Proper conditioning bass guitar

[ace14]

Hello everyone,

I'm about to buy a used bass guitar. It has to ship from the US to europe. The bass has not been used for quite a while: it has been lying around without strings for a couple of years.
I hope someone can answer the following questions: how long does it take for a bass to climatize? do i have to take any precautions when it comes restringing the bass (gauge?)
or adjusting the truss rod? I dont wanna go from to with my newly acquired bass.

Thanx for the help

[tadawson]

Time to acclimatize could be days to weeks, depending on how different the conditions are at each end. I recently bought an acoustic guitar for my daughter in Chicago, and brought it back to Texas, and Ovation has shipped it with very little string tension. The neck kept moving for almost a month . . . . although I think I would feel ok checking your new bass after a week or so, and every couple of days thereafter, until you don't see anything changing, and then make any adjustments that may be needed.

- Tim

[username1]

Is this bass a solid body? If it is you have no worries about having to climatize it. Just string it up and adjust the truss rod. Check it again in a week and it might need another rod ajustment and it should be fine.