Guitar won't stay in tune? The cause is almost always the nut, unstretched strings, or worn tuners — not the guitar itself. Here's how to diagnose it.
The Nut Is the Most Common Cause
If your guitar goes out of tune every time you tune it — you tune up, play a chord, and it's already off — the nut is almost always the problem. The string is binding in the nut slot instead of sliding freely. When you turn the tuning peg, the string stretches on one side of the nut and releases when you play, which throws the pitch off.
You can confirm this yourself. Tune the string, then push it toward the nut with your finger while it's ringing. If the pitch jumps, the string is binding. A properly cut nut slot lets the string slide freely with no friction.
The fix is lubricating the nut slot — a pencil (graphite) works as a temporary solution — or having the slot recut to the correct width and depth. On cheap guitars the nut is often cut wrong from the factory. This is one of the first things we check on any guitar that comes in for a setup.
New Strings That Haven't Been Stretched
If your guitar went out of tune right after a string change, the strings haven't been stretched in. New strings are elastic. Until they've been played in and manually stretched, they'll keep going flat as the string settles under tension.
The fix: after stringing, grab each string at the 12th fret, pull it away from the body gently, retune, and repeat until the pitch stops dropping. Takes two minutes. Most players skip this step and wonder why their new strings won't hold tune.
Tuning Machines
Loose or worn tuning machines are a real cause but less common than people think. Before blaming the tuners, rule out the nut and strings first. If you've done that and the guitar still won't hold tune, check whether the tuner buttons have any play in them — side-to-side wobble means the gears are worn or the screws are loose. Tighten the mounting screws and the screw on the back of the button first. If that doesn't fix it, the tuners may need to be replaced.
Cheap tuners on budget guitars are a legitimate problem. A tuner upgrade is one of the better investments on a guitar you like but that came with poor hardware. We can do that at the shop.
The Neck
A neck with too much relief or a recent humidity change can affect tuning stability, but this usually shows up as intonation problems — the guitar is in tune open but out of tune at the 12th fret — rather than the guitar going flat between songs. If that's what you're experiencing, the guitar needs a setup, not just a tuning fix.
Upstate New York Winters Specifically
We see this every heating season. A guitar that held tune fine through the summer starts drifting constantly in January. What changed is the humidity. Dry heated air causes the neck to shift, the nut to shrink slightly, and the strings to behave differently under tension. If your guitar tunes fine in the morning and drifts by afternoon in a heated room, humidity is a factor. A case with a humidifier pack stabilizes this. See: How Humidity Affects Your Guitar.
The Honest Diagnostic Order
- New strings? Stretch them in.
- Binding at the nut? Lubricate or recut the slot.
- Tuner hardware loose or worn? Tighten or replace.
- Intonation off at the 12th fret? Needs a setup.
- Seasonal humidity change? Get a humidifier in the case.
Most tuning problems are the first two. If you've worked through the list and the guitar still won't hold tune, bring it in. We'll find it.
Bring It In
Tuning stability is one of the things we check on every setup. If your guitar won't stay in tune and you're not sure why, bring it in.
Paul's Guitar Hideout is located at The Shirt Factory in Glens Falls, NY. Use the Cooper Street entrance and take the stairs up. If you need assistance, give us a call and we'll come down.
The Shirt Factory
71 Lawrence St., Suite 201B, 2nd Floor
Glens Falls, NY 12801
Wednesday–Sunday, 12–5pm
(518) 217-8695 · info@paulsguitarhideout.com