Official Luthiers Forum!

Folks I need some help. I have built 5 instuments so far, three guitars, a stum stick and a dulcimer. My last was a kit built Stew Mac Triple 000. I have had a blast. I copied and built two Martin Backbacker clones with my own plans. Basically I have had good sucess and could figure out most issues on my own.

But now I am baffled. My second Backbacker is the problem. It has never stayed in tune. First one was no problem. The second ones only difference is materials (mahogany vs. black walnut) and an acoustic pickup I added. When I built it I did not have nut files so I did the best I could with small needle files. I just replaced the nut yesterday, so I had a nice fit for the strings, so the friction was good, with no excessive space. I tought that would fix it, but it did not. The tuners are inexpensive closed tuners, so my next try will be a swap out of those to see if that is the problem. VSL is correct, fret placement is on target. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Joe

Hi Joe and welcome to the OLF!

I wanted to bump this thread to the top of the list for you so that it gets some attention.

Welcome aboard!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Hi Joe,

when you say wont tune .. as in the strings are constanatly not staying to pitch once tuned ?? that would be mostly tuners. If you tune the open strings, and they are good and stay put, but first position chords sound wonky, and then then you tune the G chord to be good, and others get bad/worse .. that to me is a nut placement issue if the frets are correctly placed.

Does the nut round back at the top edge at all ..that puts the string break point furhter back, causing all sorts of wierd tuning issues ...

What happens when you capo 1, then tune and play chords - are they better ?? If so, its the nut placement IMO.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

First thanks for the hello Hesh!
Tony you are correct they constantly are out of tune. I am going to swap out the tuners. I used stem mac closed before and they were ok. I have some Gotoh, I am going to try.
I was making my own nuts out of corian. The open strings are good and stay put, but first position chords do sound wonky,What happens when you capo 1, then tune and play chords - are they better ?? If so, its the nut placement IMO.
Hi Joe,

when you say wont tune .. as in the strings are constanatly not staying to pitch once tuned ?? that would be mostly tuners. If you tune the open strings, and they are good and stay put, but first position chords sound wonky, and then then you tune the G chord to be good, and others get bad/worse .. that to me is a nut placement issue if the frets are correctly placed. Interestiong that you mentioned to use of the capo 1, then tune and play chords - are did sound better. So bet on the nut placement The nut that I just put on snapped out a piece to I will have to try another. It was pretty flat at the top edge so I am pretty comfortable that it was breaking where it should, but I may have had a different break.

I still have a lot to learn so I will buy a couple of nuts from stew mac and try to get them right. I had absolutely no trouble on my Triple ooo, if fact it fact string placement and set up was so easy I thought I did something wrong. I appeciate the help as I can I am going to try your suggestions and see what works. Nice thing about guitar building, you always have a supply of kindling wood if things don't quite work out! Guitar building teaches humility and patience for sure.