Storing your bass - under tension or not?

[TTA]

I was thinking about necks, and straightness. The mantra seems to be to set your neck up properly (mostly straight, tuned)… then store it.

what about no strings, relaxed truss rods? The downside i see here is that if humidity will make it drift, with no tension it may drift more.

How about putting on lower tension strings, lowering tension of the tr? I assume this will be a result between the above two scenarios.

which leads me to another logical assumption… bases with lower tension strings will theoretically drift more seasonally.

thoughts?

 

[luciens]

I've done it both ways and ended up finding it made no difference. So I always store a bass fully setup and tuned to pitch in its case. It's just less work when I do finally crack it open and try to play it.

OTOH, the most time I've had a bass literally sit in a case completely undisturbed and unopened is only about a full year (one of my Rickenbacker 4003's). I haven't done the proverbial 20-years-out-in-the-shed thing, which would be a much longer term experiment that I just don't have the time to actually perform. My basses are either destroyed or stolen long before then, or I take them out and play them long before that much time elapses, etc.

I can't think of any bass made out of wood that would survive that length of storage without at least something going wrong with it somewhere on it. But I suppose it's possible.

As for drift with seasonal changes, I've also found that string tension makes no difference. Far and away, I have found this is affected more by truss rod type than any other factor I've been able to pin down. Namely, I find high-tech DA truss rods to really move around dramatically more when a cold front comes through, etc., than traditional TR equipped basses.

My Carvins (may they R.I.P.) all had high-tech DA truss rods with very fine tolerance construction, but their relief changed so much when the weather got cold that literally the next morning, the strings were all flat against the fingerboards. Almost 1/4 turn would be needed to make them playable again.

My L2000 CLF reissue has a DA rod in it and it moves all around when the temp changes. I just keep an allen wrench out all the time when the weather changes when playing that one.

My Fenders, OTOH, practically don't budge at all. A tiny tweak on my Tony Franklins from time to time, and the Jacos don't move at all.

My old '00 L2000 had the "bi-cut" neck with a traditional truss rod in it and I literally never had to adjust it.

Go figure....

Either way, I don't consider that a quality issue. My theory on why my DA truss rod basses varied so much was the very fine tolerances on a DA truss rod design - expansion and contraction of the two pieces of metal due to temp changes make large changes in the tension.

But that may be total BS, don't know. That's my WAG for why....

L

 

[chris_b]

My basses are stored in tune. I've never experienced a problem with this.

 

[lug]

I leave them tensioned. If you reduce tension of the strings, you should prbably release the opposite tension of the trussrod as well.

 

[pickaxe]

I bought a second hand 82 hamer cruise that had been stored with no string tension for about twenty years, it took a lot of fiddling and time to get the neck relief right(plays ace now),that's with set mahogany neck.Bolt on Maple necks can be an even bigger pain to fix an ugly "s" bend.
I always store tuned.

 

[Turnaround]

I leave them tensioned. If you reduce tension of the strings, you should prbably release the opposite tension of the trussrod as well.

This is good advice. Keep the tension balanced - if you loosen the strings, loosen the truss rod. Strings at pitch, then truss rod at proper tension. It's an imbalance that causes neck problems.

 

[mongo2]

In tune.

 

[lomo]

In tune. Always. There is no logical reason to store it any way other than the way you "want it to be" when it'll get played.

 

[Jim C]

In tune always

 

[gip111]

It's a combination/balance of string tension and truss rod being engaged. I have purchased fully stringed guitars that were in storage for years with the truss rod not engaged and the seller wondered why the neck is curved. So it all depends how long your storing it for, string tension, truss rod and humidity.

 

[ModuMan]

The neck is designed to be at tension, makes sense to store it that way

 

[mb94952]

I leave them tensioned. If you reduce tension of the strings, you should prbably release the opposite tension of the trussrod as well.

Exactly, so it is just easier to store it tuned. I'm lazy.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

been storing my basses tuned to pitch for years. This is the way.

 

[Killing Floor]

The question is whether string tension is bad for basses. In my experience only, bass necks need to have string tension in order to function. For the same reason, I always park my car with air in the tires and I leave my refrigerator plugged in even when I'm not cooking dinner.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

If you weren't storing it, you would be playing it every couple days and how would you store it then? Under tension. Why store it any differently than if you were playing it.

 

[7dollarbologna]

I was thinking about necks, and straightness. The mantra seems to be to set your neck up properly (mostly straight, tuned)… then store it.

what about no strings, relaxed truss rods? The downside i see here is that if humidity will make it drift, with no tension it may drift more.

How about putting on lower tension strings, lowering tension of the tr? I assume this will be a result between the above two scenarios.

which leads me to another logical assumption… bases with lower tension strings will theoretically drift more seasonally.

thoughts?

Storage for how long and where do you intend to store your bass?

 

[Clark Westfield]

been storing my basses tuned to pitch for years. This is the way.

 

[TheReceder]

The question is whether string tension is bad for basses. In my experience only, bass necks need to have string tension in order to function. For the same reason, I always park my car with air in the tires and I leave my refrigerator plugged in even when I'm not cooking dinner.

Dang I've been letting the air out of my tires all these years for nothing.....

 

[Relsom]

I have all mine stung and tuned to pitch.
I might add...... have you noticed these days that a bag of hot dog buns stored for months in the pantry refuse to mold?

 

[2112]

I store my basses tuned, and prefer basses coming to me to be tuned as well.