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Permalink Reply by Keith on March 1, 2015 at 1:16pm

Flex in the neck, stretch in the strings (new ones especially) poor tuners, aggressive strumming, rapid temperature changes. All these cause tuning issues. Seems that anytime a child touches one of my guitars I have to retune. Some instruments seem to be delicate in tuning I have one acoustic that I can't knock out of tune with a ball peen hammer. Also most tremolo systems have a negative effect on tuning some like Floyd rose are better than others and others like the original fender stratocaster trems are horrible. So really anything can cause it and you can count on it to happen at the worst possible time...

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on March 3, 2015 at 5:12pm

yep good answer !

also.  

movement between the box and neck, ie if your neck join is not tight enough and the neck can move around in its slot.

open geared tuners which were installed in holes which were not drilled perfectly square (this happens a lot for guys who freehand it, have no drillpress

all guitars go out of tune, its the nature of the beast.  They're also really easy to retune so its no big deal

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on March 1, 2015 at 2:04pm

I don't view any of my CBG's as any different than a 6 string from a staying in tune perspective...  Once the guitar has had a chance to "settle in" with a set of strings, it will stay in tune, relatively speaking...  

Every time you pickup a guitar, it needs to be tuned...CBG, 6-string acoustic, or electric.  Temperature, humidity, string stretching, and neck bending all throw off tuning.   Tuners installed backwards will do that, too...

I find that in the short term, temperature has a lot to do with how far off the guitar is.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on March 1, 2015 at 2:24pm

The biggest thing I see that causes tuning change seems to be temperature and humidity. If I tune one of my CBGs and lean it against an interior wall of the house (where temperature and humidity are relatively constant) it will stay in tune for a long time. By the same token, if I move one out to the shop to play or tweak, I can be sure that the tuning will be off the next morning. This happens when it's hot outside as well as when it's cold outside. Expansion and contraction are just traits of wood.

I agree with John that every guitar you pick up will need tuning (a lot or a little) before playing. Fortunately, electronic tuners are cheap and easy to use.

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Permalink Reply by TN Twang on March 2, 2015 at 5:02am

On a slide instrument, be careful of performance nerves!

First time I played in front of other people, I thought the instrument had suddenly gone out of tune. Turns out that a little extra (and uneven) pressure with the slide can bend a perfectly tuned open chord into a real mess when you fret it.

I guess this is why the great slide players tend to look like Zen masters. You've got to maintain a calm consistency in your fretting hand.

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on March 2, 2015 at 5:17am

No different than any other guitar.  I find that even my most primitive 1x2 neck with eyebolt tuners maintains relatively good tuning consistency and stability.

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Permalink Reply by Slowpaw Steve T on March 2, 2015 at 8:54am

if a guitar, especially our lovely cigar box guitars, are neatly put together with good quality woods, parts and boxes and made to the tightest tolerances they should rarely go out of tune after they've settled in - temperature and humidity will affect the tuning slightly, a hot sweaty venue full of people is a good test of a wooden instrument! ;-)

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