leave it tuned or no?

[steelhead2]

is it wise to leave a bass tuned up all the time?,just pickup up a new to me toy and(from what little i know) looks like the guy tuned to standard and left it only to end up with a maxed out truss rod and a bowed warpy neck,,the weather around here can get moist(yeah like the last 5 months moist),i've gone thru heck with one or two bass necks, learned a bunch but i won't leave one tuned up to S standard due to humidity issues,humidity in this house is rarely@ 40% this time of year


so what do YOU do?

[stoolpigeon]

It will not hurt a bass to leave it in tune...that tension should be there by design.

[Phalex]

Leave it tuned and the truss rod adjusted so it's playable. If it's playable when you put it away, it should be playable when you get it back out.

IME, IMHO, ETC ETC

[steelhead2]

but one bass i bought, a Squier Jazz on clearance at GC,,when the weather changed last spring away we went adjusting the truss rod then hung some chomes(45-100 not xtra fat) and it got worse from there down to the 5th fret,,yeah squier and all that but my main bass is a PJ special Squier and she stays nice and strait,,this new girl is MIM J still has plastic wrap hanging on the screws, one chip'=otherwise as new with bowed neck, so i can't truly take any neck for anything other than face value i guess

the Memphis p copy had an awesome neck chinese and all

[Pilgrim]

I suggest you read some of the interminable threads about storing basses tuned or not.

My '63 P hasn't been un-tuned in 40+ years.

[steelhead2]

`back in those days' the trees were old growth big honking 6 ft deep TREES with huge growth rings not saplings(like i suspect are now used for necks),,,,,,32 years ago i intended to be a wood `grader' at a mill(we all worked at a mill around here back then,now there arent any mills to speak of),i saw a lot of wood go down the`chain' that you'd be hard pressed to even find now(`clears',no knots totally tight grain and like 4X 12,14 and 16 wide),,Maple can't be much dif. can it? all the big ones gone now?

so without further rambling;i'm certain a neck from `63 is the killer neck,these new dudes just`look' like a real neck,tune em up and watch em twist,that's why i sell=the necks make me mad

[JTE]

IME most, if not all maxxed-out truss rod problems are caused by improper adjustments. The rod is there ONLY to set the relief. Its function is NOT to directly adjust the action. The right way to make th adjustment is to pre-stress the neck and then tighten the nut up, not to just crank the nut and rely on it to move the wood.

Keep it tuned, keep the rod adjusted to the tuning you use.

John

[Herrlster]

Why ask if you should leave it tuned or not? Every time somebody replied saying leave it, you seem to argue it. You already seem set in what to do, why bother asking us?

[tdub0199]

I have never de/un tuned a bass... I have always left it like I play it... never been an issue

[Herbie 80's]

Leave it tuned.

I knew an old chap who told me to detune it every time I used it. Thankfully, I knew for the better.

[sidd_laroy]

Originally Posted by Herrlster

Why ask if you should leave it tuned or not? Every time somebody replied saying leave it, you seem to argue it. You already seem set in what to do, why bother asking us?

+1