God Damn 2018 Les Paul won't stay in tune!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mikeyboyeee
  • Start date Start date
Very interested in this. I am interested in filing the back of the nut (tuner-side) slots for tuning stability for my hard tail guitar. Bottom and sides of the back of the slot. Anybody do this? I have terrible tuning issues as well, I can't bend or do vibrato.



 
  • Like
Reactions: PDC
Greazygeo said:
Some nut blanks just suck, may need to try another blank.
Click to expand...
This! I went through the same problem as you did Mikey and it was the nut. However it took me 4 tries to get it right. On the 4th time I took it to a professional along with the other 3 nuts I had and he said they were all garbage. I was actually annoyed and taken back a bit when he told me that, especially for the money I just apparently wasted. In the end, he told me graphite was garbage for LP's and to go with bone. He had to sand down the nut seat just a tad, custom filed the slots to accommodate up to a heavy guage set (056-012) and boom, problem solved.

BTW, I still like graphite nuts and have some on a few other of my super strat guitars that play perfectly. LP's are just strange like that.
 
restring the guitar. only leave 2 inches of string above the tuner. the string should wrap around the tuner with only 2 or 3 turns. more than that will cause tuning issues.

cut the 4th string excess lenght. take that piece of excess string and run it up and down the 3rd string slot pressing sidesays, not down. you don’t want to make the nut slot deeper, just wider. Make sure your get both sides. go slow so you don’t widen the slot too much. Also run the string a few times through the bridge saddle.

the guitar will sound more open and also stay in tune. I have done this in all my les pauls and esp eclipses, no tuning problems.
 
I also gigged with half a dozen different LP's for years (hey guess what i have back issues now...but thats another thread), and yeah that G string is always an issue to some degree. my 2 best LP's had SS refrets and new nuts done by Micheal Tuttle. They were pretty much perfect, but if it ever did slip out of tune it was always that string.

....i play an explorer now... 6 in a line tuners, baby!
 
Mikeyboyeee said:
Yes he's already offered, so will bring back, but pretty mutch at wits end.
Click to expand...
I reread my earlier posts and absolutely did not mean to sound like an ass. I am a hobbyist only and I have no doubt your repairman has skills far beyond mine. I was just reliving the frustration of my own nut grooving learning curve. The previous post with the videos by Dan Erlewine are excellent. The big issue with the LP nut is that the D and G strings break down at the back of the nut AND break left and right to angle toward the two banks of tuners. The left and right breaks are most dramatic for the inner most D and G strings. Ramping those 2 grooves down only like you would a strat will not work. Those 2 grooves also need a gentle left and right relief to prevent that side-binding. I am 99% sure your guy will have done this when he initially set your nut up - but just needs a few extra passes with the file.
Listen to John Sykes, Doug Aldrich, and Zakk Wyde’s incredible vibrato on LPs - also lots of behind the nut bending tricks. Once that nut is fine tuned and lubed with a drop of light oil in each slot, your LP will be rock solid.
 
No need to ditch that guitar if it sounds nice and resonates well. Tuning issues can be fixed, but a guitar that sounds dead or does not resonate etc not.
 
Mikeyboyeee said:
As mentioned, I had a VERY good and well renowned tech custom cut a bone nut for me 2 weeks ago. It's pretty much same as before he replaced the factory nut.
Click to expand...
Mine was possessed by Satan himself. Bone nut, locking tuners. Top luthier. I was lucky if it would get through one song. Fight it for 6 years. Sold it. Went to LTD’s. I am in heaven.
 
Read thru the post. This is the exact reason I cannot do a Paul. Or SG. Tried it all. New nuts. Graphite. Nothing.
I’m not a ‘hard’ player string bender. But it always came out of tune in a jam session. My old custom shop explorers with the Kahler never did.
Love the guitars. Look feel. But always pushed me back to floyd guitars.
 
A new properly cut TusqXL nut and a String Butler cured my Les Paul tuning nightmare. Stays in tune now even with heavy bending.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PDC
Mikeyboyeee said:
As mentioned, I had a VERY good and well renowned tech custom cut a bone nut for me 2 weeks ago. It's pretty much same as before he replaced the factory nut.
Click to expand...
Who Made the Nut for you? I Need a New Guy that doesn't have Long Wait times?
 
Mikeyboyeee said:
http://www.sixstringtheory.net/
He's in Miami not too far from me. Took him a few weeks. Great dude. Very happy with my other setups by him. Floyd and non.
Click to expand...
I'm an Hour North of Miami. My usual guy is in PSL Which is an Hour North of me but he's very busy. I'm using a New guy now in Coral Springs. I've never had a Tuning Problem with any of the Gibsons i've had. Big bends Nut Sauce or Regular Graphite from a Pencil has worked fine for me. I have 1 LP Where the nut has been replaced with a Bone Nut & That Guitar Is perfect.
 
Detroit1973 said:
I'm an Hour North of Miami. My usual guy is in PSL Which is an Hour North of me but he's very busy. I'm using a New guy now in Coral Springs. I've never had a Tuning Problem with any of the Gibsons i've had. Big bends Nut Sauce or Regular Graphite from a Pencil has worked fine for me. I have 1 LP Where the nut has been replaced with a Bone Nut & That Guitar Is perfect.
Click to expand...
Cool. I used to live up in Pompano, then Lake worth prior (originally from the shitty state of NJ). My mom lives in Lake Worth, so I am up that way a bit still.
Give Alex a ring. If you come down this way, lmk.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top