Guitar G-Strings

James

:winky:

Over time I've noticed that, no matter what guitar I'm using (as long as it's a solid body electric), I can never get the G string to sound quite right. I normally use a BOSS TU-2 Chromatic tuner pedal, and I'm fairly certain that the problem isn't any of the guitars or the pedal, because I have this problem with other people's equipment also.

I have never had this problem on acoustic guitars, which normally have a wound G string. So I'm wondering, would putting a wound acoustic string on an electric fix this (as long as I match the gauge)? Or would it simply transfer the problem to the B?

Has anyone else encountered this?

Evil Multifarious

I think i know what you mean. I have a similar problem with B strings on acoustics, as they can be very finnicky

try fiddling with your tuning and going a bit flat or a bit sharp on all the strings, sometimes that fixes it

really, though, no one can tell except you when they're listening to you play.

pinenut_canary

Because of the physical construction of the guitar, especially the neck/fretboard, it's impossible for the G string (more so than other strings at least) to stay in tune when pressed down at any fret. When open it might be in tune, but some other notes on each fret will be slightly out of tune. I think the more to the center you get (between the fifth fret and 12th fret), the more out of tune it gets. More expensive guitars are less out of tune, but it is physically impossible for it to be pitch perfect. The bow of the neck, the action, the curvature of the width of the neck, the frets themselves, all have so much to do with it, that it's really hard to get every note on every string in tune.

I once saw a guitar that was tweaked to counteract this, and the frets weren't like normal frets, instead, they were lowered or raised (not action wise, but length of fretboard wise), so many of the frets were crooked. It was a cool concept and a good visual of what areas of the fretboard were flat/sharp, but it's pretty stupid to play in the long run (vibratos, hammer ons, pull offs, bending).

The best you could do (if it's an electric guitar) is to make sure that the open string and it's octave on the same string (12th fret) are both pitch perfect as much as possible. This is done by altering the bridge/saddle. This link right here is pretty good on instruction: http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/Electric_Guitar_Intonation.htm

This is really noticeable with cheaper guitars. Really nice guitars that are built with quality are harder to notice. Basically, only really pitch perfect people will be able to notice the difference when the guitar is tweaked as best as possible.

Somebody feel free to correct me, because I know I'm probably inaccurate on some things. I read about all of this on a guitar forum a while ago.

James

I'm fairly certain that it's not the guitar construction that does this, because I have this problem on a variety of electric guitars (from my old Roadstar II to my $1200 SG), and from a variety of ownerships, yet I haven't noticed it on any acoustics. All of my guitars are set up properly, and once in tune they don't stray much; it's just a matter of getting the string in tune in the first place.

I am however one of those "pitch perfect people" so I'm sure most people can't tell the difference, but it really frustrates me anyway :P

pinenut_canary

I admit that I didn't read your whole post, so I didn't actually address your situation. I'm not a luthier nor a physics expert, but in at first, what you're doing seems to be all right. The only problem I see is that even though the gauge is the same, the tension of the string might be different due to the different materials used for the respective type of guitar. If it's more "taught" or "loose", it could change the intonation/bow of your neck, so you would have to retune all your other strings. It could also put unwanted stress on your neck, which is never a good thing. All of this could lead to a bunch of problems (action, etc). So all in all, I wouldn't recommend it.

As with what you said in your second post, it does effect acoustics, and the very construction/idea of the guitar is why it has imperfect intonation. I haven't read anything about how much the difference is between electrics and acoustics, but it's there.

G string is often the "rogue" string when it comes to pitch intonation. It tends to behave erratically due to the fact that to vibrate at open G and to maintain a tension similar to the others it has to be more massive and (thus) thicker. Thicker means less flexible. Less flexible means that its "nodes" -- the portions at the ends which don't vibrate because they are too stiff -- is greater than on the other strings. Thus they tend to play sharp, and sharper still as you play up the fingerboard, because the node length remains the same as the string length gets smaller, and the proportion of vibrating to non-vibrating string material between the fret and the saddle is getter greater at every succesive interval.

And here's a link to a forum. Yeah I know it's a forum, but there are a few people with a lot of experience, and are luthiers themselves (ninth post): http://ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?p=12554365

The first paragraph of this link: http://www.marcelroy.com/mods/bridge/bridge.html

oldsak

My guitar tech, who has tremendous experience, has told me basically the same thing as pinenut_canary is saying.

James

Ahh, thanks for the further explanation.

I will definitely run it by an expert face-to-face before putting a wound string on, if I go that route.