Why is my head tightening by itelf???

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Stelling Owners Club

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From pjfolino on 2/7/2016 12:37:50 AM

After noticing my Staghorn sounding "strangled" about a week ago I checked the head tension to find that it had increased from 92 to 94 (drum dial). I loosened the rim nuts, back to 92 - sound perfect again. Today same thing happened - DD up to 93, same procedure - all good now.

How is it that the head tension is increasing without my adjustment. Can it be weather? It has been warm and humid here - 90f and 70-90% humidity.

Feedback welcome.

cheers - Peter

7 Comments
	drewbarries says: 2/7/2016 6:10:54 AM That always happens to me too and so I'll typically stop short of where I want it and give it some time. I'm pretty sure the reason has to do with friction causing a bind between the ring and the head and that creates this lag in tension. Over time the head does move further over the ring and so the tension increases.
	pjfolino says: 2/7/2016 10:53:34 AM Thanks - makes sense.
	tonwil says: 2/7/2016 1:57:25 PM Did it raise your strings any?
	pjfolino says: 2/7/2016 4:13:47 PM I haven't noticed string rise.
	Geoff Stelling says: 2/8/2016 9:46:55 AM Peter, If the humidity rises and gets into the rim, it will expand and cause the head tension to go up. I would expect that the neck would have changed at the same time causing the neck to flatten out due to the higher tension on the truss rod. Have you checked that? Geoff
	pjfolino says: 2/8/2016 4:02:18 PM Thanks Geoff. I haven't checked the truss rod but I will do. The action feels pretty good but I will follow your set-up guide. cheers - Peter.
	Ybanjo says: 5/7/2016 10:17:42 AM I have a similar thing happen as well, but not so extreme. And mine happens every day when I play. I tune up and then after playing for a bit, the tuning is always higher. I re-tune and it is stable for rest of the session. Then, next day, the tuning is always low. It has me baffled, but I put up with it. Oh, and I have a Gibson that does the exact same thing.
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