How long can a bass neck endure with no strings?

[Netherlord]

Hi I am trying to clean my bass strings by soaking them in denatured alcohol.

That means, I would have to leave my bass for about whole night without any strings on it.

Do you think it's ok to leave the bass without strings for a few hours?

P.S: I can't adjust the truss rod of the neck because the part where I insert allen wrench is quite worn out.

 

[Watchootognbout]

What could possibly happen to it?
What do you imagine happening?
Your bass is not made of tissue paper.

 

[JimmyThunder]

Overnight, no problem (this is not an official guarantee).
A period of weeks or months? Better to mount it at tension for storage.

 

[bolophonic]

3-4 minutes, tops. Your bass is already ruined.

 

[Oren Hudson]

Hi I am trying to clean my bass strings by soaking them in denatured alcohol.

That means, I would have to leave my bass for about whole night without any strings on it.

Do you think it's ok to leave the bass without strings for a few hours?

P.S: I can't adjust the truss rod of the neck because the part where I insert allen wrench is quite worn out.

Indefinitely, based upon my 52 years of experience.

 

[Bob_Ross]

That means, I would have to leave my bass for about whole night without any strings on it.

Do you think it's ok to leave the bass without strings for a few hours?

fwiw I had a neck removed from the bass (and so without strings, obviously) for 7 or 8 years. Finally got around to re-attaching it to a bass & stringing it up a couple years ago. It's fine.

 

[MobileHolmes]

fwiw I had a neck removed from the bass (and so without strings, obviously) for 7 or 8 years. Finally got around to re-attaching it to a bass & stringing it up a couple years ago. It's fine.

That was my first thought too. I've got a couple warmoth necks that sat for months/years (plus whatever time they spent at the factory) not attached to anything, and they were fine

 

[Bodeanly]

My friend Billy tried this and he died.

 

[Gorn]

RIP Billy.

 

[Garret Graves]

My friend Billy tried this and he died.

RIP Billy, if only he had known.

 

[petrus61]

3-4 minutes, tops. Your bass is already ruined.

Probably not, but I bet those strings will sound nominally better for the effort!

 

[Bodeanly]

RIP Billy, if only he had known.

He wasn't a supporting member. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

If you are going to leave the neck off for 7+ days I would highly recommend loosening the truss rod to prevent warping. I would not stress about it for at least a couple days.

 

[Ghastly]

I had a neck off for months and didn't do anything to the truss rod. It's completely fine and it's been over 2 years since re-assembling it.

 

[Kirk Bryant]

Much ado about nothing. This is a non issue. .........or it might be life or death.............or not.....yea not

 

[bench]

to the thread in general and all the answers in particular! nice work, everyone, especially billy, of course...

 

[GIBrat51]

First of all - take this opportunity to replace the truss rod nut. A new one isn't that expensive, and sometime down the line you're going to have to adjust it - or wind up throwing the bass away. But, after you've done that? For future reference; your bass's neck will probably be fine. But, yes, it's also possible that the neck will react to the lack of string tension to some extent; depending on it's age, what it's made of, humidity... stuff like that. But, if it does - a little -, leaving the strings off even overnight won't hurt it; reinstalling the strings and retuning it should bring the neck back to where it should be. You might have to let it sit for a little while, though, and let the neck get used to the strings again. Like others have said here, I have some basses - and a guitar - that haven't had strings on them for quite a while. Personally, in cases like that, I like to back truss rod nut off until there's only a tiny bit of resistance against the neck when the neck's dead straight. And they're perfectly fine. When you have a truss rod nut that you can adjust, you can do that, if it will ease your mind...

 

[Funkmabassup]

Basically a neck is much better off without strings at all, why do you think there are so many bowed necks ln older basses? not every piece of wood is strong enough too maintain all that tension forever

 

[rockscott]

I tried all the clean, boil,soak, bake, etc tricks to bring bass strings back to life. Bass strings have a life span, when their dead, their dead!

 

[InnerBass]

Depends on the bass.

Some don't mind being naked - others have more modest sensibilities.