Tuning issues with Flying V

Does anyone have any experience with flying Vs and the tuning issues that come with them. I recently purchased an Epiphone Brent Hinds V and I'm super happy with it, HOWEVER... it has tuning issues. The guitar will detune and that sucks as I hoped it would have pretty good tuning stability. Now I'm assuming the cause of this is the way the strings leave the nut. It's a rather "Classic" looking V so the strings leave the nut very slanted. I think I have 3 options here. I could replace the plastic nut for something like a Graphtec nut. I could change the Grovers that are on, for locking tuners. Or I could get a string retainer that makes the strings leave the nut straight.

What should I do? Budget isn't an issue. Should I perhaps do all three?

I don't own a V because they're silly (okay okay, I briefly owned a Jackson V during my hard rockin' youth), but have played them and never had a tuning issue... I've never played anything but gibson USA ones though

my epi firebird I is tuning challenged versus my real gibsons but I haven't gotten around to setting her up and correcting the factory errors.... epis suck stock

mmm, not that square headstock gibsons don't have a tendency to slip, the reputation that LPs and SGs are a tuning hassle is welld eserved (and is true of knockoffs too), but its a product of the string angle above the nut, just like a V and a well cut nut and saddles should alleviate this. Straight pull would be I deal, but the fact of the matter is the strings have a downward pull anyway so the potential for catching is always there on an angled Gibson headstock. The alternatives are straight headstock angles which require fussy staggered tuners or string trees and string trees can be a tuning hassle of their own. Ask any Fender Fucker!

now here's my real answer, sorry if my 1st answer was dismissive:

I would look to aleviate issues in the nut and saddles straight off. De-burr all the saddle grooves so the strings don't catch (this is super important for the wound strings) and then i would carefully sand with some very light wet sandpaper in all the string grooves of the nut. Smooth 'em out and then load 'em up with graphite so the strings move smoothly through them. Smooth and easy tuning is a sign of tuning stability. If you're tuning and you hear little pings the strings are still catching and your guitar will not be stable once tuned. If you're tuning and it feels like there's a big jump between cents on the tuner as you tune up then your strings are catching and your guitar will not hold tune. The burrs on the saddles will not always be visible but you will feel them when tuning once you know what you're looking for. A badly cut nut will be TOTALLY invisible unless the grooves aren't straight, you can see that usually. You will hear and feel the nut issues when tuning. Like I said, those pings some guitars make while tuning and the abrupt jumps up or down when tuning? Those are often nut problems. You need t smooth that shit out like you're Michelangelo polishing th David. Also look and see how low the strings sit in the nut. They should sit just deep enough that they can't pop out. The deeper they sit the more surface area there is contacting the bridge amterial upping the chances of binding. This is true of the saddles too. Deep is BAD.

On a guitar with the flying V's type of string pull above the nut the culprits are always the nut, saddles or tuners. If its going sharp its DEFINTIELY the nutor saddles thata re cut badly and catching. If it goes flat it could also be cheap tuners slipping. That's uncommon these days though. Upgraded tuners always help any guitar if its worth money and hassle to you. Grover, Sperzel and Schaeller used to be the top dogs and are still great aftermarket replacements but tonepros also makes straight drop in gibson replacements for every one of their tuner types that won't require drilling. You will want to get the spec of your grovers and see if their professional grade of course, but odds are you have the best tuners money can buy right now unless you wanna try locking ones. One of my LPs has stock Grover Rotomatics and I can't really fault them. They are great tuners. That said I've had other Grovers on guitars that weren't as good (either because they were cheaper models or because they were sketchy tuner designs of the 50s)

Get your files and sandpaper out first. If you're positive you've fixed the poor workmanship on the saddles and nut then you can think about tuners. We went through this process ona bandmate's recent les paul standard a while back and it needed verything just to be as stable as the standard Iw as playingat the time. Gibson did a bad job on that nut, the guy's heavy handed playing and strign gauge experiemnts wore out the saddle grooves making them too deep and jagged and the tuner gars weren't grabbing well anymore. I feel like I probably had him get tonepros keystones that dropped in and the guitar ebcame as stable as any Les Paul is going to be. Eventually we even ditched the stock nut with something self-lubricating, probably Tusq which is a great space-age material with the density of bone but none of drawbacks. Every bit of that guitar got addressed in order to make it more road worthy. Some of it was sloppy work from the Nashville shop but much of it was balancing out the design flaws and his lack of maintenance up to that point. Little bits of wear and tear are cumulative and will eventually get the isntruments tuning all wonky, just like over the years you will need to make a neck adjust every so often and reset your intonations and action a smidge.

While you're working on your V you might as well adjust the truss if needed and dial in the action and intonation. Make sure your pickups aren't too high that they're exerting magnetic pull on the strings, killing sustain and throwing off the pitch as the note decays making your tuner get all wonky. Go voer the whole thing. I find that Gibson designs with the SG/V butt joint at the neck, while theyc an be dialed in for very low action most of the time, benefits from somewhat higher action to really sing. There will be a string ehight where the whole guitar vibrates acoustically when you're playing and your unplugged volume wills tart to be much louder. You wanna find that if possible. That's where thelongest sustain and ebst tone is on that guitar and unless its unplayable like that you will wanna adjust to the higher action. I find that this sweet spot usually involves raising the plain string action a smidge higher then the wound strings. I happen to like this setup, but it also seems to be the optimal tension to get the guitar to ring out like a champ. Start with your heights at Nashville factory spec and work up, not down like most guys who want a 'fast' guitar would tell you. Factory spec is generally the lowest you can go without choking the guitar's natural tone even if she doesn't fret out anywhere.

Anyway, I keep adding advice to this and I need to stop and do someother things today. I think you need to get teching. Get your tools out and squeeze everything you can from that far east V copy. I feel confident with a little time and attention you can get the tuning issues resolved and make it sound better to boot.

Awsome answer dude!! Super long though so I didn't quite understand everything. It seems like I should maybe replace the nut and perhaps upgrade to some kickass hipshot tuners? What about string butlers? Would they fit on a V and or would that be effective?

you didn't get anything out of that long series of isntructions.... deburr the saddles with a rat tail file, wet sand the nut grooves, take it from there.... hip shot tuners are nothing special in ym experience though there's nothignw rong with them. unlikely they are an upgrade if your guitar ahs stock rotomatics. Hasten slowly. Don't do more then you need to. Youc an spend money on new tuners and actually make things worse when there are already great tuners on the guitar and the problem is shoddy handwork at the nut and saddles. See what you can get out of what's there before you do anything.