What to do with neck while it's off bass for a while?

Back off any tension in the truss rod to keep the neck from a reverse bend.

It may not happen, but why poke the bear?

 

Keep it out of the rain.

 

Two weeks? Don't worry about it. The neck will be fine.

 

You'll be totally fine. I had the neck off one of my basses for seven years, and when I finally got around to putting it together it still was good as new. (I did loosen the truss rod during those seven years though.)

 

I had the neck off the one i had a custom paint job on , for three years, never did jack to it , did a slight truss tweak and intonated it , no problems at all .played prob 30 gigs with it since

 

While erring on the side of caution is fine, it is an error none the less.

Neither will cause harm. One will cause more work. Twice, actually.

Respectfully submitted.

 

String tension acting against truss rod tension keeps the neck (and its relief) in equilibrium. No string tension to act against the trussrod tension will produce a backbow...almost immediately. No big deal I suppose if you're changing strings, or doing some work on the guitar but I'm not sure how long I'd want to leave a piece of wood in that condition.

For short or long term storage I vote for release of tension by loosening the rod once the strings are off. The neck should stay nice and straight.
Count the number of turns and write it on a piece of masking tape attached to the neck...somewhere. It'll give you a good starting point when you reassemble the instrument and string her up.

 

This makes very good sense.

 

Lean it in a corner? Put it on a shelf? Hang it on a wall hanger? Seriously, no longer time than it will be apart, it should not be an issue.

 

Another piece of evidence to add to the pile. For short term storage it's just unnecessary work.

Loosen or not loosen: It's up to you. If it makes you feel good, have at it.

 

i'd do whatever is the safest thing is, one of my basses had the neck off for a year for some major neck restoration work and it took four pro setups before we could get the thing back in line with where it was before

 

^ Good gravy! I don't get it. 4 pro setups? Find another pro.

Now I'm not espousing this is the thing to do but I had my 1975 G3 neck off in the case for over 10 years before I resurrected it. No loosened truss. Took me about 20 minutes to fully set it up after assembly. Required a truss tweak at the advent of summer two months later. I can't think of any reason a setup would be that far off so many times in a row other than a rubber neck.

 

I'm with you on that. Necessary or not, pretty easy thing to do.