Re: guitar wont stay in tune
It could be that the ball-end of the string is coming unwound in the stop-tail. I had some D'Addario high E strings do this--apparently they had a bad batch. Some people actually put a drop of solder on the end wrap, but that seems a little extreme to me.
Make sure that your truss rod adjusting has positive pressure on it. You don't want it floppy and loose. And you might want to rethink using that technique of applying pressure to the back of the neck for vibrato/de-tuning. Looks cool, but can wreak havoc on the neck joint.
You might try using the TP bridge UNLOCKED, just for kicks and giggles. I have one on my '59 Historic, the ABR-1 version--not real sure I'm a fan of it yet. Even locked, the bridge can be unstable. Are your height adjusting wheels snug against the bottom of the bridge? Are your bridge posts long enough for the bridge to sit properly? Are the bridge posts loose in the body?
The ABR-1 bridges can collapse and flatten out. (The Nashville Tune-O-Matic is more stable.) If you have the stop tail all the way down, you may be exerting too much pressure on the bridge. Raising the tailpiece will give you less string tension, and lessen the pressure on the bridge.
Next string change, check the mounting nuts of the tuners, but DO NOT OVER-TIGHTEN!!! You want them snug so they are not moving around, but too tight and you can crack the headstock.
Try using some of the Big Bend's Nut Sauce (or similar lube) in the groove of the bridge saddles. I'm pretty sure that this will fix the problem, if nothing else works.
Finally, you can use the conventional technique of winding the string on the post so that the string winding locks the string to the post--and THEN lock it down.
That's all I got, good luck!
Bill
