What is your highest maintenance guitar?

[Securb]

I broke my Iceman with the Kahler out of the case I am going to do a string change and while I am at it oil up the Kahler. Other guitars like my SG rarely need truss tweaks or any attention outside of new strings and a polish. I know Floyds are a high maintenance bridge and 2-point Fenders can be temperamental. I am wondering if there are any other normal maintenance issues that you guys have to deal with that I am not aware of?

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

Ooooh… good question. I'll have to think about it.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

The one that I play the most often. Seriously. If I ignore a guitar in it's case for a year there's typically very little that needs maintenance or work on no matter what the hardware is. The ones I'm constantly using always seem to need neck tweaking, tuning, new strings, polishing, and a fret dress.

I look at Floyd guitars as extra time taken to setup that gets paid back by pretty much never needing to tune.

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

Floyds aren't really that high maintenance at least I don't think they are but i'm a tinkerer anyway so I don't mind. Besides string changes you don't really have to do much to em except maybe check for ware and replace a part every now and again.

 

[LReese]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

Really, once I get one set up there's not much to do but keep strings changed. Maybe a truss rod tweak. I can see the kahler needing a little oil tho'.

Most of the time I spend maintaining is self inflicted.

 

[Agileguy_101]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

The only thing I dislike about the floyd on my guitar is that it takes an extra 20 minutes or so to intonate. I guess that makes it my highest maintenance guitar.

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

I look at Floyd guitars as extra time taken to setup that gets paid back by pretty much never needing to tune.

This is only half true depending on the temperature shifts but yes for the most part you don't really have to keep tuning and retuning. Maybe once after you take it out of the case but after that your good for the rest of the show unless you break a string.

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

right now my Godin is lying on a desk with her top taken off and her goodies all spread open and exposed.

unfoooooooortunately, I need to tighten a nut so she quits breaking a wire. ((

Talk about false advertising. I'm thinking that candy-colored pearloid whore is a trap after all.

 

[mamm]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

Do acoustics count? If they do, I have a Martin which is a real pain in the @ss. The neck is all over the place, never settles down.

Full disclosure: I live by the beach. +70% humidity days are common here.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

The highest-maintenance guitar I currently own is my Ibanez RG270DX. I bought it new in 2002, modded the thing to hell and back, and somehow it came… back… wrong. Like Louis and Rachel Creed's son, or the ship in Event Horizon. This guitar is haunted. I've had four sets of aftermarket pickups in it, a fret level and dress, the neck taken off and the truss rod tweaked endlessly, the neck glued on, the trem and nut replaced with an OFR, the back of the neck completely refinished with Tru Oil (I can't even remember why I did that), the fretboard dyed ebony, the nut re-attached three times, and multiple sets of stickers applied and removed.

Typical things it does:
-The nut shifts and throws it out of tune. (Yeah, it's an issue caused by my conversion to a top-mount Floyd nut. I'll fix it eventually, but it's just never been a priority since I started playing Jacksons.)
-The high E picks up a phantom buzz at the bridge or the nut. Sometimes removing the pressure pad helps; sometimes it makes it worse.
-I get strange, ghostly noises from the pickups, which I've heard on other guitars with and without EMGs, but never as often or as bad as I get them here. Basically, I pick a high fretted note into a high-gain amp or amp & pedal, let it sustain, and listen. It's like hearing demon voices in the static between radio stations.

The guitar is very comfortable to play, and I love it to death, but I would never, ever gig with it.

 

[mamm]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

I pick a high fretted note into a high-gain amp or amp & pedal, let it sustain, and listen. It's like hearing demon voices

You say that like it's a bad thing... LOL

 

[formula73]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

The highest-maintenance guitar I currently own is my Ibanez RG270DX. I bought it new in 2002, modded the thing to hell and back, and somehow it came… back… wrong. Like Louis and Rachel Creed's son, or the ship in Event Horizon. This guitar is haunted. I've had four sets of aftermarket pickups in it, a fret level and dress, the neck taken off and the truss rod tweaked endlessly, the neck glued on, the trem and nut replaced with an OFR, the back of the neck completely refinished with Tru Oil (I can't even remember why I did that), the fretboard dyed ebony, the nut re-attached three times, and multiple sets of stickers applied and removed.

Typical things it does:
-The nut shifts and throws it out of tune. (Yeah, it's an issue caused by my conversion to a top-mount Floyd nut. I'll fix it eventually, but it's just never been a priority since I started playing Jacksons.)
-The high E picks up a phantom buzz at the bridge or the nut. Sometimes removing the pressure pad helps; sometimes it makes it worse.
-I get strange, ghostly noises from the pickups, which I've heard on other guitars with and without EMGs, but never as often or as bad as I get them here. Basically, I pick a high fretted note into a high-gain amp or amp & pedal, let it sustain, and listen. It's like hearing demon voices in the static between radio stations.

The guitar is very comfortable to play, and I love it to death, but I would never, ever gig with it.

Your Floyd problems are why I don't ever play mine anymore. I dig how topmount nuts leave material for strength but HATE how they all eventually shift and make you come back sharp after a dive. It's a handy tool to have in the arsenal and I'll always keep one around but I lost my taste for trems years ago.

 

[CTN]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

my '62RI strat.

I never use the trem, and i have graphtech saddles on it anyway so that's not a maintenance issue, but the neck is slightly outta whack and is very difficult to set up for smooth easy playing which is easy to do on my other guitars (SG excepted because it's a bit of a different animal). In the past 5 years I've only had it in peak condition for a space of a few months a couple years ago. It's quite temperamental.

But I guess that's what I get for playing it the least out of all my guitars while having owned it the longest out of any piece of gear I currently own. It was my first electric.

I really need to fix that neck this summer.

The Jolly Roger and Polaris are pretty much "set it and forget it" kinda guitars. Except for the odd seasonal tweak of the truss rod to account for temperature and humidity changes.

The SG's a pain in the ass and I'm going to sell it. May as well use the money for other geariffic things or for life expenditures that are more important than a crappy chinese guitar.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

Your Floyd problems are why I don't ever play mine anymore. I dig how topmount nuts leave material for strength but HATE how they all eventually shift and make you come back sharp after a dive. It's a handy tool to have in the arsenal and I'll always keep one around but I lost my taste for trems years ago.

Funny thing is, the original trem (thought it wasn't great) had the back-mounted Ibanez nut. It might have been fine as it was, but I had to have the Floyd nut since it came with the bridge. I think those trems sound a little softer than an OFR (not what I want with this guitar), but it might have been a good compromise to make. I'll get it sorted, though.

 

[Securb]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

The SG's a pain in the ass and I'm going to sell it. May as well use the money for other geariffic things or for life expenditures that are more important than a crappy chinese guitar.

That is weird my SG is set it and forget it. I swear I could launch that guitar at a brick wall out of a cannon and it would still be in tune and playing like a champ. What kind of problems do you have with the SG? Is it a Gibson?

 

[darnright]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

Every 12 string or classical I have ever owned.

-dave

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

Every 12 string or classical I have ever owned.

-dave

Yeah, the classical needs TLC. Once the strings decide to go, they're gone.

 

[TimmyPage]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

My 2006 American Hardtail Strat. I love it, but I hate it. It's a mechanical nightmare, you fix one problem and more pop up. Recently it's developed a really strange tuning issue, the B string wont stay in tune no matter how hard I've tried, I've tried changing the strings, checking the angle of everything on the bridge, checking the nut, testing the tuners, nothing seems amiss. I'm actually on the verge of bringing it to a professional because it's driving me insane.

 

[B2D]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

I had an Ibanez JEM555 that was a ***** to maintain and keep in tune. Later on I found out that it was because the guitar was a POS and the neck had warped. I've never had an issue maintaining a guitar that was a good quality instrument.

 

[alteredbeast]

Re: What is your highest maintenance guitar?

I broke my Iceman with the Kahler out of the case I am going to do a string change and while I am at it oil up the Kahler. Other guitars like my SG rarely need truss tweaks or any attention outside of new strings and a polish. I know Floyds are a high maintenance bridge and 2-point Fenders can be temperamental. I am wondering if there are any other normal maintenance issues that you guys have to deal with that I am not aware of?

TL:;DGAS

Kahlers are weird, i love them. ive had to reset the bridge height screws IDFK how many times on both kahlers to the point where i set it to posititon, and dropped krazy glue in the summabeeitch. dat feel is sweet tho on kahlers.