WHAT CAUSES THESE TUNING ISSUES?
On Les Pauls and SGs in particular it’s two things. Angles. One thing is the severe back angle of the headstock, at about 17 degrees or so. The main culprit though is the angle of strings from the nut to the tuners. Anyone who has had issues with the D and G strings on guitars know what I’m talking about. What basically happens is due to the pressure of the strings on the nut and these angles, the strings dig into the nut and you get string binding. You can hear it when it happens when you get extra noise (quite loud pinging sound) while tuning. Bend your G string and it goes flat. It can be a right nightmare, and actually caused my Les Paul to sit unused for about a year as I couldn’t trust it for anything. The usual tricks that many do, like filing the nut and using lubricants only help for a short while as the strings will dig further into nut eventually – and constantly having to do that is to say the least incredibly annoying.SO, HOW DOES IT WORK?
In short, the String Butler gets you straight string pull through the nut, which is the best thing for tuning stability. Ask anyone with a Telecaster. 😉 The rollers on the String Butler makes sure there is extremely little friction. I’ve had mine for about a year now, and it’s one of the smartest things I’ve ever bought. Tuning frequency now is exactly the same as my other guitars. Installing it is incredibly easy, and best of all is it’s not permanent. Great news for anyone who might want to sell their guitars later. Mount it under the hex nut of the 1st and 6th tuners, string up and go. Dead simple.HOW MUCH?
About 47 USD or thereabouts. Amazon link here, and you can also find it at Reverb and Thomann. I can highly recommend it for sure (and no, I’m not in any way sponsored or anything like that). Video of Tim Pierce putting it to good use here: Hope this was helpful!