Loosening Strings to Ship YOUR bass....

[Blueinred]

Wish mine was half as useful - although when gets going on the catnip growing outside, I think he sees hippos and elephants. So maybe "kitty weed" is good for training after all?

As not to derail the important topic of the thread, when ever I put him in the cat carrier for longer trips, I always loosen his whiskers a half step so they don't break off getting stuck in the side holes of the carrier. Never had one break, yet. He still bitches he whole trip, though.

 

[DigitalMan]

(Edit) Sorry, I will restate this much more simply in a subsequent post.

 

[jaybones]

I would take the neck off any guitar or bass I shipped. For the smaller cheaper package.

As an aside, when I was front house manager at a small winery here I got a phone call from a (claimed to be) lawyer in California. Was irate, and opened the conversation with "Your corking process is defective! I bought a couple of bottles of red wine, wrapped them in my clothes in my suitcase, and when I got home the corks had popped and all my expensive Tommy Bahama resort clothes were stained with red wine! Several thousand of new clothes I bought for that trip ruined! I'd like to give you the opportunity to make me whole without getting the courts involved..."

I interrupted and asked "Sir, I'm sorry that happened. Did you check your suitcase?"

He said "Well of course."

I said "Well, you must not have realized that cargo holds aren't pressurized. At altitude the small amount of nitrogen in the bottle would expand and pop the cork."

He calmed down, said "Gee, I never thought of that. Anyway, I still think your company should warn people when they buy wine to take home not to put the bottles in checked baggage! It's irresponsible and leaves you open to damages..."

I said "You're absolutely right. We should also warn people against crossing the street without looking, or trying to walk downstairs with their shoes untied. Probably should make sure they're putting their seatbelts on."

He was silent for a while, then timidly asked "So, you aren't going to reimburse me for my ruined clothing? I mean, maybe not all of the value, but half?"

I laughed and said "That's the first thing you've gotten right in this conversation. Have a nice day." And hung up.

Guy was from California and wasn't going to come back in anyway, so I had no problem burning that bridge and didn't feel he was a potential return customer.

 

[Jeff K]

I have worked at FedEx for over 20 years. I have never heard this as being our policy. Never. I don't know who the "WE" was he was referring to, but it was not FedEx.

I've used Fed Ex (and UPS) a lot to ship basses for many years. First time I've had anybody say that to me. But he was adamant about it, and she was shaking her head in agreement. It was a Fed Ex Office location. To be honest though, I was more in shock about the major price increase than the "detuning policy" (if it even IS a policy)...

 

[Blueinred]

I'm not sure which concept is more misunderstood: tension, force, or sarcasm.

I think we have a way better grasp of sarcasm than we do with tension and/or forces. Math can be yucky when trying to figure tension and forces.

There are three kinds of people in this world, those that are good at math, and those who aren't.

 

[el_Bajo_Verde]

As not to derail the important topic of the thread, when ever I put him in the cat carrier for longer trips, I always loosen his whiskers a half step so they don't break off getting stuck in the side holes of the carrier. Never had one break, yet. He still bitches he whole trip, though.

Be careful doing that too often, the lack of tension will lead to a warped neck...

 

[antonspon]

I've traveled with 2 basses by air (in the hold - they wouldn't allow them in the cabin) from Europe to South Africa, both in hard cases (one was a hollowbody, THAT gave me grey hairs!). I didn't feel comfortable leaving the strings at full tension, mainly because I felt that the tension of the strings on the headstock combined with rough handling had the potential for disaster. I slacked off the strings and put the (leather) strap of each between the strings and the fretboard (to prevent dings on the frets). Both basses arrived in perfect condition and played perfectly as soon as they were tuned up. The cases were not so lucky - the (steel!) handle of one was twisted and I lost a metal foot from the other.

I understand the argument for leaving them under tension too - it is a balance between string and rod tension, so it makes sense. When I change strings, I do it one at a time. However, I've worked on nuts, bridges and replaced pickups, when you HAVE to take off or slacken all the strings for access, and have never had a problem after re-stringing. I think common sense and gut-feel aren't bad things to go with, there is no real "right" or "wrong" here, it depends on the situation.

 

[tsheldon]

I don't know if I even want to bother getting into this argument, but I have to disagree with the majority of you.

I am a pro Luthier with many years in this business, and I'm also a retired mechanical engineer. I loosen the strings on all my basses before I ship them. Not fully slack, but down a couple of turns. The reason is simple....to reduce the potential damage from shock loading. If the bass is up to tune, with the neck in its fully loaded state, and it gets dropped, the overall loading through the neck structure will be much higher than if the strings were left slack.

With the strings tight, the momentary shock loads from impact are added to the normal loads in the neck. So the stresses within the neck will be much higher than normal. With the strings slack, the net loads that the neck sees are much less.

It's all about protecting the structure from the shock loads when the box impacts the ground. The same reason why you put crushable material around the bass and the case.

Is it absolutely necessary to loosen the strings before shipping? No, of course not. Many or most basses are shipped up to tune, and make it there successfully. But to me, loosening the strings is a very simple way to reduce the risk of damage. So I do it. And I can't see any downside to it.

Why does the string tension matter but not the truss rod tension?

 

[Medicine Man]

Most people do a setup on a new bass anyway.

 

[guy n. cognito]

Not one manufacturer slacks the strings.......not one.

The only place I see this advice is on the internet, by those who claim to be experienced. Even then, those "experts" are hard pressed to provide even a single example to prove their theory.

 

[tattooSAM]

How about Fender? I beleive they have a bit of history shipping basses all over the world. Every one I've taken right of the box has been more or less in tune.

I have always purchased my Fenders in a store, so I have no idea how they would ship. All of my Fenders have very sturdy necks. I wonder how that would factor in these decisions.

I have dropped/knocked over each Fender a few times. I know a few of those drops would have probably snapped the headstock right off my Gibsons or Epis.

 

[stacker]

Has anyone

Not one manufacturer slacks the strings.......not one.

The only place I see this advice is on the internet, by those who claim to be experienced. Even then, those "experts" are hard pressed to provide even a single example to prove their theory.

Has anyone proven otherwise?

 

[Tanner5382]

Has anyone


Has anyone proven otherwise?

The burden of proof is on those who make the claim, not those refuting the claim.

 

[guy n. cognito]

Has anyone


Has anyone proven otherwise?

I'm sorry, are you asking if someone has proven that keeping the strings at tension DOESNT cause an issue?

 

[outoftune]

Yeah, the "only remove one string at a time" thing is ridiculous.

I restring one string at a time because it's just easier. I put the new string on and tune up. On to the next. I guess I have a level of thought that the tension on the neck never strays as well.

 

[bassbully]

I would take the neck off any guitar or bass I shipped. For the smaller cheaper package.

As an aside, when I was front house manager at a small winery here I got a phone call from a (claimed to be) lawyer in California. Was irate, and opened the conversation with "Your corking process is defective! I bought a couple of bottles of red wine, wrapped them in my clothes in my suitcase, and when I got home the corks had popped and all my expensive Tommy Bahama resort clothes were stained with red wine! Several thousand of new clothes I bought for that trip ruined! I'd like to give you the opportunity to make me whole without getting the courts involved..."

I interrupted and asked "Sir, I'm sorry that happened. Did you check your suitcase?"

He said "Well of course."

I said "Well, you must not have realized that cargo holds aren't pressurized. At altitude the small amount of nitrogen in the bottle would expand and pop the cork."

He calmed down, said "Gee, I never thought of that. Anyway, I still think your company should warn people when they buy wine to take home not to put the bottles in checked baggage! It's irresponsible and leaves you open to damages..."

I said "You're absolutely right. We should also warn people against crossing the street without looking, or trying to walk downstairs with their shoes untied. Probably should make sure they're putting their seatbelts on."

He was silent for a while, then timidly asked "So, you aren't going to reimburse me for my ruined clothing? I mean, maybe not all of the value, but half?"

I laughed and said "That's the first thing you've gotten right in this conversation. Have a nice day." And hung up.

Guy was from California and wasn't going to come back in anyway, so I had no problem burning that bridge and didn't feel he was a potential return customer.

Not to sidetack but I looove those lake Erie wines. We were just up and brought some home.

 

[Tanner5382]

I restring one string at a time because it's just easier. I put the new string on and tune up. On to the next. I guess I have a level of thought that the tension on the neck never strays as well.

That's fine if you want to do it, but the people who say it's absolutely necessary are just wrong.

 

[FrankLowend]

Is it the best never ending topic of the year?

 

[guy n. cognito]

I would take the neck off any guitar or bass I shipped. For the smaller cheaper package.

I would be super pissed off if I had to reassemble and setup a bass simply because a seller wanted to save a few bucks.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I would be super pissed off if I had to reassemble and setup a bass simply because a seller wanted to save a few bucks.

Yes. The only time I've done this was at seller's request. It made shipping internationally possible. Shipping the neck and body separately was even cheaper, but I hated that it doubled the possibility of something being lost in transit.