Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

[Chistopher]

The String Butler is a product designed to fix the sideways break angle into the nut on Gibson headstocks. It appears to me to functionally identical to the posts on Moderne headstocks back in the day. I've seen glowing reviews (one of them has a fella doing 4 minutes of one and a half step bends on the g string and it remains in tune). What do you guys think? From what I can see its good for fixing problems, but not much good as an icing on the tuning stability cake, so to speak.



I'm considering buying one so that I can remove the posts from the unit and put them into the wood itself on one of my problematic SG's.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

Waiting like a stalking butler
Who upon the finger rests

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

Interesting invention. I’ve never heard of them but if it actually works I’d consider them.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

It seems like the type of thing Gibson would put on their High Performance line of guitars.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

Nifty, but I've never really had a problem with that so I can't say that it interests me particularly.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

It really does stuff that's for sure. You could do the same thing by just self tapping screws into your lp

 

[Undone]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

Waiting like a stalking butler
Who upon the finger rests

Great.... now I have to go get my Tool fix.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

It's a bit like Georges Butler idea on Seinfeild.

 

[Securb]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

I have no tuning problems with any of my Les Pauls. I have stock tuners on all of them, I bend deep and often.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

If you're going to take them off and screw them directly in the headstock anyway, why don't you just get some screws and cut 1/4" lengths of the appropriate diameter copper tubing to put on the screws as roller sleeves.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

If you're going to take them off and screw them directly in the headstock anyway, why don't you just get some screws and cut 1/4" lengths of the appropriate diameter copper tubing to put on the screws as roller sleeves.

Good thinking. I might try that now.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

If you're going to take them off and screw them directly in the headstock anyway, why don't you just get some screws and cut 1/4" lengths of the appropriate diameter copper tubing to put on the screws as roller sleeves.

Agreed.

It looks like the gizmo itself attaches to the two "E" tuners so that you don't have to put any screws into your guitar. That makes sense to me, but if you're going to put holes in your headstock anyway I'm sure there's nothing fancy about those little pegs that a little thought and a decent hardware store couldn't solve.

From what I can see its good for fixing problems, but not much good as an icing on the tuning stability cake, so to speak.

I'm not really following you here. What problems could it fix if not tuning stability? The whole reason to ease that string break would be to keep the strings from binding on the nut, which would (in theory at least) create better stability. The only other thing I could see it improving would be wear on the nut itself which leads to... you guessed it... tuning instability.

Don't get me wrong... it looks like it would probably help if you're having problems, which you alluded to on your SG. If you have a nut that's binding it might be a great, easy, non-invasive solution to the problem.

Then too, a new/better nut might be a good answer too.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

I'm not really following you here. What problems could it fix if not tuning stability? The whole reason to ease that string break would be to keep the strings from binding on the nut, which would (in theory at least) create better stability. The only other thing I could see it improving would be wear on the nut itself which leads to... you guessed it... tuning instability.

I guess I could have worded that a bit gooder.

What I meant to say is that if you have small tuning issues, it could only help so much. Like if you have a small amount of binding at the nut and a lot of binding at the saddles, this product won't help you too much.
But if you have a lot of binding at the nut and not so much at the saddles, it will have a more pronounced effect on stability.

To butcher a common saying: you only need to beat a horse so much until it's dead. And if your horse ain't binding at the nut, the string butler is not going to help. Does that make sense?

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

if your horse ain't binding at the nut, the string butler is not going to help. Does that make sense?

Only until the drugs wear off

 

[PS412]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

If your horses nuts bind you're gonna have a gelding.
On the butler thing, string jig... my l.p doesn't have a tuning issue and I don't know why so many say they do.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

On the butler thing, string jig... my l.p doesn't have a tuning issue and I don't know why so many say they do.

I figured these might help with a problem nut or some of the common issues found when using a Bigsby

 

[VinceT]

Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

That’s an interesting approach to the binding issue. My LP and 335 used to suffer from it, but simply filing the nut slots for my string gauge (11-49) and with rounding to the headstock side fixed both of them.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Securb]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

That’s an interesting approach to the binding issue. My LP and 335 used to suffer from it, but simply filing the nut slots for my string gauge (11-49) and with rounding to the headstock side fixed both of them.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Have you tried Nut Sauce or any type of nut lubricant?

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

If you're going to take them off and screw them directly in the headstock anyway, why don't you just get some screws and cut 1/4" lengths of the appropriate diameter copper tubing to put on the screws as roller sleeves.

The problem with this solution is screwing into the headstock. If the String Butler is non invasive and reversible then that’s an ideal solution.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Has anyone here tried the String Butler?

Have you tried Nut Sauce or any type of nut lubricant?

I use the Nut Sauce currently. It works pretty good. I just lube it a couple/few times a year or as needed. It’s not a perfect solution but I suppose nothing is really. Guitars come out of tune....simple as that.