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I have a fender squire strat . It goes out of tune very frequently, even after i bend my string once and also is a bit out of tune towards the higher notes.

Are there any good blogs or sites which points someone to guitar self repair so that i can start learning it to fix by myself? Probably fit in a new pair of tuning heads ? Change pickups etc?

Which sites do you suggest?


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up vote 5 down vote accepted

I would suggest

Fitting machine heads is actually incredibly easy - if you buy ones of the same type as those you already have, you will only need a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.

Before going down the route of fitting new machine heads, there are two things you can look at though:

The reason more modern guitars have features like locking nuts is to avoid the de-tuning problem as much as possible, but with a classic, you do what you can to minimise the issue.

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Excellent answer sir ;) – Matthew Read May 15 '12 at 15:50

The upper frets going out of tune suggest to me that the bridge might need some attention. Make sure it's flush against the body, not pulled-up by the strings. You might need to tighten the springs in the back or even add an additional spring.

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  1. Make sure you put the string on the machine correctly. It's best to wind the string under tension. Use one hand to keep the string stretched and the other to turn the machine head.
  2. Put at least two full windings (under tension, see #1) on the head
  3. If you have a tremolo, remove it or bolt it down. Cheap tremolos go always out of tune
  4. If the higher frets are out of tune, you need to adjust the string length at the bridge. It's easy to do: Use a tuner to tune the open string (or better the "first harmonic"). Then fret at the twelfth fret. Should be the same note. If it's sharp make the string longer, if it's flat, make the string shorter. Repeat until the pitches of fretted and un-fretted note match.

P.S. you play the "first harmonic" by putting your finger lightly on the string over the twelfth fret but NOT pressing down. You get a note that's exactly one octave above the open string. You may have to shift the finger a little bit up and down the string to find the right spot

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