have been brought to (sometimes significantly) greater tension.

Yet somehow those instruments survived....

Back in the 1930's and 40's, when sound reproduction was primitive and the musicians playing live at radio stations all over the country would have to crowd around one microphone, guitar players started using ever heavier strings, with .060 low E's being common and even heavier gauges sometimes being used. This definitely had some negative impact on some guitars, which is why Martin changed from scalloped braces to straight after WWII, but even so, plenty of scalloped fret guitars got strung that way and still managed to remain intact.

That's a lot of tension to leave on a guitar, yet people did it, and their guitars often held up just fine.

So if the OP tuned his or her guitar a step up and forgot to lower the tension for a few days, I don't think the sky is going to fall anytime soon. The gauge of the strings wasn't mentioned, either, but if the light gauge strings that have become most players' usual gauge were used, there's even less to worry about, since the additional tension would probably be close to what mediums generate.

Short version: it's not a crisis. I agree that it's not a great idea to go leaving a standard six string guitar tuned from F# to F# on a regular basis, particularly if it's strung with mediums, but leaving it tuned there for three days isn't something I'd lose any sleep over.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Dreadfulnaught]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

No.

Nyah, that’ll buff out.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Dreadfulnaught

Nyah, that’ll buff out.

That's right - that guy just needs to humidify the guitar a little bit more!


whm

[vindibona1]

Originally Posted by thingthatisdone

I tuned up a whole step on a solid topped guitar and forgot to tune it down for about 3 days, just wondering if this would cause any damage.

Why do this when you can simply put a capo on fret 2?

[Jim in TC]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

That's right - that guy just needs to humidify the guitar a little bit more!


whm

I myself would consider (and, on an old Venture once actually used) bondo.

[rodmbds]

I have two questions which, I hope, will answer your first one:

1) have you brought the tuning back to standard or is it still higher?

2) the best person to assess if there's any damage is yourself, as it's your guitar.

As Wade said, probably a longer period will cause damage but three days is not the end of the world. Just try not to forget it next time you tune up.

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

No.

That's opening up nicely.

[guitar george]

The back of the bridge could lift a bit from the forward rotational pull of the strings over the saddle (if the top collapses, somewhat in front of the saddle), but, the strings cannot pull the bridge off. The strings do not pull on the bridge, so, the only significant damage would be if the strings pull the top off like in the previous pictures.

[Epiphone100]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

No.

Perfect for slide now !!!!