Away from my basses???

I would leave the strings alone. They will keep nice tension on the neck. Just put the basses in their cases.

 

Um, aren't they sitting in the cases all the time since you have had them? What difference does it make if you aren't playing them. Not like your playing them increases the stiffness of the neck.

heheh.

In other words, just make sure they are in good repair, like oil any rosewood or ebony fingerboards, tune them to pitch, and keep them away from excessive moisture.

 

I've always felt that was bad for the neck, tunning the bass down to store it. I've never understood where people got that idea. I think it's one of those old off-base bass facts, like "the truss rod is for raising and lowwering the action" and things like that.

In my opinion, the less you flex you basses neck the better. Ever bend a stick back and forth again and again, what happens? It breaks.

~Paul

 

Yeah, here's my vote for not slackening the strings. If you saw, there was a letter in the latest BP from Grasshopper over at Bass Central, saying slackening the strings and retuning them for shipping or storage or whatever was not a good idea.
-Alex