You love your Stratocaster. It’s your pride and joy, your main source for relaxation and expression. But my goodness, why won’t it stay in tune?
Experienced Strat players will no doubt have developed their own special techniques for creating tuning stability, but newbies - or players who simply haven’t owned a Strat before - may encounter some of the age-old tuning issues that come along with the design.
I was such a person too, once upon a time. As a player who favours hard tail bridges, my first little while as a Strat owner proved to be frustrating, until I found a number of approaches that really made a difference.
I want to pass those approaches on to you today, because Stratocasters are amongst the most beautiful sounding instruments in the world, and I want you to extract maximum enjoyment from yours! Don’t be put off by a few minor rocks in the pathway: simply learn how to clear those rocks away by reading this guide, and you’ll be set for a smooth journey!
Friction Points
My first tip is to consider the friction points. What I mean by that is, think of every point where the string comes into contact with a part of the guitar. This means the nut and the bridge saddles mainly, and also the tuners and string tree to a lesser degree. Each of these places is an area that can potentially stop the string moving freely, thus resulting in tuning issues. Here’s what I recommend trying out…
Assessing the Nut Slots
The nut is a more important part of the guitar than we all tend to give it credit for. The nut is the main focus for the guitar string after the bridge, and the primary place where tuning problems can happen. Firstly, check and see if the nut is cut properly. You can do this by simply detuning a string slightly and lifting it up out of the nut. It should come up easily, with nothing making it stick. If it’s not coming out of the slot easily, then the nut slot itself may be too narrow for the string. A set of nut files can make a lot of difference if you are careful!
Lubricate The Nut
Lubricating the nut is something that every player should do for every guitar they own. It’s not a Strat thing, it’s a guitar thing, so I think it’s worth developing a habit of lubricating the nut with every other string change, or every couple of months.
So, what should you lubricate it with? Graphite paste or gel is a great idea, and MusicNomand Tune-It Lubricant and Dunlop Superlube Gel can be bought from us. A small amount in each nut slot will allow friction-free movement of the strings, which keeps you in tune better.
You can also use straight-up regular pencil lead, too. It’s made from graphite (it hasn’t been ‘lead’ for decades) and it’s really effective in managing lubrication. Just rub the pencil tip into each nut slot and allow the graphite dust to settle. This is a cheap and effective way of aiding string movement, so it’s well worth doing.
Check the Saddles
The saddles are as important as the nut in terms of keeping a Strat in tune. There’s a lot of string pressure at the bridge of course, and when the stratocaster has a tremolo system, this means that the bridge will move often and so the pressure will be constantly changing. This contributes to tuning problems for sure.
Here’s what you can do, or consider doing…
- Check the saddles to make sure they are smooth and in good condition.
- Apply some lubricant (see above) here too, in the grooves where the strings sit.
- Clean the saddles often, as in once every month or two.
- Consider replacing the saddles with graphite, titanium, chrome or brass ones to increase conductivity and reduce friction.
The Bridge
Speaking plainly, the bridge is the main reason that Stratocasters can appear to be temperamental. It’s the fact that they are designed to ‘float’ - to be manipulatable both up and down in pitch, that causes issues. That floating point is maintained by the tension of the strings being met by the tension of the springs in the back. Too much of one and not enough of the other is when problems start.
Here’s a couple of pointers to consider with the Strat’s vibrato bridge…
Balance the springs: a slight tighten (or loosen) of the claw holding the springs but change the tension of the strings. The best balance could mean slightly tighter treble strings or another similar tweak.
Consider adding more springs: there is no correct number of springs to have in a Strat, but having three or four springs almost always improves tuning stability. More springs equals more tension pulling against the strings, so they will likely misbehave less. 5 springs is a lot, and two is possibly too few, unless you love how springy it feels!
Consider decking the tremolo: screw the claw screws as fully into the body as they’ll go without being excessive. This will stop the bridge moving back (raising the pitch) at all, and will only allow down-bend. What you lose in floating flexibility, you’ll hopefully gain in tuning stability.
6-point trems: If you have a more vintage-style Strat tremolo, try raising the middle 4 screws a little, and lowering the outer 2. Allow enough movement for the unit to pivot. This ought to help!
The Hendrix trick: lastly, here’s one from the original whammy bar master. Whenever Hendrix performed a dip or divebomb on his Strat, he tended to very briefly pull the pitch up afterwards. This yanked the strings back into their natural position (more or less) and let him carry on with the song. This is a technique well worth trying, but I’d check out those previous tips first!
Stretch the Strings
Is this something you do already? If not, why not? It’s an important part of the restringing process, so if you haven’t broken into the habit of stretching your strings, I recommend doing so. There’s a number of ways to do this, but here’s my approach:
- String up as normal.
- Tune every string sharp by one fret’s worth in pitch. So, tune the lowest ‘E’ string to ‘F’, for example.
- Fret a low-ish note (doesn’t matter which) with your left hand, and gently but firmly pull the string away from the fingerboard. Give it a stretch but don’t go crazy: you don’t want to break the string!
- Move your left hand to a higher string and do the same thing
- Repeat for each string
- Retune the guitar to regular pitch.
That’s how I approach it. Others may do it differently, but it’s all about working the ‘give’ out of the string. Stretching the strings minimises the amount of tuning and retuning you’ll need to do before the new strings are broken in. Talking about tuning…
Tune ‘Up’
What I mean here is that you should always be tuning up to the note, not down to the note. If your tuner says that your pitch is sharp, then instead of tuning down to your target pitch, I'd recommend tuning down below the target pitch and then tuning up to it.
Why? Because this takes up the slack and keeps the string taut. This means it is tighter and will stay in tune better.
Tune Out of Sequence
When tuning your Strat, tuning each string in a linear ‘low to high’ or ‘high to low’ manner isn’t going to help you too much. It’s down to the bridge being a floating system, and I liken it to a raft floating on water. If you stand too close to any edge, you’ll fall in, so you need to stand in the middle to steady it. So it is with tuning: you need to keep the bridge (raft) steady in the water (strings), so tune from the outside in to stop it being pulled too far at one end. The method is like this:
- Tune the low E.
- Tune the high E.
- Tune the A.
- Tune the B.
- Tune the D.
- Tune the G.
Repeat until the guitar is sitting perfectly in tune. The method deals with the tension far better than the more linear ways you’d tune non-tremolo guitars.
Strats Are Worth It
So, that’s my experience on the subject of keeping a Strat in tune. The multitude of tonal and expressive benefits inherent to Stratocasters make the occasional tuning issues well worth the bother. No guitar in existence stays 100% in tune 100% of the time, so Strats aren’t unusual in this regard. The fun of the tremolo has its drawbacks, basically, and to have one, you need the other.
Hopefully, using some of the info shared on here, you’ll be able to quickly and efficiently get to a point where you’re enjoying a finely tuned Stratocaster that performs brilliantly for you!
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