Elixer strings/ Robot intonation

[jimmyree]

I have the Robot "V" and recently went to do a string change. I pulled out a set of Elixer .10 coated strings and had strung about three of them before it hit me "Ok dummy you are using coated strings and the guitar relies on the strings to sense pitch and send data to the tuning heads". I would assume that bare strings would make better contact and thus work better with the Robot system (being an electrician this makes sense to me). Well I was already halfway there and I had to give it a try and what if any effects it had on the system. Well to my suprise the tuning works great as always, compared it against a tuner many times at all different alternate tunings. I can only guess that when you clamp down the locks on the tuners it cuts through the coating enough to still allow a signal to the heads, and the ball end of the elixer strings isnt coated all the way to the ball probably allowing good contact at the tailpiece. One thing I did find is that when I checked intonation my low E string was way out and I had to adjust it all the way to the stop (away from bridge P/U) to get my intonation good. Now the guitar is saying the intonation is good on that string but it sounds "off" to me and if I check the intonation again one time the MCK will say its off by a bunch (in the direction I cant adjust any further) but then if I check it again it says its dead on. A couple of my other strings are also giving me conflicting reading (one time way off, next time dead on with no adjustment). I didnt check the intonation with the factory strings on so im unsure if this is new behavior because of the coated strings or something that is normal with the guitar. Has anyone else experienced odd fluctuating readings when trying to set their intonation? If it is the coated strings does anyone know what the Robot is sensing different between tuning and intonation mode? Anyone else tried coated strings? I guess I should just go back to regular strings but Im staioned in Korea right now and I was losing a set of strings a month to rust (high humidity) before I started using the coated strings. Anyway I would appreciate any advice or comments, thanks!

[Steven Tari]

I don't know the answer about your coated strings, But as far as setting the intonation, I ran into that problem out of the box. I have a SG robot and twek mine every other day trying to find that sweet spot where the Guitar and I agree that it's perfect. I love the ease of getting it tuned. I have coated on my accoustic. Tell me how they work and sound. later

[jimmyree]

Steve, thanks for the info. If your guitar is also having intonation issues that would lead me to believe that the system is either not very accurate for intonation or very very sensitive to how you strumm the string when setting intonation. The Elixer strings sound awesome on my "V" , they have a very loud full sound and I actually do alot of unplugged practice with my guitar since I put them on. Playing unplugged my "V" is loud enough for the wife to complain if she is watching something on TV and I am playing in the same room . Plugged in they are just great sounding strings, they have more boldness than the Gibson brite wires (which I like very much by the way!). I'd say they sound outstanding all the way from clean to dirty dirty, but the clean tones are where they really shine. Plugged into a clean channel on the amp I get an acoustic sound so realistic it could fool you if you had your eyes closed (without any effects). I play mostly rock, classic rock, and hard rock and I haven't found any areas where the strings seem to be lacking. The one negative I have found (and its really not a big deal) is that the coating makes it hard to get a good pick slide, but I can live with that. I have a buddy who plays quite a bit more than me (20-30 hours a week versus my 15-20) and he says that once the coating starts breaking down (about a month for him) the sound quality quickly drops off. I have had my set on the guitar for about a month and a half now and have noticed no changes yet. I guess if I played more and had to change strings once a month to keep that sound it wouldn't bother me a bit even considering they are a bit more pricey than most strings. Another plus is that they have shown no signs of corrosion at all, and that is awesome considering how often I was changing strings on all of my guitars because of rust.

[Steven Tari]

Jimmy, thanks for that info. I don't live very far from the Elizabeth River and also it's very humid here in the summer. My strings have a tendency to rust over nite. Working on the water front we use a lot of WD-40 to help things from rusting. I tried it by putting it on a cloth and lightly rubbing it on the strings. It just made the strings to slick and I started loseing my calluses on the tips of my fingers, Not Good. Plus it was getting my finger board fouled up. Had to get a good cleaning kit to get the guitar right again. Those strings sound worth trying. On that intonation issue I know ever time you twek one string it throws every thing off. So what I've done Is got away from going from Low E to High E. I stagger the strings and make sure that I tune the string every time I mess with one during Intonation. Its getting sweeter and I have to tune the guitar a lot less,and it holds tuning a lot longer. Also the harmonics are getting sweeter. Anything worth having, Is worth working for.

Thanks/Later

[BigKahune]

I have a SG Robot that was delivered with a decent setup, but the intonation was off. My Robot's onboard intonation setup did not produce good results, so I set it manually with good result. But... I found the same thing as jimmyree with my low E - I had to adjust it just a smidgen from the stop to get it set correctly. Kind of too close for comfort.

[kursal]

To be honest, I always was a little weary of the Robot's intonation set up capabilities. I was actually really happy with the set up out-of-the-box. Interestingly though, I found that the tuning will change slightly depending on how hard I strum the strings. It's really obvious when they're off but often re-tuning is all that's needed to fix the problem.

 

I do wonder if you have a similar problem?

[jimmyree]

Kursal, I have found that if you find the right strum for the system to tune itself perfectly and condition yourself to use the same amout of force and pick "bite" each time you will have less of these kind of problems. I use a medium speed/force and it works well for me, I also stick with the same thickness pick and it took me a couple of weeks but I have my tuning strumm down. Its just a learned habit, pays of in the end. As far as the intonation problem im gonna do a little playing around tonight and see what kind of results i can get. I messed with it a little last night and found that strumming the individual strings with my thumb seemed to help it get a lot closer to perfect when compared with a tuner. My only concern is that I am still to close for comfort to the adjustment stop on the low E string, if I run out of adjustment and can't get my guitar intonated im gonna have to send it back to Gibson. Ill let everyone know what I find out with my experiments tonight.

[kursal]

Kursal, I have found that if you find the right strum for the system to tune itself perfectly and condition yourself to use the same amout of force and pick "bite" each time you will have less of these kind of problems.

 

Yes, that's what I am learning myself. Thanks for the info :-)

[CharlieP]

I was running out of adjustment on the low E as well right out of the box. After using the Robot for a few months I changed to a fresh set and didn't have that problem. Intonation has been known to change from set to set. I wonder if there is a difference in the batch of Brite Wires that Gibson used to install on these guitars.