[Huggy49]

Hi...

What a fantastic place. Wish I found it years ago.

I'm a hack of a guitarist; picked it up when I was in college many years ago as an alternative to other forms of procrastination. I have an issue with my electric, which is about a 15-year old Hamer archtop with a simple bridge. I play light gauge strings (.010s), and over the last four to six weeks, the B & (high) E strings have become very "tight". Bends require more effort, and the E in particular feels like it's going to just snap if I actually tune to a 440 tuning. (In fact, precisely that happened last week, and I can't remember that ever happening before.)

I'm not a guitar tech at all; I tune and clean, but I've never touched the truss rod or anything. (I'm even worse with cars; as far as I know, the magic elves move the card forward when I press on the gas.)

Is there some common thread to this problem? Perhaps some maintenance I should be doing that I might be missing?

I would welcome any advice people could provide. Thanks very much.

-Gary, who wishes he were Ty Tabor, but is fully aware he isn't.