NGD 2020 les paul Classic with noob question

Novaberbe44 · May 12, 2020

Hi all.

After 40 years of playing i finally bought my first real Gibson.
I took a chance and bought it new online and out of the box.
Needless to say i love the Gibson. its a beautiful guitar and sounds amazing, except for one thing...

The high E string sounds flat compared to the others. I guess it came with 009 out of the factory and i already changed to 010s but still the string sounds pretty dead, plugged, ánd unplugged and on every position of the fretboard..

I already tried changing the pick up hight, saddles and bridge but no real result.

Does anybody has any experience with this? I would really like to keep the guitar but this is pretty annoying... Thanks in advance!

Midnight Blues · May 13, 2020

Those would've been my suggestions. The only other one that I can think of, although it likely won't make much difference if any, is to try some "Nut Sauce". Other than that, before returning it, I'd take it to a qualified tech to see if there's something that can be done.

She's very pretty nonetheless! Congrats, HNGD

and play her in good health!

metropolis · May 13, 2020

Where does it sound dead? Does it happen when it's played as an open string or fretted, or both? That will help you narrow it down to the following:

If it only sounds dead when fretted it could be a high fret.
If it only sounds dead when it's open check the nut.
If it sounds dead in both cases then it's most likely something on the saddle (gently remove any burrs and lubricate), or the string is touching the back of the bridge so you need to raise the tail pieec.

Novaberbe44 · May 13, 2020

metropolis said:
Where does it sound dead? Does it happen when it's played as an open string or fretted, or both? That will help you narrow it down to the following:

If it only sounds dead when fretted it could be a high fret.
If it only sounds dead when it's open check the nut.
If it sounds dead in both cases then it's most likely something on the saddle (gently remove any burrs and lubricate), or the string is touching the back of the bridge so you need to raise the tail pieec.

It's on pretty much every position to my ears.. Already checked if the string was touching the back of the bridge but that was not te case.

what i already tried:

new strings
go with a piece of paper trhough the nut to remove any stuff
lowered the pick ups to avoid magnetic pull
adjusted the saddle
raise the bridge and tail piece

Only thing i can think of is the trussrod but something is holding me back.. To be honest, i really would not like to mess too much with a new and supernice guitar

El Gringo · May 13, 2020

Novaberbe44 said:
It's on pretty much every position to my ears.. Already checked if the string was touching the back of the bridge but that was not te case.

what i already tried:

new strings
go with a piece of paper trhough the nut to remove any stuff
lowered the pick ups to avoid magnetic pull
adjusted the saddle
raise the bridge and tail piece

Only thing i can think of is the trussrod but something is holding me back.. To be honest, i really would not like to mess too much with a new and supernice guitar

I am going to guess that adding some relief to the truss rod would be what I would do next . Also , did you get a set up when you purchased the instrument which is a beauty with very nice color ? That's what I believe will have your guitar singing ! Also I believe you said you changed the string gauge from a 9 gauge to a 10 gauge ? That would require a adjustment of the truss rod when going to a heavier string gauge , you may not think a 1 gauge change would matter but it does .

Novaberbe44 · May 13, 2020

Midnight Blues said:
Those would've been my suggestions. The only other one that I can think of, although it likely won't make much difference if any, is to try some "Nut Sauce". Other than that, before returning it, I'd take it to a qualified tech to see if there's something that can be done.

She's very pretty nonetheless! Congrats, HNGD

and play her in good health!

Thank you Midnight

Novaberbe44 · May 13, 2020

El Gringo said:
I am going to guess that adding some relief to the truss rod would be what I would do next . Also , did you get a set up when you purchased the instrument which is a beauty with very nice color ? That's what I believe will have your guitar singing ! Also I believe you said you changed the string gauge from a 9 gauge to a 10 gauge ? That would require a adjustment of the truss rod when going to a heavier string gauge , you may not think a 1 gauge change would matter but it does .

I was looking for some confidence, you guys give that to people.
Thanks for that, it's the first thing to do for me.
I'll report back

Novaberbe44 · May 14, 2020

Yep, trussrod was what it took.
Sounds great!
thanks a lot!
Now let's play :hank:hank

Novaberbe44 · May 31, 2020

Novaberbe44 said:
Yep, trussrod was what it took.
Sounds great!
thanks a lot!
Now let's play :hank:hank

for the record, it still was flat sounding compared to the other strings. I just didn't want to hear it i guess.

I contacted the company where i bought the guitar and one guy advised me to string the guitar a bit different.
Having played a strat for most of my life, i always put the string through the tuner and then wind it so that the windings are on top of the string.

This time i placed the winding under the string and that seem to did the trick. It makes a bit sense to me i guess. Now there is nothing touching the string on its way to the nut...

Maybe i have been stringin my guitars wrong for the past 40 years

NGD 2020 les paul Classic with noob question

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