Help! JP13 suddenly 1 step out of tune with no explanation!

[frederikmoeller]

Hi there!

Been a MM player for years, owned several JP's, and love 'em all.

Never had any serious issues with my guitars, but today something very weird happened:

I came home to my JP13, and after playing for a few minutes, i realised the whole guitar had dropped more than 1 step out of tune.

It was basically "in tune" with itself, but just more than 1 step below the tuning that it was just yesterday.

I can't seem to find a good explanation. It's been inside all day, hasn't been exposed to crazy cold or anything, and i can't seem to locate any broken things/whatever.

When i try to tune it up to the normal tuning again (which for me is 1 step down, D-G-C-F-G#-D) the bridge is completely tilted upwards and the guitar becomes almost impossible to play.

I'm completely at a loss on this thing. The guitar was bought just 1 year ago, and like i've said, i've never experienced anything this extreme before.
Does anyone have any idea what might have caused this??

Thanks in advance

F

 

[Bob123]

The bridge is floating, and sounds like its not properly set up. The springs can and do loosen up over time, so you need to tighten those it sounds like.

 

[xjbebop]

if I read this right, everything 'physical' on the guitar seems normal and in tune w/ itself, but the pitch has dropped one whole step??
My first thought is, what is the reference pitch used now vs yesterday?? If it's an electronic tuner, that's where I would start...
Otherwise...you've been a bad boy and Santa is playing tricks on you..????

 

[Kenji20022]

Strings could have slipped. Just give it another setup.

There's no reason your guitar should be doing that. Unless someone setup the guitar in a different tuning for you.

 

[frederikmoeller]

WOW holy **** - just spoke with a bandmate of mine.
Turns out he's been using it to track guitars all day, so he set it up in a different tuning without letting me know, the bastard.

I almost had a nervous breakdown, i thought it was falling apart or something. Damn :-D

That's what i get for jumping the gun too early and posting a "help" thread - either way, thanks a lot everybody who answered, guess you were right, it wasn't supposed to do that by itself

Anyway, i guess the thread can be closed now, i'm all good!

 

[DrKev]

WOW holy **** - just spoke with a bandmate of mine.
Turns out he's been using it to track guitars all day, so he set it up in a different tuning without letting me know, the bastard.

I almost had a nervous breakdown, i thought it was falling apart or something. Damn :-D

That's what i get for jumping the gun too early and posting a "help" thread - either way, thanks a lot everybody who answered, guess you were right, it wasn't supposed to do that by itself

Anyway, i guess the thread can be closed now, i'm all good!

Yes. Before I even got to this post, I knew there was an explanation!

Sets of string being different gauges and tensions means that all of the strings can never all go out of tune the same amount. It's a physical impossibility. Try it with a whammy bar - tune the guitar, then by either changing the string claw position or press/pulling on the whammy bar, see how the strings detune by different amounts. The B-string will detune by 2x the amount that high E-string will. The G-string by 3x that amount. The low E-string almost 4 times! So, knowing that, it's very obvious that If the guitar was in tune with itself but not how you tuned it, it had to have been tuned that way by somebody else.

Glad there is no mystery! Also glad that your band mate used a quality guitar for tracking. Maybe he'll buy one of his own. Now go and smack him and tell him never to touch your guitars without telling you!