I see plenty of Gibsons that have been factory dressed with a plek and still had issues. Plek reads the neck and then you need to use the data to decide what you want it to do . Gibson just use it to dress the frets to a standard setting totally wasting most of it's capabilities. They don't even read the flex on a neck by neck basis . Plek is the best of the best but it still needs a good operator that actually understands what to do with it . A bit like getting your cat to use your laptop won't result in good workflow however good your laptop is.So....we probably just prefer different things and this might not be useful to you....but I basically set my guitars up with the neck straight (as little relief as possible) and actually a relatively high action (around 90/1000 on the low E). I think they pretty much all sound and feel better like that, but I'm very much not a shredder. I haven't had problems with buzzing with anything until the nut's ready to be replaced after a long time or if the neck drifts a long way with seasonal changes.
AFAIK, the tink sound from tuning comes from the slot being too tight, not too deep.
If you put a capo on 3 and there's any daylight between the strings and the first fret, the nut slot height is fine. It doesn't take much.
Also....was this new? Gibsons are PLEK'd at the factory, so it's pretty unlikely that it's a fret leveling issue.
My guess is there's so much relief so that when you drop the action to your preferred height at 12, it's actually buzzing around 16 or 17. The 12th fret is still "relieved" compared to the part of the fretboard that's actually on the body, just not as much as 7/8.
If you want a spring butler and you're anywhere I can send a USPS flat rate box, PM me, and I'll send you one for the cost of a flat rate box some time next week. I have one and don't like it.
But, all it does is "fix" the angle of the string coming off the nut to try and reduce binding from straight-cut slots. If your nut slots are cut correctly for a Gibson headstock, it'll actually make tuning stability worse by causing it to bind against one side of the slot (which it did for mine). Having the nut dressed by a halfway-competent tech works better, IMHO.
Also, locking tuners solve a different problem...they make it quicker to change strings. They don't actually do anything for tuning stability unless you're using way too many (or too messy) wraps.
Gibson's 17 degrees is that more or less.You'd need more than the string butler when the string angle is like this:
My cats have always gotten their workflows down with the laptop.A bit like getting your cat to use your laptop won't result in good workflow however good your laptop is.
FWIW, mine doesn't buzz. Maybe I got lucky; maybe it's because I like a slightly higher action. When I play my ridiculous boomer bends, I want my finger to catch the next string over, mute it, and push it out of the way without fretting it. I have it just high enough to do that. It's probably "too high" for super fast sweeps on the top handful of frets....but I don't do that, so I don't care.The Les Paul will have some buzz acoustically and it is fairly normal on the 24.75 scale.
I used to play with action set just like you described, but as I've tried to raise my personal bar, it's become a problem. On my 1st Majesty, I instantly raised the action so I could bend strings by pushing the adjacent string out of the way like you described, but then I figured, other players don't seem to have to do this, so there must be something in my technique that I can change, so I lowered it back down.FWIW, mine doesn't buzz. Maybe I got lucky; maybe it's because I like a slightly higher action. When I play my ridiculous boomer bends, I want my finger to catch the next string over, mute it, and push it out of the way without fretting it. I have it just high enough to do that. It's probably "too high" for super fast sweeps on the top handful of frets....but I don't do that, so I don't care.
There are a lot of players who do that. It also depends on the guitar, at least some. My PRS can easily get away with a lower action. Maybe it has something to do with the frets being bigger. IDK. FWIW, I came to that number (90/1000) by adjusting to feel and then measuring. I did set the PRS up to match it and generally like it, but the "feel" adjustment on the PRS wound up a good bit lower, and it's honestly fine either way.I used to play with action set just like you described, but as I've tried to raise my personal bar, it's become a problem. On my 1st Majesty, I instantly raised the action so I could bend strings by pushing the adjacent string out of the way like you described, but then I figured, other players don't seem to have to do this, so there must be something in my technique that I can change, so I lowered it back down.
The 20th anniversary in my pic arrived with very low action, and alas, I found that it really wasn't an issue, if I was a bit more conscientious about my bends. But I still get that occasional awful-sounding dissonance when that adjacent string suddenly slips off my finger. I think I've figured out there's this certain height that you don't want your strings: You either have them high enough to "push" the adjacent string, or low enough that it can't slip under your finger. I'm still playing with it though.
No, not really.Looks like the product just moves the same problem up a few centimeters and then results in even sharper bends.
Your Vasoline trick made me remember to always hit the nut slots with Nut Sauce (and if I had read your idea earlier, I wouldn't have even bothered buying it), and now that I put a dab onto the saddle rollers as well, my floating trem stays in tune, even if I'm aggressive with it. Seems to me just having that bit of "grease" on the strings at their contact points makes a world of difference.What am I doing wrong with my Gibsons that I never having tuning issues? Help!!!
Yeah, I wouldn't use that string butler. It's expensive, and ugly AF. If it has tuning issues, the root cause needs to be fixed. Starts with the nut......This is really cool! Thanks for sharing.
No, not really.
Because of its rectangular size a nut that angles the string gives much more friction than the a circular size like the string butler does.
Consequently the overall friction of the string butler is indeed lower compared to the friction of the „pure“ nut angled string.
^^This. Ever since I started doing this with every string change, my guitars stay in tune, other than minor temp changes.Imhonut lube or vasoline or whatever lube is a much easier, more effective, cheaper and prettier solution.
The issue it solves is if the nut slots are cut straight by someone who has never seen a gibson headstock before. No matter how much lube you put in the slots, the strings will bend all at once at the front edge of the nut (closest to the headstock) as opposed to bending with a much greater radius if the D and G string slots are very slightly curved....which is how Martin does it with just about as drastic of angles coming off the nut.Mwa
Mwah, the string still passes through the nut so still some friction there, reduced yes. Then although the string butler is rounded it still is a steeper angle than just the nut. I do not see it solving any issue. Imho nut lube or vasoline or whatever lube is a much easier, more effective, cheaper and prettier solution.
I had a tele that kept getting out of tune. Put locking tuners on it. Problem solved. Although I really know how to put strings on a guitar, somehow the locking tuners made a difference. It was a brand new usa tele, so no worn out tuner pegs. It shouldn’t have solved the prob. But it did.
Harm