Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Tuning, Gluing

I'm a tad sick and tired of my Les Paul sounding out of tune. I know I seem like an infomercial but honestly, why doesn't everyone use the Earvana compensated nut system?
Confusingly there's a couple different kinds of nuts they have for the Les Paul. But I think that for all practical purposes the drop-in shelf nut is the one you want.
I mean good grief. That G# on the 3rd string always sounds terrible on a regular guitar. And if that doesn't suck the D chord (you know, that first D chord you learn) sounds like an out-of-tune mess. But with the Earvana I'm not cringing all the time.
Last time I brought in my Les Paul to Matt at 30th Street Guitars he didn't want to put the Earvana nut on. Instead he put a tiny sliver of bone on the nut where the G string touches. And yeah, that cleans up the intonation on that string a bit. But the problem is that B string also has issues. So this time I'm just gonna insist. I know it will decrease the value of the instrument. But I don't care. I don't have the guitar as an investment. I have it because I want to play it. Loud. And, hopefully, in-tune.
 Cytomic makes a well-reviewed SSL-style limiter called The Glue.

No comments: