Neck tension when disassembling

[Bachh]

I'm looking to remodel my old bass with the help of a professional but no luthier. I just want to remove the neck so I can spray the body without altering the neck.

If I were to disassemble the bass (detach the body from the neck), spray the body then put the neck back on, can I simply put on the strings again or will I have to re-adjust my neck tension or nick the truss rod or anything of the like?

Thank you

 

[Turnaround]

I'm looking to remodel my old bass with the help of a professional but no luthier. I just want to remove the neck so I can spray the body without altering the neck.

If I were to disassemble the bass (detach the body from the neck), spray the body then put the neck back on, can I simply put on the strings again or will I have to re-adjust my neck tension or nick the truss rod or anything of the like?

Thank you

I would say it depends on how long the neck is off. A few days won't hurt, but if you are talking several weeks the best practice would be to slack off the truss rod when the neck is off the instrument.

Even if it's off a few days, you may find that it isn't identical to how it was when you put it back on. But it will probably settle in after a day or two. When you take the neck off you may find a shim in the neck pocket. You will need to put it back in the same spot when reattaching the neck.

 

[walterw]

are you gonna take everything else off the body, right down to the ground wire under the bridge?

you'll want to cover the holes and the neck pocket, so that everything will fit back on once you've made the body essentially thicker with another layer of finish.

 

[Hopkins]

You are disassembling the bass. It would be totally unrealistic to expect it to fall right back in place after you reassemble it. It is going to require a complete setup, including truss rod, action, and intonation. The only thing that wont change is the action at the nut.

 

[Oren Hudson]

I've had many basses apart. Some for a few hours, some for a few days and some for a few weeks. They will all react differently. Some have gone back together perfectly, others needed some adjustment. What I'm saying is, just depends. No hard fast rules, based upon my many years of experience. Just changing strings on occasion has required a fairly involved set-up, others not. Again, could go either way.