Tension in the neck

[Wes]

I won't go into detail to how...

But what I wanted to know is: my neck isn't at risk at all is it? Because my friend told me if you leave your bass without any strings for too long the tension in the neck goes all - in his words - "spazzy".

So I put the remaining two strings (E and A) on in the E and G positions very tight because I was so paranoid of it happening.

Is this even true though?

[Skel]

I have read more to the contrary, that you should loosen the strings *some* when storing, shipping, etc. I have also heard it's ok to do nothing, but I've never heard you should do what you're doing...having super high tension. I don't understand why you don't just put a set of strings on the bass, and tune it to standard tuning, but if you only have 2 strings, an "E" and an "A", I think I'd put them where they belong, tuned properly, or maybe a step down.

[SherpaKahn]

As far as I know, it's okay to have the bass with no strings for an extended period of time, so long as the truss rod isn't so tight that the neck is very bowed backwards (convex). I would put the two strings on to give the neck some tension, then loosen the truss rod, then take the strings off and leave it like that. As for how much to loosen the truss rod, I believe that you could just loosen it probably 3/4 of a turn or so, just until the neck is relatively straight when the tension is taken off.

[SGT. Pepper]

Put all four strings on and tune down a half step if you are going to leave it for months of idleness. If it is short term days or weeks even tune it to proper pitch and don't worry.