I have put on new strings and found I could not get the treble E to the proper pitch. I would tune the guitar perfectly but when I played a barred cord somewhere up the fret board the E string was out of tune. I could tune the E to that particular cord but when I played something in the open position again the E would be out of tune. After a couple of days of trying to make the new E string work I replaced it with an old one and everything was fine. Anyone else encounter this problem? This has happened twice now using different brands of strings on 2 different guitars. One was hard tension and the other was medium. Is there a word to describe this phenomenon? (other than unlucky)

That string must not have had a uniform diameter throughout its length. It may have been that way initially or it may have stretched unevenly due to weakness in one section as you tuned it.

You probably didn't tune it initially with a cejilla clamped on the neck, but a cejilla could cause uneven stretching, leaving the portion that stretched most thinner than the rest.

-Bob

Thanks Bob
That makes sense. An uneven diameter would explain what I was experiencing. While I don't tune new strings with a cejilla clamped on the neck, I will do some fine tuning with it on once I think strings are settled in. Something I will be more careful with in the future.
Ed