I've got a strange problem

[T2W]

hey guys, my brother and I moved back from Edmonton, Alberta to Montreal in Quebec. To give you as much info as possible, my meter would indicate about 27-32% humidity at all times, where as here in Montreal, its at about 50%, even more than that in my brothers room since he is in the basement, and thats where he keeps his basses. Hes got an Ibanez BTB 6 string which he loves, the action was alright on it when he left, then he took the plane with it, and now the action is a little higher... which I can expect. Little turn of the rod, not a problem. The really weird part of it is he's gotta retune everytime he picks it up cuz the strings are always UP by about 1/4 step. Yes I said up and thats what disturbs me. If the neck is adjusting to the change in climate, bowing towards the front of the bass, causing the strings to be higher off the board, shouldn't the strings always be down tuned? I don't understand... I was thinking about 'shocking' it, taking off the strings and tension on the rod and letting it sit for about a week, then redo a setup. What do you guys think?

[lundborg]

What if the wood is swelling, making neck and body longer - then
the strings become "too short", because of this they go up in tune and bend the neck?

[XylemBassGuitar]

T2W,

I probably wouldn't "shock" the neck. The opposing tensions of the strings vs. the truss rod is probably keeping the neck relatively straight in the changing humidity.

If you remove these tensions, even for a few days, the humidity could possibly warp the neck in an odd direction that wouldn't be fixable with the truss rod, permanently deforming the neck.

If it were me, I'd keep re-tuning for a couple more weeks and see what happens before doing anything drastic. It's pretty normal for an instrument to go a little out of tune one way or the other, even if you've only let it sit for a day or so.

Now, if he has to re-tune every two hours, it may be a different story, but it doesn't sound like it's that bad.

[T2W]

no indeed its not that bad. I thank you very much for responding to a thread I thought was dead. It actually helps me out. Ill try that, It hasnt been to bad these days...Thanks !