320 Tuning Issues

[zacstanley]

Hey Guys-
Hoping you can shed a little light here. I recently acquired a 1979 320. I am having trouble keeping it in tune however. I put the Ric recommended 12 gauge strings on it - while this is better than it was w/ 10's I am still struggling keep it in tune. A few of the tuning pegs feel as though they have some play, but I can see no other obvious reasons why this keep happening. Advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Zac

[beatlefreak]

Are you meaning that your open strings keep going flat? Have the new strings had time to stretch? Are you putting more than two or three wraps on each post?

Or do you mean once the guitar is in tune, fretted notes are either sharp or flat? Has the truss rods been adjusted for a flat neck? Is your action set low enough? Has intonation been set on the guitar since the new gauge of strings were put on?

[zacstanley]

yeah-
open strings are going flat. i'm putting enough wraps around the posts. The intonation is perfect. totally mystifying.

[beatlefreak]

Zac, you may have too many wraps on the posts. It's recommended to only have 2-3 full turns. More than that, and you can get slippage and long term string stretch up there.

And speaking of stretch, make sure that you manually stretch new strings when putting them on the guitar.