A String Sounding Weird!

[yankees1]

I have GHS PF270 stings on my A5 and they are about three weeks old and I play at least an hour each day and usually more. The G,D and A strings sound fine but even though the tuner says the A is in tune it sounds sort of flat. My instructor told me today that his A strings were sounding out of tune even though according to his tuner they were in tune. Should I just change the A strings or better to change all ?

[Malcolm G.]

So, the G, and E sound OK?

Does the A sound flat or dull?

I'm not familiar with the PF270's but I'll bet the A strings are plain steel? Is this your first experience with this type of string (first set?)

Does your instructor use the same strings as you?

[yankees1]

A course strings sounds dull. First set of this string set and no , my instructor uses different strings.

[Dave Weiss]

Try de-tuning and re-tuning, drop and or raise the pitch 1/2 to a whole tone. I've experienced that, the string seems to get slightly bound in the bridge or nut slot. Once it "slips" it should equalize the tension over the length of the whole string. Hope that works for you.

[Duff]

I've also noticed th A string goes dull (flat sounding but tuner says it's ok) as the strings age before the others.....don't know why :)

[Tim2723]

There are so many variables that affect strings that I just change mine whenever they start acting up. I gave up trying to figure it out long ago.

[yankees1]

Just changed my A string and sounds much better!

[terzinator]

This thread might be of interest!

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?77061-Tuning-the-A-pair...-more-finicky-than-the-rest