ES 336 will not stay in tune

[fullback]

My 2008 336 will not stay in tune to save my life. Could it be the tuners...are hollow bodies just finicky...any help would be greatly appreciated... thx, tyke

[clayville]

http://forums.gibson.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=23737

[Mark]

Have you used grafite in the nut or Big Ben;s Nut Sauce, if your strings have too

much tention in the nut they won't flex to your playing and go out of tune easily.

Do your tuners have any play in them?

Have you ever brought it into a luthier?

My point is theres lots of reasons

[sok66]

This is almost always caused by the strings binding in the nut grooves. It's a particular problem on Gibsons due to their peghead angles and 3-on-a-side tuners. The strings have several bends over the nut and can stick at any or all of them.

 

Not all strings bind. To pin down your problem ones, starting with the high E tune to pitch, bend it upwards 1 1/2 steps, then check tune again. If its sharp, it's sticking. Do this on all of the first four strings (these are usually the culprits). Before you try lubing the slots, try CAREFULLY opening them up with some extremely fine wet or dry sandpaper, folded under the string. Slide the sandpaper back & forth a few times, then try the bend trick again. If it still goes sharp do the sandpaper again. Be VERY CAREFUL not to deepen the groove, you just want to widen it. Once you get the first string returning to pitch, move on to the next one and do the same thing. If this works, you're done. If it's still sticking, try a tiny bit of Vaseline, nut sauce, silicone paste, etc. in the offending groove(s). If even this doesn't work then you'll need to take more drastic action, which should be best left to a good luthier. They can use nut files to precisely shape the groove & eliminate the binding. I presently have a '59 RI 335 that's given me fits with this, to the point I finally just replaced the entire nut with a Tusq.