Well it finally happened

[ksihawk7]

A little over a month ago, I took the strings off of my bass. Unfortunately, I never got around to replacing them until now. I figured something bad might happen if I leave them off for too long, with the weather being freakish going from hot to cold to hot to cold. I put my E string on, got it tuned, and the fret buzz was terrible. I almost couldn't even hear the actual note the buzz was so loud. Now, me being the amateur bass player I am, I don't really know exactly what's wrong, or how to fix it. Any help on what to do?

 

[Mo' Bass 00]

Put all the strings back on, the neck relief should go back to normal!

 

[awall]

Put the rest of the strings on. One string doesn't have enough tension to pull the neck into position.

 

[SpectorDetector]

Hope this isn't a stupid question, but did you put all the strings back on then tune to pitch? If not then try getting them all back on and then determine if the neck needs adjustment.

 

[johnboy65]

A month shouldn't do that to a neck.
The strings that you put on maybe tapered? Did you put all the strings on? Are you using a tuner to make sure you're to pitch? Is the saddle maybe turned upside down? If none of these add up to the problem, take it to someone with a good reputation.

 

[Bevo1995]

If you didn't put all the strings back on there will be little if any relief (there might even be a back-bow in the neck). You need to put all the strings back on and get them all to pitch, then adjust the truss rod for proper relief if necessary.

 

[ksihawk7]

I realized it did that the last time I changed strings, and like y'all said, when I put all of the strings back on, it was back to normal. I didn't realize this until right after I posted it though, so, well yeah.

 

[ksihawk7]

I may have to kill myself now. The other day I wanted to take the pickguard off to see something about the routing of the body, and I forgot about doing that until after I put the strings on.