D chord sounds out of tune on SG ?

[Ronnie Robinson]

Hello Ive recently bought a new Gibson SG having previously had Strats and Gordon Smith with P90s .When using the bridge pickup playing an open D chord, the chord sounds out of tune when using overdrive. The strings are in tune and it only happens when playing this chord . The problem is worse using the bridge pickup but less so using the combined and neck settings . Any suggestions Ive not experienced this before with my other guitars

[rafaelh]

Try not pressing down on the G string so hard.

 

LOL..I know it sounds like a crock, but IF you are coming from a Strat with vintage frets and a curved finger board to a flat board with taller frets you are going to need to do a bit of adjusting.

 

I mean you might need a nut filing or something else, I did when I got my '61 brand new. What I'm suggesting is try the cheapest first...process of elimination.

 

As a matter of fact I'm taking my Strat to my tech today and see about changing to taller frets. When I go to my Strat from SG, SG is my #1 now a days, the strings feel like they are just laying on the board...as if no frets.

 

Years ago when I was a Strat guy I would have the same troubles you speak of when I went to my SG. I would squeeze the strings out of tune....the SG had more room between the strings and the finger board than my Strat with the smaller frets.

 

As I said might not be your case, but heck who knows...at any rate it isn't costing you nothing to try.

[Jimbo]

I would echo the last post. I experienced something similar When I changed from a strat to an SG, and was starting to doubt the wisdom of changing over.The SG seemed to go out of tune when knocking out big chords.Basically the problem eventually went away after a couple of weeks after I adjusted the action from the factory set up to what I was comfortable with, and gave myself the time to naturally adjust to the different neck(in effect fretting the chords more lightly on the SG?). Since then I' have adjusted the action upwards and the problem never reappeared.I don't think the neck is as stable on an SG as,say, the Fender and my feeling was that the SG's tuning was more sensitive to how hard it was fretted down the neck.This may have been agravated by employing additional force to compensate for a factory set action that was WAY higher than I was used to. I think over time It might be an idea to lighten the fretting (possibly lower the action temporarily too) at first, but the good news is that once you become used to it you will instinctively adjust upwards again to just the right amount of presssure.

 

I found my SG neck to be hard work at first, but wouldn't part with it now.

[Ronnie Robinson]

Thanks for your replies and I will try what you suggest . Yes the neck does seem quite different to what Im use to but I am growing to love it .

[Ronnie Robinson]

Ive now changed the bridge pickup from the Gibson 498 to a Bareknuckle Riff Raff pickup which is more vintage,not only is the sound a vast improvement but the problem has disappeared .

[guitar_randy]

Ive now changed the bridge pickup from the Gibson 498 to a Bareknuckle Riff Raff pickup which is more vintage' date='not only is the sound a vast improvement but the problem has disappeared . [/quote']

 

 

That 498 doesn't sit good with me either.I never heard of the bareknuckle riff raff.Where did you find that?

[Ronnie Robinson]

Bareknuckle is an English company that make top quality hand made pickups . I ve not liked the 498 since buying the guitar so it was either the classic 57 plus or the Riff Raff which is recognised by Bareknuckle to be the bridge pickup to get for the SG .The sound is superb - have a look at the web site

[dickey]

Some vintage Gibsons, most notably 335's, have a problem whereby the guitar is in tune, but when you fret the 3rd string at the 2nd fret it sounds sharp,even though it was in tune when open. Never heard of it happening on a new Gibson; you might want to check the pickup height screws; if they're too close to the string,they will pull it out of tune when fretted ('cause it's closer to the pickup than when played open)