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Affect on neck: keeping basses in case vs on a stand

#21
Pilgrim said:
Do we HAVE to answer this question every week?

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Wow its like an amusement park of basses that I would love to play!
 
#22
My teacher (though he was primarily a guitar player teaching bass) told me that it's better for the neck to be left on the stand (may have been talking about the hanging kind of stand) and if you leave it in it's case for extended periods of time to loosen the strings a little bit to relive the tension in the neck.

Personally, I don't know for sure but maybe someone else can verify or reject it...
 
#23
Cases unless they are getting played, with three cats, two dogs and a kid and his friends around the house, its just an invitation to disaster. And it would be nobody's fault but mine.

One of the dogs is a young'un and he loves to give the cats a run. That would total a bass in a stand. I also find stuff out in the back yard, like shoes and toys. Italia straps smell pretty damn good to a Lab pup.

I've been thinking of getting some wall hangers, something up out of pet range. anybody know some good ones?

That's a great idea to put a rail of hangers on the wall.

The studio/office, man cave is next on the remodel list, I'm going to put blocking in before the drywall goes up to have a solid place for wall hangers. And some cool halogen lights to spot light the Dingwalls.
 
#24
HariKari said:
The dust that settles on your bass sitting on a stand of course also settles on your strings. It won't make much difference if you're playing it a lot anyway, but for little-played instruments, it will slowly gunk your strings. Unless you have a fancy neck sock.
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Dust and dirt are the REAL problem with basses (instruments) setting out on stands. This is why I leave them in their cases unless there is one particular instrument I'm working with in which case I put a plastic bag over it on the stand. I've never seen neck problems from stands or cases, but dirt? You bet. If you leave your bass out, unless your house has an electrostatic furnace filter or the like, the first thing you know there is dust and corruption all over your bass. And it's not just a little dust on the strings. It's crap all in around the tuners and the pickups and every crevasse on the bass. Well, yeah, it's not the end all for the bass. You can take the strings off, and the tuners off and the pickups loose and give it a good cleaning and it then looks like new again! But I can tell you that when you have a lot of basses this gets real old VERY fast! So as much as I'd love to have all my basses on the wall ready for playing at a whim, I simply am not going to put up with all the cleaning. So they stay in their cases until I get in a playing mood and then they go back in. It's a minor hassle but nothing like stripping a bass to get the crud off of it.
 
#25
its not dirt or crud.........

its MOJO!!!!

what craftsman would you trust to do work for you?

the guy with the straight off the shelf good as new factory finish tools

or

the guy with the worn well maintained tools

i know who i would trust, dont get me wrong if you have an inch of crap on the bass then yeah thats bad, but a little bit of dust worked into the creases of pickups, hardware and buttons, the bits of gunk that builds up around the frets that when cleaned still stays there and the buckle rash that WILL appear along with the chipped paint around the jack socket from those last minute in the dark of a stage "CRAP! jack is unplugged" incidents.

remember the instruments we love are only tools to be used, not babies you must protect from the dangers world or be in time lock vacuum sealed cases.
 
#26
darthplagis said:
remember the instruments we love are only tools to be used, not babies you must protect from the dangers world or be in time lock vacuum sealed cases.
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right. if i ever worried about meaningless stuff like that, i wouldn't even play the bass. i'd be living in a big plastic bubble with a doctor's mask over my face.
 
#27
JimmyM said:
right. if i ever worried about meaningless stuff like that, i wouldn't even play the bass. i'd be living in a big plastic bubble with a doctor's mask over my face.
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wait....we're not supposed to do that as bassists.....?:eyebrow:

I leave mine in the cases. With my trouble-maker cat that LOVES to knock things over & chew everything(including my bass strings that are still ON the bass) I leave em in the case next to my computer, which is next to my practice amp, so they're never far, but I like to keep them in the case as much as I can, BUT I do want to move towards hanging them on the wall.
 
#28
I ussually leave one bass and one guitar out on stands. The other two in their gigbags under the bed. I rotate which ones are out. But sometimes get out the other one anyway. Lol. I use to have them all in cases when not being played. But that was just for protection. If I'm again in a place where accidents are more prone to happen, would keep em all in their gigbags except when being played.
 
#30
Current player stays on a stand at home and in a gig bag for gigs/rehearsals when not being played. Never had a problem in over 40 years. Other basses/guitars I have are stored in gig bags or hardcases depending on what they came with.

Then there's the stories of Gibsons in hardcases suffering spontaneous headstock ejection syndrome.
 
#31
Loosening the strings to store your bass in a HSC is at a minimum unnecessary and possibly dangerous. Your guitar/bass was designed to have tension on the neck.

Seriously, people say some stupid **** sometimes. ( Referring to whoever told you that)


As far as the OP, I keep the ones I play, in my rehearsal room on a good stand. Everything else goes in a HARDSHELL CASE, tuned to pitch.
 
#33
Floyd Eye said:
Loosening the strings to store your bass in a HSC is at a minimum unnecessary and possibly dangerous. Your guitar/bass was designed to have tension on the neck.

Seriously, people say some stupid **** sometimes. ( Referring to whoever told you that)
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^ ^ ^Read and Digest!!!.

I didn't play my Basses for over 5 years and they stayed in their hard cases in the "cupboard under the stairs". I got them out this time last year and they were still pretty much in tune and I haven't had to adjust the truss rods yet.

My two basses now live in gig bags behind the sofa so I can easily get them out to play once everyone else has gone to bed (I have children and pets so leaving them on a stand is not an option in our house).
 
#39
Snakeman1066 said:
cheapie goes out on a stand....more expensive basses stay in their cases...until gig or recording time
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Same here. I can also see that the cheapie is more 'weathered' than the case kept ones. The strings die quicker, the bass is obviously much more dusty and the frets seem to tarnish a bit. The cheapie is the newest of the lot as well. I think it would really depend on the environment from house to house as to how much your instruments will be affected though. The temperatures in my house can get brutally hot in the Aussie summer. We have loads of windows and doors open too and there is a high level of humidity.

The case minimizes the chance of accidents too. It is a win win IMO.
 

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