Anyone else find a bass without strings sort of....cringe?

[Mike Vee]

I don't know what it is about a bass with no strings, but I hate it. It makes the bass feel and look SO different, and it bothers me. I don't even like seeing basses for sale with no strings. It's just....weird.

There will be certain times when one of my basses will be bare for a few days until strings come and I can barely look at that bass during that time.

Anyone else share this strange feeling?

 

[Swerve]

That's it folks. We've reached the end of possible discussions on Talkbass. Time to shut it down.

 

[krall]

Well!

 

[ModuMan]

"I fear not the bassist who can play with 6 strings, but I fear the bassist who can play with no strings."
-Bruce Lee (probably)

 

[C Stone]

I don’t buy (or even inquire) about adds for basses without the bass being strung up unless I am buying a bass strictly for the body/hardware and at the price of a body, finding out the neck is in good functional shape later is a nice bonus though. I can do a quick rough set up to check a basses playability even if the strings are garbage but I don’t waste my time on unstrung basses, more often than not the neck is bowed, twisted or the truss rod/nut is bad. Just my 2 cents.

 

[J Wilson]

I'll cut off all five strings to clean the fingerboard and frets, then install the new strings at that time, never had any real problems doing this.

I'd not be in a hurry to cut them off and leave it unstrung waiting for new strings in a few days, and I wouldn't buy an unstrung bass: I can do my own setups, but would require a real tech to reel in neck gone wrong from being unstrung for a length of time, as sometimes you're lucky, and sometimes it's going to take a real pro to bring it back.

 

[MattZilla]

Dad, you’re misusing Urban Dictionary. That is cringe.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

"I fear not the bassist who can play with 6 strings, but I fear the bassist who can play with no strings."
-Bruce Lee (probably)

Stringless Bass Guitar Uses PIC32 - Circuit Cellar

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

Of course I take all the strings off my basses. No fret buzz that way

 

[Malak the Mad]

Anyone else share this strange feeling?

Nope. Sell more gear parts and you'll get over it quickly enough.

Also, the ghosts of Leon Theremin and Clara Rockmore may have some words for you.

 

[mongo2]

Of course I take all the strings off my basses. No fret buzz that way

I just remove the frets. Works better that way.

 

[Chrisk-K]

I was certain that every possible bass-related topic had been posted at TB. Gosh, I was wrong.

 

[Topkat13]

I like a deal with no strings attached.

 

[2F/2F]

No.

 

[TN WOODMAN]

Frankly I’m surprised this topic hasn’t come up more often.

 

[db59]

Sorta naked?......eh?...................McCringe

 

[r_bnks]

There will be certain times when one of my basses will be bare for a few days until strings come and I can barely look at that bass during that time.

Wth? Why do you take the strings of before new strings arrive?

Anyone else share this strange feeling?

No

 

[BobKos]

As stated previously, a bass neck is designed to be strung and under tension all the time so when I see a bass missing one or more strings I consider it in need of repair. Kind of like a car missing one or more tires. You can't know what is going on with it by a couple of pictures and in the event of the item being for sale it is a dealbreaker for me. If it is someone else's bass and that is what they do to it that is their business and it doesn't bother me. I don't store my basses unstrung or with loose tension (detuned) strings.

What DOES make me cringe is when I buy a bass and the seller detunes it to ship it. Every time that happens the neck arrives wonky and needs to be pampered to get it playing good again. If you detune it you should also unload the truss rod a little bit too. Nobody ever does the 2nd part and the neck is shipped in a heavy backbow for the length of the shipping journey. YUK!

 

[micguy]

That's it folks. We've reached the end of possible discussions on Talkbass. Time to shut it down.

We haven't discussed what kind of strings were not on the bass, or whether it has tort or not. Plenty of things left to discuss.

 

[micguy]

As stated previously, a bass neck is designed to be strung and under tension all the time so when I see a bass missing one or more strings I consider it in need of repair. Kind of like a car missing one or more tires. You can't know what is going on with it by a couple of pictures and in the event of the item being for sale it is a dealbreaker for me. If it is someone else's bass and that is what they do to it that is their business and it doesn't bother me. I don't store my basses unstrung or with loose tension (detuned) strings.

What DOES make me cringe is when I buy a bass and the seller detunes it to ship it. Every time that happens the neck arrives wonky and needs to be pampered to get it playing good again. If you detune it you should also unload the truss rod a little bit too. Nobody ever does the 2nd part and the neck is shipped in a heavy backbow for the length of the shipping journey. YUK!

Detuning (a semitone or two is enough) is a decent precaution against the thing having too much tension from the strings during shipping - no telling what kind of temp or humidity the thing will see during travel, and slightly detuned, the neck is probably very straight - it sees less stress in that mode than it does at full string tension. Bring them up to tension and wait an hour. If the neck is wonky, it wasn't because the strings were detuned - the thing wasn't set up right at all.