Tuning stability

designerseye88

I have a vintage Gibbo which is a great guitar and a keeper but It is consistently going out of tune. All i have to do is breathe on it and it needs tuning. I've changed the bridge to a mojoaxe one, it has old pat pending grovers and needs a refret, Any ideas on what i can do to help the tuning stability?


Any help would be appreciated

ICBM

It will be the nut, mostly - Gibsons are notorious for it due to the steep string angles through it, especially on the G and D strings. If it needs a refret it's also likely to need a new one at the same time, so that will fix both problems at once.

Some Gibsons, including double-cut Les Paul Specials like the one in your pic, also have fairly flexible necks and neck joints which doesn't help, and unfortunately there's nothing you can do about that.

It's unlikely to be the machineheads, even if they're old - even really worn ones will work fine if they're strung and tuned correctly (strings fitted tightly and preferably locked to the post, and tune only up to the note not down).

designerseye88

Great, thanks for the advice @icbm You're probably right about the nut, looks like I'll get that done at the same time as the refret.