removing strings to clean bass, loosen truss rod?

Rocks · #1 10-09-2010, 09:17 PM

Hi,
I'm going to completely take my one old war horse bass apart and give it a good cleaning, it really needs it bad as its been played a lot and not cleaned/polished in many, many years. Do I need to loosen the truss rod since all the strings will be off for a few hours? I thought I read something about this here before but can't seem io find the thread.

C.Linton · #2 10-09-2010, 09:18 PM

Should be all right for just a few hours.

bassteban · #3 10-09-2010, 09:19 PM

I wouldn't worry about it if the strings will only be off for a couple of hours.

Raccio14 · #4 10-09-2010, 09:19 PM

In theory it should really be fine. If you want to be super- safe you can go ahead and do so, but being without the string tension for only a few hours shouldn't be enough to really cause the truss to warp the wood. If it were for a few days I'd say definitely loosen it, but it should really be fine for 2 hours.

Rocks · #5 10-09-2010, 09:22 PM

Cool, I always have changed my strings by removing them all at once and then replacing them and never had a problem. Then somewhere in a thread I read something about this being bad for the neck. I haven't needed to change strings lately so I haven't worried about it but now since this bass is pretty much irreplaceable I didn't want to take any chances.

OmnitzGarima · #6 10-09-2010, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassteban

I wouldn't worry about it if the strings will only be off for a couple of hours.

Sounds right to me.

Ric5 · #7 10-09-2010, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rocks

Hi,
I'm going to completely take my one old war horse bass apart and give it a good cleaning, it really needs it bad as its been played a lot and not cleaned/polished in many, many years. Do I need to loosen the truss rod since all the strings will be off for a few hours? I thought I read something about this here before but can't seem io find the thread.

You absolutely do not need to adjust the truss rods when you take the strings off for a short time. Only if you are going to have the neck destrung for months then you should back off the rods.

Oren Hudson · #8 10-09-2010, 09:28 PM

Unless the neck needs major adjustment now, don't mess with the truss rod. That's a last resort item that's not as easy as one might think. I've left strings off for weeks and I've never had any issues. I say this from personal experience having owned bases for 48 years and currently posses over 30.

totallyfrozen · #9 10-09-2010, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raccio14

In theory it should really be fine. If you want to be super- safe you can go ahead and do so, but being without the string tension for only a few hours shouldn't be enough to really cause the truss to warp the wood. If it were for a few days I'd say definitely loosen it, but it should really be fine for 2 hours.

If you loosen the truss rod when the strings will only be off for a couple of hours (I doubt that long unless you're the SLOWEST cleaner to ever walk the Earth) then you'll just have to retighten it when you put the strings back on. That will make the whole project take much longer and you risk not being able to get your action back to where you're used to it.

I wouldn't touch the truss rod. Just plan the job out ahead of time, gather your supplies, set up your work space, then take all the strings off and get the job done quickly. Planning and preparation will make the whole chore much faster than yanking all the strings off and then figuring out what you're doing on the fly.

Rocks · #10 10-09-2010, 09:38 PM

This is good to know. I have no problem doing truss rod adjustments, been doing my own setups for years with no problems and I live in an area thats either very humid or very dry so I have to adjust a couple times a year on most of my basses. Two hours is more than enough time for the cleaning although it will be very thorough. I'll even be polishing the frets, completely taking the bridge apart and cleaning each piece separately and then putting it all back together. I have a little six inch machinists ruler that I'll use to get the rough placement of the bridge saddles, then I'll use my Peterson strobe tuner to fine tune the intonation from there. I'll then recheck the intonation over the next few days to make sure its stable and get back to playing it like the work horse it is.