Hi im wondering about neck bow and if leaving the strings on my bass tuned to standard all the time is a bad thing. Thanks
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Bad to leave bass tuned all the time?
- Thread starter Hutzbordello
- Start date
It's never harmed mine, and I've been at it since 1979.
If you detune the bass for storage, you should also loosen the truss rod.
It's fine as is, however.
If you detune the bass for storage, you should also loosen the truss rod.
It's fine as is, however.
oh i love the rumor mill. guitars were designed to have strings on them. they were also designed to be tuned to a standard tuning. with that logic in mind, does it not seem like a major design flaw to not be able to leave it in tune?
I keep mine tuned all the time (since 1973) - also what clued me in was Music stores never de-tune theirs & they leave them on the rack for months sometimes
+1
That's the whole point of the truss rod-It's there to counter the string tension.
A.K.A Leave you're bass tuned all the time.
I've left my Kramer 650B tuned in it's old Fender case for years at a time,just recently put new strings on and started playing it again.It's pretty much just sat tuned in it's case since the 80's and it's still rock solid.Of course it's got the aluminum neck with no truss rod.
I do not believe I have ever read an owners manual that stated "the owner needed to de-tune the strings between playing because our basses suck" If a company ever does, I won't be owning that bass.
Mine have stayed tuned to A440 for 31 years even during down-time for them.
Mine have stayed tuned to A440 for 31 years even during down-time for them.
So, if string tension counters the truss rod, if you take the neck off of a bass, should you loosen the truss rod? Even if it's just for a day or a week?
The general school of thought is that for a day or two, it won't hurt anything - but any longer than that, it's standard practice to loosen the trussrod a little... The thinking is, you *can* cause a backbow by leaving the truss rod under full tension without string tension to counter that force - for anything longer than a day or two, that is...
To be on the safe side, you *could* loosen the truss rod 1/4 turn, then re-tighten the same amount after everything's back together and the strings are re-tensioned to proper pitch... I usually do that, and have never had any problems...
- georgestrings
If you are going to have the neck off the bass for more than a couple days you can and should totally loosen the truss rod(s). You might want to keep track of how may turns it took to loosen the nut. If you are experienced with adjusting truss rods this should be unnecessary, though, as you would know what to do, anyway.
I think this is a rumor that gets started by confusion with acoustic guitars. My wife left her classical guitar tuned in storage for some time and it did cause some slight warping of the soundboard, and she was advised to loosen the strings when not playing to prevent it getting any worse. But classical guitars don't have truss rods, and I don't think it applies to basses.
The only time I've been advised to de-tune a bass is when it is travelling air freight. That, aside, I'm another one whose oldest bass was made in 1972, has been in my position since 1978, and has been under tuning at full tension except when changing strings or being worked by a luthier (I had it converted to fretless in 1980 and the fingerboard smoothed a couple of times since).
I never de-tune my basses, whether they're being shipped, sitting in their stands, traveling in the car or stored long term. Never had a problem with any of them. Same with guitars.
