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“Wobbly” A-string
I noticed today, for the first time, that when I play the A string open, or fretted on the first 3 that it oscillates side to side, and I mean a lot – a good few mm. When I eye-ball it with the guitar laid flat, looking from the low-E towards the high strings there is no movement vertically. The strings are genuine D’Addario phosphor bronze and only a few weeks old. I’ve gone along the string with a magnifying glass and can’t see any obvious damage. The guitar is a low end of the price range fender dreadnought style but it holds tune beautifully for days at a time. The string plays a true A at the 12th and the open chords sounds fine. My baff is led,,,,,,, any ideas?
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5 Replies
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I should add that they are 0.012-0.053 strings – It’s all I have in the house as I’ve only bought lights for ages now.
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KHi Roy, is it tuned down by any chance? If unsure using a regular tuner, google guitar tuner online. It will show whether it is tuned too the wrong E. If it’s tuned correctly, I would suggest contacting a local luthier that might be able to correct it.
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Many thanks Lorraine – I hadn’t considered that because I’m kinda used to how my open notes and chords should sound. However I did check just now using my electric keyboard by ear – it has a LCD stave display that shows every key-stroke, and the standard-tuning notes tie in exactly. Also my tuner, a clip-on D’Addario, shows 440 at first switch-on. It’s quite nifty and shows half notes as well as whole notes. Nearest (commercial) Luthier is in Manila, about 900 miles north of me! I don’t know of any amateur luthiers in this area so I guess I’ll need to do some searching online; household DIY is keeping me away from the guitar right now, I’m struggling to do 10 minutes a day. Hopefully all will be good on the house front next week. Thanks again.
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Your eyes only sees a fraction of the actual oscillation a string performs in order to make sound. The link is to a YouTube vid that has slowed it down. They move, yah mahn, they move.
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Sounds like you might have it tuned too low (i.e. down an Octave).
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