My old Ibanez RG370DX electric guitar is about 15 years old. Having taken all the strings off to give the fretboard a proper clean, I now find that I can no longer get it to stay in tune for more than a few seconds of playing. It has a floating tremolo unit and a locking nut that’s meant to preclude tuning issues. It was fine for many years. As far as I can tell, the set up is okay, but something is leading to loss of tuning, commonly in the A and D strings. I don’t think it’s the dust you can see in my photo that’s causing the problems, by the way.
I couldn’t find a quick-fix on the web, so I turned to the AI tool ChatGPT, and presented it with my problem and acted it to advise me from the point of view of a professional guitar technician. This is how it replied:
There are a few things that could be causing your guitar to lose tuning and be out of intonation. Here are a few things to check:
The locking nut: Make sure that the locking nut is securely tightened and that the strings are properly seated in the locking mechanism.
The tremolo unit: Make sure that the tremolo unit is properly adjusted and that the claw screws are tight. Also, check that the tremolo arm is tight and not loose.
The bridge: Make sure that the bridge is properly adjusted and that the strings are properly seated on the bridge saddles. Check that the bridge saddles are parallel to the fretboard and that the bridge is flush with the body.
The strings: Make sure that you are using fresh strings and that they are properly stretched before tuning.
Intonation: Use an electronic tuner to check the intonation of each string at the 12th fret. If the intonation is off, adjust the bridge saddle position for that string.
If all of the above are correct, it’s possible that the guitar may have worn out components or needs a professional setup, it’s recommended to take the guitar to a qualified guitar technician for a proper inspection and setup.