Which String Butler for Epi 339 Pro?

[GDSmithTX]

I'm replacing my Epi 339 Pro's tuners with a set of Kluson Revolutions which should arrive on Monday. So while I'm at it, I think might as well add a String Butler.

Does anyone know offhand which String Butler I'd need for this guitar? V2? V3? Do I need the Vintage Adapter Kit?

Thanks!

 

[Norton]

Just get a new properly slotted nut. This String Butler thing is ridiculous.

 

[BGood]

AAAAAWW ! ! ! Monstrous gadget. Don't do that to your guitar ! Get someone competent to work on your nut, don't need anything else, not even locking thing tuners.

Yuck yuck yuck ...

 

[Davis Sharp]

Don't scare the new guy off.

@GDSmithTX - Welcome to Epi-Talk. I don't use it on my 3+3 headstocks and I don't know anyone who does. Good luck with it.

 

[Cozmik Cowboy]

And while you're at it, maybe a Chord Buddy® (https://www.chordbuddy.com/); just as useful.......

Seriously, though, welcome - and please understand that the String Butler, like the majority of gizmos they try to sell us, is based on the well-established scientific principle that guitar players will buy any sort of foolishness. Guitars with 3+3 headstocks have worked perfectly well without that snake oil since....well, I myself have played a couple of 3+3 Martins from the 1850s, and (while some his earliest ones were 6-on-a-side) I'm pretty sure ol' C.F. wasn't the first to use it.

About the onliest thing I can see it doing is adding neck-dive to your guitar and subtracting money from your account .

 

[Shadow Explorer]

Welcome to the forums mate, listen to everyone above, none of such gimmick.

That's for people who don't know any better, plus the way it attaches can make marks on the guitar.

 

[GDSmithTX]

Wow, what a helpful bunch.

Look, I love my 339. I've made some mods to it -- handwound vintage-style pickups; all new wiring harness with a PTB/bass contour type tone control scheme -- and it's my #1 over 'better' and more expensive guitars. But even with a well-cut Tusq nut and Big Bends Nut Sauce, I have tuning problems with the G. This seems like a reasonable and logical mitigation step for a pretty damned common problem.





And for those worried about it leaving marks on the headstock, it comes with clear plastic washers that go under the device itself to protect the finish.

 

[Paruwi]

Wow, what a helpful bunch.

Glad we could help.......

sometimes you just don't get the answers you want to hear
doesn't mean they are wrong



aaaaand

Welcome here @ €piTalk

 

[GDSmithTX]

Here's the thing .... the guitar has been to 3 different techs over 3 years: the guy at Music Go Round who installed the Tusq nut and set the guitar up after I bought it; the guy who installed the new pickups and wiring harness; and the guy who set it up for me again after I changed string gauges. I'm tired of screwing with setups and still ending up with G (and sometimes D) string tuning problems. This is a relatively cheap solution -- about the price of a full set-up, which I've paid multiple times over -- that seems to have near-universal praise from people who've actually used them.

And by the way, the proper version of the device for an Epi 339 is V2.

 

[BGood]

Come back anytime, we got all kind of solutions to all kinds of problems and are happy to share them ... both.

 

[Raiyn]

Here's the thing .... the guitar has been to 3 different techs over 3 years: the guy at Music Go Round who installed the Tusq nut and set the guitar up after I bought it; the guy who installed the new pickups and wiring harness; and the guy who set it up for me again after I changed string gauges. I'm tired of screwing with setups and still ending up with G (and sometimes D) string tuning problems. This is a relatively cheap solution -- about the price of a full set-up, which I've paid multiple times over -- that seems to have near-universal praise from people who've actually used them.

And by the way, the proper version of the device for an Epi 339 is V2.

Sounds like you've taken all the usual steps to mitigate the problem. I see no harm in trying the device, it might just do the trick. If nothing else, toss the String Butler on eBay and get most of your money back.

The only thing I had was that the installation picture looks upside down to me. I've seen them where they clear the truss rod cover.

 

[Shadow Explorer]

Well I wouldn't trust youtube channels much, sooner or later everyone is trying to promote something. Fair enough, however I cannot remember a single occation where a good set of tuners didn't remedy the issue.

I'm wondering what effect it will have, since the nut I presume is already cut to compensate for the original string angle.

 

[GDSmithTX]

Sounds like you've taken all the usual steps to mitigate the problem. I see no harm in trying the device, it might just do the trick. If nothing else, toss the String Butler on eBay and get most of your money back.

That was my thinking. And if it doesn't fix my issue on the 339, I have other 3x3 guitars I can try it on, including an Epi Dot Deluxe and a 2015 Gibbo Les Paul Double Cut whose robot tuners I'm just about fed up with.

The only thing I had was that the installation picture looks upside down to me. I've seen them where they clear the truss rod cover.

It should clear the truss rod cover when pointing upward instead of downward in the illustration:

 

[Norton]

Ummmm Music go round and luthier don’t go together as a general rule.

Neither does tusq and well slotted nut.

The tusq is a start. And can work well on some guitars but it’s not a gimmie.

If you’re having tuning trouble bridge slots and nut slots are the problem 99.999% of the time.

String butlers are a great idea. In a rube Goldberg machine kind of way. But they are more of a solution looking for a problem than an actual solution to a problem.

 

[Raiyn]

2015 Gibbo Les Paul Double Cut whose robot tuners I'm just about fed up with.

I'm surprised you left them on this long. Most of the forum dwellers ripped those off eons ago.

It should clear the truss rod cover when pointing upward instead of downward in the illustration:

That's what I thought.

Ummmm Music go round and luthier don’t go together as a general rule.

I'd agree if there hadn't been two other guys in the mix. After three monkeys throwing poo maybe you move to the elephant enclosure. Besides, now we'll have someone with first-hand knowledge to weigh in on the subject.

Neither does tusq and well slotted nut.

Dan over at StewMac doesn't seem to have a problem with 'em. Besides, you should be prepared to do a bit of filing regardless of material to tweak first fret action etc.

I know it's a Fender, point remains.

 

[Norton]

Which is what I said about tusq. They’re at the very least a Good starting point. Sometimes they work without further filing.

And depending on where you’re located you could visit 10 self proclaimed “luthiers” and never actually meet one.

 

[Davis Sharp]

And depending on where you’re located you could visit 10 self proclaimed “luthiers” and never actually meet one.

A "luthier" is a guitar maker. The term is too frequently used to describe a guitar technician.

 

[Raiyn]

A "luthier" is a guitar maker. The term is too frequently used to describe a guitar technician.

Exactly.

 

[Cozmik Cowboy]

....depending on where you’re located you could visit 10 self proclaimed “luthiers” and never actually meet one.

Ain't it the truth!

A "luthier" is a guitar maker. The term is too frequently used to describe a guitar technician.

I see it being 3 things: A guitar technician (who does set-ups & fretwork, carves nuts & saddles, etc.), a repair luthier (who fixes cracks, does neck resets, rebuilds guitars that have been run over by a car*, etc.) and a luthier (who creates new instruments); a luthier can, and sometimes does, function as a repair luthier or a tech, and a repair luthier frequently functions as a tech. A tech is only a tech. That's my thought on the matter, anyway.

*I actually used to have a site bookmarked - alas, it's no longer there - that was a photo journal of rebuilding a Martin M-36 in just that condition. It was amazing what the luthier (this was definitely not a tech) managed to do; I mean, the back was broken, the sides were broken, the neck was snapped - in the middle and at the nut, IIRC - and the top was....well, the onliest word that fits is "shattered". And it was put back together, using almost entirely the original material (a patch here and there, of course). I have to wonder how close it sounded to its pre-morbid tone - but if it was me who'd done it, I'd have plaster my name all over the site and made sure it stayed up for freakin' ever! Amazing work.