:Hi Mark, I stole my older brothers 5102te to restore it for him. I dont play guitar and know little about them. I’m trying to replace some original parts on it. Any ideas on where I can get parts? After I get it back to him the first week of Feb hopefully, I’ll ask him about the tuning problem. Good luck.

When tuning a guitar, the tention of the strings being tightened pulls upward on the neck. The neck adjustment is to off set this tention and pull the neck back down so it will be straight when in tune. Hold the guitar up at eye level with the bridge toward you and the peghead away from you. Look down the edge of the neck (like sighting down an arrow or a board) on each side to see if it is straight when in tune. Pointing it toward a light so the light reflects off the corners of the frets makes this easier to see. There should be no bow or hump in the neck that you can see. No twist in the neck either. An upward curve is called "bow", downward curve is called "hump". If it is bowed or humped e-mail me, the neck can really be wrecked by the wrong adjustment and I will need more info to help you get it right. A twisted neck can be fixed, but it is better to replace it. Check the 4 bolts and make sure they are tight. The string heigth from the fret board can also cause tuning problems. If they are to high up, pushing them down to make a note stretches them more. When you let it go, the open string note will be flat, throwing the tuning off. The strings should be about 1/8th of an inch (+ or – a 16th) from the frets. I’ll need to know more about your guitar to help you with that also. Atmospheric changes in temperature, humidity and barometric pressure are usally the cause of guitars going out of tune. If it is warm in the room when you tuned it up and you turned on the airconditioner, as the room cools down the tuning will change. Same if it is cold and you turn on the heat. If one day it’s dry (high barometric pressure) and the next it’s raining (low), it will effect the tuning. This is due to the expanding and contracting of the wood in response to these changes. Try keeping the temp in the room the same and watch the barometer to see if it makes a difference. Here are some other factors to consider too. Does it have a fixed bridge or a tremolo (whammy bar) on it? A tremolo system relaxes and then tightens the string tention, causing them to go out of tune. How old are the strings and how often do you change them? New strings need to "strech in" before they will stay in tune. Old ones have a build up on them from the salty oils and skin off your fingers. Although you can’t see it, the oil attracts dirt and the salt causes rust. Small particles of skin from your finger tips gets stuck in the windings of wound strings too. All of which adds mass to the strings deadening thier tone and making them sound out of tune. Count how many times the strings are wraped around the tunning posts. Each one should wrap around the post at least 3 times, 4-5 if possible. This keeps the sonic vibrations from loosening the tuning keys while playing. I know that sounds crazy, I didn’t belive the person telling me either, but when I saw it happening I had no choice. When the vibrations are just right the tention of the string pulling on the post can turn it backward. Thus causing the tunning keys to loosen. That’s why some tunning keys have a screw in the end of them to set the tention making them harder to turn. A good set up can and will make it stay in tune better. : I bought an Epiphone 5102te in the mid-70s. The label on the inside of the guitar says: "n° 91169, EPIPHONE Inc. Kalamazoo, Michigan. Made in Japan.’ : Could anybody help me? It goes out of tune quickly! Is ther anything I can do??? Set it up or something? : The neck is a 4 bolt on. It says steel adustable. Maybe I can adjust it? Any ideas??? : Mark Lindores