New Guitar Trouble

[msmith4432]

I bought an LP traditional with p90s from eBay. It looked like a nice guitar, it's in Great shape almost like new. Here is the problem, it shipped with no strings so I put a new set on and encountered something I never have in 14 years of playing guitar. When I began to tune it, it would not even make a musical sound, I don't mean the intonation was jacked and it wouldn't stay in tune, but it would not even make a musical sound, I'm taking to my tech on Monday to see if he can get it straitened out, any ideas what this could be?

[Norrin Radd]

Hard to say without more details or lots of good photos of the set up.

[Boy_Narf]

Sounds to me that the neck might be severely back bowed and the strings are fretting out. Probably just a truss rob adjustment required.

[Les Paul Lover]

I'm not sure I understand what the issue is.

Does the string vibrate when picked?
Is the problem only apparent unplugged, or plugged, or both?

I don't really understand what you mean by "not a musical sound".

[a.hun]

Yeah, you're going to have to give us a bit more of a clue on what's happening / not happening with this Gibby.

Personally I'd say that sounds pretty dodgy though, and as I've said a couple of times a name on the headstock guarantees nothing. Personally I don't buy without trying, Gibson or anything else for that matter.

Hmmm...


Andy.

[msmith4432]

Ok, hard to explain, for lack of a better explanation the intonation is so bad that when I strum it's as if it was one of those $50 guitars that won't tune, but I have never had anything like this before, it has to be the truss Rd competely jacked up, I'll know Monday when I take it to my tech, or hopefully I'll know

[msmith4432]

Sounds to me that the neck might be severely back bowed and the strings are fretting out. Probably just a truss rob adjustment required.

This would be my guess

[Wendigo]

Backbowed, or the pickups are raised so high that the magnets are choking the strings?

[mr_william]

as some of the others have said; "not a musical sound"

i assume you've put new strings on and stretched them out plenty...

so, when you tune the low E, and hit that. unfretted, does it ring true, stay in tune?

how about the other strings? if yes to all...

back to the low E, when you fret the 1st fret, does it still ring true, stay in tune?

is it fretting out anywhere? how about the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. and the other strings?

if it's fretting out somewhere, it's a combination of the bridge height and truss rod.

if it's not fretting out at all, then look to the intonation - is it in tune at the 12th fret?

but if you're taking it to your tech tomorrow...

i believe there's an old school of thought that suggests if you're removing strings, slacken the truss rod - as it's there to counteract the strings - no strings means no need to have the truss rod tightened. a google search will show up some info on this...

[a.hun]

i believe there's an old school of thought that suggests if you're removing strings, slacken the truss rod - as it's there to counteract the strings - no strings means no need to have the truss rod tightened. a google search will show up some info on this...

Nope, I'd not exactly be going along with that one. If removing the strings you should also be replacing them. There is no good reason not to have guitars strung unless you are actually working on them at the time, say doing a fret job or some such. Even then I don't think most techs would feel any inclination to slacken a correctly adjusted truss rod because it wouldn't be correctly adjusted any more. It is for adjusting the neck for string tension, and once correctly set is best left well alone or you'd need to start all over again.

Specifically with Gibsons though there is a good argument for shipping them with reduced string tension, that being to help reduce their neck breakage (@ headstock) thing. (Which can happen easily even inside a good fitting case!) Again though I'd be leaving the truss rod so it was adjusted for full string tension. Why exactly wouldn't you???


Andy.

[msmith4432]

Alright guys, thanks for all your help and input. I took it by my techs house this morning, the truss rod was all out of whack, he released it and got it where it needed to be. This solved 90% of the problem, the next problem was the intonation was hordendeous. I left it with him and he said he would give it a full set up, but it's good to know that it's not a major problem albeit the guitar was not playable prior to getting the truss rod readjusted.

[a.hun]

Glad to hear it looks more promising! Exactly the sort of reason why you wouldn't normally want to slacken a truss rod though.

Pretty crazy that someone did that IMO. I guess maybe they had a go at the guitar themselves but really didn't have a clue what they were doing and just gave up on it...?


Andy.

[bclaire]

Alright guys, thanks for all your help and input. I took it by my techs house this morning, the truss rod was all out of whack, he released it and got it where it needed to be. This solved 90% of the problem, the next problem was the intonation was hordendeous. I left it with him and he said he would give it a full set up, but it's good to know that it's not a major problem albeit the guitar was not playable prior to getting the truss rod readjusted.

Well, as soon as I read there were no strings on it, the first thing I thought was that any intonation adjustments are gone. With a Gibson, if there isn't the tension of even one string over the bridge, the height adjustment will go south and the saddles can rattle around out of adjustment.

Now that it's been strung and adjusted, plan on readjusting it in a couple of days since it will need time to settle in with the neck back under tension....

[a.hun]

Now that it's been strung and adjusted, plan on readjusting it in a couple of days since it will need time to settle in with the neck back under tension....

Yeah that'll definitely move at first. If the tech is half decent he'll keep it for a few days to let it settle some. Definitely don't be in too much of a hurry to have it back tomorrow, the day after, maybe a couple of days longer.


Andy.

[msmith4432]

Billy, a.hun

Thanks guys for the advice on it settling back in, I was not aware of that. You are saying the intonation will need to be tweaked right?