Removing all strings at once?

[LotusCarsLtd52]

I tried searching for this and found nothing.

Is it okay to remove all the strings at once?

[BigOldHarry]

yes.

there is some old hoodoo about how that will dork your neck, but I think that it's BS: I've been changing my strings all off / all on for 30 years without a problem.

[Youngspanion]

Of course. You can't even clean the fret board properly without removing the strings all at once. And if you have a bass with the truss rod nut at the heel, you always have to take the neck off to get to the screw head

[line6man]

Why wouldn't it be ok?

The strings were off when the bass was assembled, and people commonly swap necks and refret them and such, as well as replace pickups and bridges.

The only time it's not ok is with certain full floating tremolo bridges on guitars.

[BigOldHarry]

Originally Posted by line6man

Why wouldn't it be ok?

The strings were off when the bass was assembled, and people commonly swap necks and refret them and such, as well as replace pickups and bridges.

The only time it's not ok is with certain full floating tremolo bridges on guitars.

This "always leave a string on" was VERY big when I was a young player back in the '70s -- one of many dopey myths that warped many young minds (like mine!). This is right up there with "Never cut your string ends off", "Get a brass bridge/nut!" and "heavy ash is essential for *good sustain*!"

[Slowgypsy]

It's fine to take all the strings off and do what you need to do. But, I wouldn't leave the neck, with all strings off for more than a day or so before I loosened the truss rod a bit.

[kreider204]

I wonder if that myth has anything to do with classical guitars without truss rods - I could see why you might not want to leave the strings off for a long period of time on those.

[Turnaround]

Originally Posted by kreider204

I wonder if that myth has anything to do with classical guitars without truss rods - I could see why you might not want to leave the strings off for a long period of time on those.

I used to hear that it was bad to remove all of the strings from a classical guitar at once - always leave at least one or two strings on. That adage, I believe, arose from a caution that the saddle might fall out and break. Later it was misinterpreted and got people to thinking that removing all strings would hurt the neck. There are lots of misinterpretations like this in circulation. And some outright falsehoods based on advice from "a guitar-playing friend whose dad knew a violin builder once".

[jnuts1]

i cannot remove all of the strings at once. my MTD just doesn't like it & requires truss rod adjustments if i remove them all. it doesn't matter on my short scale 4 banger though.

[Joshua]

Originally Posted by Turnaround

And some outright falsehoods based on advice from "a guitar-playing friend whose dad knew a violin builder once".

Hey, I know that guy!

[FritoBandito]

Originally Posted by BigOldHarry

This "always leave a string on" was VERY big when I was a young player back in the '70s -- one of many dopey myths that warped many young minds (like mine!). This is right up there with "Never cut your string ends off", "Get a brass bridge/nut!" and "heavy ash is essential for *good sustain*!"

LOL! I've heard these and a few more and believed them all! NEVER use flats on a P bass, the heavier the bridge the more sustain (I'm still not sure how much sustain you need before you move on the to next note), and most of all, anything other than a Fender is junk! After 35 years, you realize that most of the rubbish you hear is exactly that.....rubbish!

[whitedk57]

It's not a good idea to empty a swimming pool in Florida and leave it empty for an extended period of time. I'm just saying...

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by LotusCarsLtd52

I tried searching for this and found nothing.

Is it okay to remove all the strings at once?

I do it every time I change strings.

[knarleybass]

I do it all the time...

[GM60466]

Gosh, after 47 years, I've learned something new today. Thanks


G

[GregDunn]

Originally Posted by Slowgypsy

It's fine to take all the strings off and do what you need to do. But, I wouldn't leave the neck, with all strings off for more than a day or so before I loosened the truss rod a bit.

I think there's some truth to this; it takes a while for the neck to adjust to a change in tension, depending on the construction. If I were going to leave all the strings off for an extended period of time I'd consider loosening the truss rod so that the neck doesn't develop excessive back bow.

Having said that: I completely disassembled an Ibanez with a very thin neck (everything except glued joints, that is!) and left the neck sitting for several days while I re-assembled the bridge, tuning machines, electronics, etc. and then put it all back together and re-strung it. Even though I didn't bother to loosen the truss rod when I took it apart, when I tuned it up everything was perfect.

So I'd be comfortable doing that again and again, as long as I didn't subject the neck to dramatic temperature/humidity changes, or leave it sitting for a long time.

[archer121]

It's fine to take them all off at once. Loosen them all incrementally to relieve the stress on the neck then remove them.

I take it whomever said it's not okay has never changed a set of strings or removed the neck from their bass before.

[C.Linton]

I do it one string at at a time, but only out of habit. If I had to do maintenance and/or cleaning, I wouldn't hesitate to remove all of them at once if they would be in the way.
Edit: But I would try not to leave them off for too long.

[darkstorm]

Its ok to but theres no reason to unless your needing to either remove the neck, change the pups, or do some sort of fretboard work. Your better off changing the strings one at a time and tuning them as you go. This is also faster then all at once. If you play a bass or guitar with a trem, removing all the strings at once just results in much harder time tuning the thing back up. Todays bass necks are made better then most where back in the old days. So the chance of neck damage from this kind of string changing frequently is much less. Part of why it became routine to teach kids to do it one at a time is cause the average kid wont do the all at once in a reasonable manner. Theyre gonna try to retune the new strings one at a time to pitch then wonder why they then have to keep going back to retune those strings as new strings are added thus increasing neck relief. We've all seen example of the typical newby horror job of how they do the string wraps etc. By having peeps do strings one at a time they do it faster and better. Cause they dont have to retweak the tuning as new strings are added one at a time on otherwise empty neck.

One of the funniest things Ive ever seen is peeps doing the all at once string change. With bridges that fall off when all the strings are off. Then alternating which way they put the bridge back on (backwards half the time).

With a qaulity instrument taking all the strings off wont hurt its neck. But it will take you longer to restring it tom pitch compared to one at a time, tuning up as you go. But do expect to need to retweak the tuning of strings if useing diff gauge or brand and possible need for little truss rod tweak. When you string one at a time. Basic tuning is easilly done by ear useing adjacent string as referance. If you do them all at once. You should only partially tighten the strings till all are on. Then come closer to pitch for each, then bring each to pitch. With one at a time, you dont have reason to do the 3 increments. You can just bring the string to pitch like all the other strings are. Wether prev newly changed string, or next to be replaced string which of course is still in tune. Unless useing diff gauge or brand for new strings. In which case a little retweak of the tuning and possible truss rod adjusment may be needed after all the new strings are on.

[GeoffByrne]

This ^.