Acclimation period after shipping?

[rufus mangler]

I have a 50's P bass arriving today via UPS, hopefully in one piece. Is there anything special I need to do, or not do before I tune it up and see what's what?

Should it hang out for any length of time to "get used to" it's new home?

I'm assuming it hasn't been taken apart.

Thanks in advance.

[202dy]

There will be a lot of opinions on this one. The most important thing people will tell you is to let it come up to room temperature before opening the box or at the very least the case. Some folks will tell you to leave it slack tuned for X amount of time and then bring it up slowly. Blah, blah, blah, and so on and so forth. If there is freezing weather there might be some wisdom to all of this. Most manufacturers ship guitars in freezing weather tuned to or near pitch. The one concession they might make is to leave the locking nut snug but not cranked down. If it is shipped into a music store they will open as soon as there is personnel available to do so and inspect it quickly and thoroughly so that any damage will be found, noted, and dealt with posthaste. Currently in the lower 48 we are experiencing temperate weather. There is no reason to believe there will be extraordinary damage due to environmental concerns.

Will there be some changes to the guitar that are a direct result of a change in environment? Probably. They cannot be prevented. When the changes occur they can be dealt with.