tuning problem - is it the string?

[Matthew Bryson]

I'm posting in misc because I'm not sure if this is a string problem, set up problem, or something else...


What causes a string (my E string) to waver and be dificult to tune?

What I mean is, when I'm tuning with a tuner, my first three strings (when in tune) will make the tuner needle "jump" right into the up and down position or the green light come on or whatever it is that means it's perfectly in tune.

The E string sort of wobbles between a tiny bit sharp and a tiny bit flat. The needle never points strait up and down.

What causes this? I'm guessing it's maybe too large of string gauge, cheap strings, or the intonation is slightly out. I just don't know what casues it.

[jonathan_matos5]

how long have the strings been on there?
are they flats or round wound strings?

[Matthew Bryson]

They are Ernie Ball "Power Slinkies" so it's a 110 gauge E string. It is time to change them. I can only estimate how long I've had them on. Maybe about 4 months, I've played them a lot. Maybe 200 to 300 hours or more. They are visibly worn and dead… but I know I've seen this with newer strings too.

[jonathan_matos5]

dead rounds do tend go out of tune, and are harder to retune. i tend to use the e string more than the others so it is worse than the others when it is time to change them. 200-300 hours is long enough to need to replace them so try that. if its still doing that with new strings take it in for a setup. if you have a chromatic tuner you can check the intonation by fretting a note. im still too much of a newb to mess with fixing the intonation but if you do a search on google. you can find rescources on how to do that and you can find them here when the search function comes back online.