Answered: more technical guitar questions you were too afraid to ask
There might be no such thing as a stupid question, but that doesn’t make asking it any more embarrassing. The world of guitars and gear can be an especially complex space to navigate – with brands, forums and the whole online guitar space seemingly overflowing with people arguing about right and wrong seemingly without end.
READ MORE: Answered: Technical Guitar Questions You Were Too Afraid To Ask
But in truth, getting the tones you want starts with a basic understanding of your gear and how to use it. So here, we’ll answer some common technical questions about guitar that maybe you’ve always wanted to ask but never felt comfortable doing so. With this knowledge in your back pocket, you should be able to keep your guitar in better working order, and have more fun as a result.
Why Does My Guitar Go Out of Tune So Fast?
This can be from a variety of causes. The most common issue is string stretch, especially if your strings are new. As you play on a new set of strings, they will stretch, and you’ll find yourself having to tune them back to pitch fairly quickly.
Another common issue is friction at the nut or, less commonly, the bridge. The strings do travel through the slots carved into the nut on most guitars, and when you bend the string, it needs to be able to travel through that slot. Sometimes, if the nut slots aren’t properly carved or lubricated, the string can bind in there and result in the strings sticking sharp. Many guitars with vibrato systems have tuning stability issues as well, so you need to ensure that those systems are properly set up and maintained.
Temperature changes can also play a role. Metal expands and contracts with heat, and wood responds to humidity. A guitar that was perfectly in tune in your living room may drift once it’s brought into a cold rehearsal space or a warm stage environment. For touring guitarists, this can be a constant battle.
Why Do My Strings Buzz?
Buzz happens when a vibrating string lightly touches a fret somewhere along its path. Because guitar strings vibrate in an arc rather than a straight line, there has to be enough clearance above the frets to accommodate that movement. If the string sits too low, it will collide with the next fret as it vibrates.
That clearance is controlled by several setup factors working together: neck relief, action height, and nut slot depth. The truss rod adjusts the slight forward curvature of the neck known as relief. Some people think their neck should be dead straight, but without that subtle curve, the strings would sit too close to the frets in the middle of the neck. Action height, controlled at the bridge, determines how far the strings sit above the fretboard overall.
There are a few ways to check for proper relief but what I do is put a capo at the first fret, then I use my finger to fret the string at the twelfth fret, (some people will fret the last fret or on acoustics, where the neck connects to the body) then I use a feeler gauge to check the clearance at the sixth fret. I like to set up the action somewhere between .004” and .008” for electrics and .006” and .010” for acoustics. Some players like a lower action, and some like a higher action, but anything less than .004” and you’re probably going to have fret buzz.
Should I Touch My Amplifier Tubes?
I’ve watched techs handle tubes with white cotton gloves like they’re defusing a bomb – that’s a bit overkill, if you ask me. Yes, tubes are made of glass. Yes, you shouldn’t spike one into the floor like a touchdown celebration. But they’re a lot tougher than they sometimes are presented to be.
I’ve heard people tell me that you can’t touch a tube with your bare hands. The thinking goes that the oil from your skin will create hot spots on the glass and burn the tube out early. There is a grain of truth in this, but it only applies to halogen lightbulbs, which use a quartz envelope that reacts badly to skin oils.
A vacuum tube might look like a lightbulb, but it’s not – they’re made of standard borosilicate glass and so don’t have that problem. In short then, don’t touch your car headlights, but your tubes are absolutely fine!
Where you do want to be careful is the temperature. A tube that’s been running gets hot, and hot glass is more vulnerable to thermal shock than cold glass. But the real reason you shouldn’t touch a tube when it’s hot… is because touching hot glass will burn your fingers!
Does Higher Pickup Output Mean a Better or Heavier Tone?
Pickup output is one of the most misunderstood specifications in the guitar world. It’s often assumed that a higher-output pickup will automatically sound heavier, more aggressive, or better suited for rock and metal. In reality, output only tells you how strong the electrical signal is, not what the pickup actually sounds like.
Higher-output pickups usually achieve that extra signal strength through more wire windings around the coil. But adding windings doesn’t just increase volume. It also changes the pickup’s frequency response. As the coil gets hotter, it tends to lose some high-end clarity and emphasize midrange frequencies. That’s why many vintage-style pickups with relatively low output can sound incredibly articulate and dynamic, while some hotter pickups sound thicker and more compressed.
Magnet type also plays a major role. Ceramic magnets often produce a tighter, more aggressive response, while Alnico magnets tend to sound smoother and more open. Two pickups with similar output levels can therefore sound completely different depending on their design.
Other major factors in a pickup’s tone include pickup design (single coil or humbucker, blade or pole-piece, potting, etc), wire gauge, windings and winding style, the pots you’re using, and the setup of the pickups (height and position) – all of that will have just as much (if not more) of an influence on a pickup’s tone than just the output.
The key point is that output is just one piece of the puzzle. It can hint at how a pickup might behave, but it won’t tell you everything about the tone. The only real way to know how a pickup sounds is to hear it in action.
If you have specific questions, you can send them in anonymously, and we will answer them in future articles. In the words of Red Green, remember, I’m pulling for ya, we’re all in this together.
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