Guitar pet hates

Things that really bug me about guitars.
I'll start at the headstock....  

Those doubled back strings through the tuner. Looped through and then again. Taking old strings off is a real pain. Especially the skinny ones....

The 'cats whiskers' effect.  String ends in all directions...

The 'rolled back up' effect. Looks like strings out of the packet attached to the headstock...

Anyone else have any?

loose and/or faulty output jacks 

Strings left un-cut at the pegs, that's a big one for me, too. 
And yes, those skinny strings sticking out are like needles, right into the finger tips!  Instant blood drops. 

When fretboards go uncleaned.  Like with gunk between the frets and board.  That's just nasty.  Surely they must see it and think, "maybe I should wipe it down" or something, right?!

Preaching to the choir my bruthas. I see all of the above weekly.

Plus, scratchy pots & switches, and input jacks that just "fell in" (or out) especially those in acoustic guitars. Gotta go "fishing" for the preamp end pin.

How on earth do you continue to play a guitar with the jack hanging literally by a thread?!

Yeah.... the string things. I played in a band with a bloke in the 70s who'd whack on a new string or strings and not trim them. The stages or risers we played on weren't huge and we were tucked up pretty tight so there was always the chance of copping one in the eye if you weren't careful.... 

At the other end of the strings.... intonating a Bendmaster Deluxe is a bit ordinary, eh?!

Living in an apartment building and having a downstairs neighbor who plays guitar... poorly (which is fine)  but also LOUDLY (which is not). That same  neighbor then buying both a digital delay and a wah, and I think just randomly turning knobs on both. All the while continuing to play loudly.

Also, Guitar Center at two o'clock on a Saturday. When it's full and everyone insists on playing loudly (never mind bothering to try to tune said guitars before plugging into whatever Marshall/Blackstar/Orange is closest).

Fretboard humps at the heel end,  nuts that go ping despite smoothing /lubricating. 
Oh and picking up hot soldering irons at the wrong end!  (tenuous I know)

"relicing"

"Tone chasing"

Other thoughts came to me over the past week:

1. When Fender Telecasters are made in 2015 with the original 3-saddle bridge design. It was a design tragedy to begin with (good luck with intonation). There's no reason why this design shouldn't be taken out behind the woodshed and quietly let slip this mortal coil.

2. Dirty fretboards (eww- and I've seen some nasty ones in my time).

3. Bad Floyd Rose setups (like, when you dive on an FT and come back up in a whole new tuning- it's basically an accidental Steinberger TransTrem).

4. People who don't appreciate Westone.

DerekWildstar wrote:Other thoughts came to me over the past week:
... Fender Telecasters are made in 2015 with the original 3-saddle bridge design. It was a design tragedy to begin...

Yeah, don't understand the slavishness devotion sometimes to "vintage" reproduction. The Wilkinson compensated saddles are head and shoulders above this old Fender  design.

And WHY does Fender still make reproduction Strats and Teles with the truss rod adjustment in the heel!? Ya gotta dismantle the freakin' axe to give the neck a little tweak. Stoopid

Barry wrote:

DerekWildstar wrote:... Fender Telecasters are made in 2015 with the original 3-saddle bridge design. It was a design tragedy to begin...

Yeah, don't understand the slavishness devotion sometimes to "vintage" reproduction. The Wilkinson compensated saddles are head and shoulders above this old Fender  design.

And WHY does Fender still make reproduction Strats and Teles with the truss rod adjustment in the heel!? Ya gotta dismantle the freakin' axe to give the neck a little tweak. Stoopid

Yay, recently repaired my brothers 70s tele and that bridge.. no way of getting both A and E strings to intonate properly (the rest weren't too bad).
And the stress rod FFS.

The big lumps of metal (heatsinks) you've got to solder to.

grogg wrote:

Barry wrote:
Yeah, don't understand the slavishness devotion sometimes to "vintage" reproduction. The Wilkinson compensated saddles are head and shoulders above this old Fender  design.

And WHY does Fender still make reproduction Strats and Teles with the truss rod adjustment in the heel!? Ya gotta dismantle the freakin' axe to give the neck a little tweak. Stoopid

Yay, recently repaired my brothers 70s tele and that bridge.. no way of getting both A and E strings to intonate properly (the rest weren't too bad).
And the stress rod FFS.

Easy fix, bend the intonation screw slightly. Try it see what happens to the saddle.

Next pet hate.

Stringing up a Bigsby. Getting the ball ends to stay on the pins, AAaaarrrrrgg!
Drives me mad!!!!

Westbone wrote:

Stringing up a Bigsby. Getting the ball ends to stay on the pins,

With you on that one, this old Schecter III Diamond Series had to be put out to graze for just that reason, would never have gigged her without a back up, although I did find putting a little bend in the string about 15mm back from the ball end helped a little.... much prefer a standard trem block now just for ease of restringing even though the Bigsby did have a certain classic look and felt good to use.

https://s1016.photobucket.com/user/Meadows61/media/Schecter%20Diamond%203/DSCF3818_zps30f92dc2.jpg.html?sort=2&o=7

Westbone wrote:Easy fix, bend the intonation screw slightly. Try it see what happens to the saddle.

That's an "old school" (but cheap) fix Damian. The Wilki is much more elegant.

Westbone wrote:Stringing up a Bigsby. Getting the ball ends to stay on the pins, AAaaarrrrrgg!
Drives me mad!!!!

Moi aussi!

Meadows wrote:...putting a little bend in the string about 15mm back from the ball end helped a little...

That's what I ended up doing, but I put a much more pronounced curve in the string. But It still is a bugger to hook the treble strings.

Found this clip of a neat trick using a capo to help maintain string tension

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRxqGZrnyYA

This other one is for a Bigsby style trem but I like the way he shows the string lock technique at the tuner end which I know you guys have mentioned before, must give that ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRxqGZrnyYA

I've also used a big pink eraser wedged under the ball end to hold it. Works most of the time.

Oh, I have lots of electric guitar pet peeves... 

some are ergonomic; some are aesthetic

- gold-coloured hardware
- relicing and fake roadworn
- Bigsby style tremolo 
- Metal style body shapes
- body shapes you can't play sitting down
- lack of contouring
- heavy weight
- uncomfortable necks
- badly situated control knobs and switches
- neck heavy
- rock cliche type guitars
- Les Pauls
- quilted finish

Hmmm.... there's probably others I've forgotten.


P.S.   Yep I did forget. Also:

- block inlays on fretboard
- maple fretboards

I have no trouble intonating a 3 saddle Tele bridge, which is the height of sophistication compared to bridges on many other guitars including Danelectros, LP Jnrs and Melody Makers, acoustics and resonators.

I dislike neck heavy guitars, mind you some Westones fall into that category.

People who stress about tone, yet leave old strings on their guitars.

Sharp string ends bug me too, its why I love vintage style tuners.

you guys are just mad

Sollophonic wrote:People who stress about tone, yet leave old strings on their guitars.

I don't like brand new strings. :p