Safe to leave guitar unstringed for a week?

[Gilles]

Hi,

Is it safe to leave my electric unstringed for a week? Should I adjust the truss rod while it is unstringed?

[greco]

Gilles..I don't think you will have any difficulty after a week (or more), unles it is exposed to dramatic changes in temperature and/or humidity (especially humidity).

I would ONLY adjust the truss rod AFTER restringing, as the tension/pull of the strings is a crucial component to the final "setup" /"relief" (looking for a better word here) of the neck.

Have you adjusted a truss rod before? If not, you might want a guitar tech or luthier to do it for you (and teach you what to look for and what is involved).

Others with more experience than I have will hopefully comment...wait to see what they have to say.

Good Luck with it.

Dave

[mhammer]

It depends on the degree of neck relief needed and in place. I have a mid-1930's Kalamazoo archtop that had started to buzz on the frets something awful. I brought it to a tech who simply suggested I replace the strings with something a little heavier and more era-appropriate. Fixed the problem. The light gauge strings I had on at the time had simply allowed the relief (initially there to counteract the anticipated counterpressure from the strings) to "express itself freely". It was essentially like having no strings on for a while as far as the neck was concerned.

So, if the neck does not have any significant relief (backwards bowing) introduced to result in a straight neck when heavy gauge strings are installed, then a week should not matter at all, and neither should a month.

[Ripper]

I seen guitars that had been unstrung for years and the necks were still great when they were restrung. They used to recommend that for 12 string acoustics that if you were going to leave them sit for a time, loosen the strings right off to take the tension off the neck.

[Rick31797]

Whats the rule., when you have several guitars and you don't play them>>> should you loosen the strings off a bit or just leave them.. in there case.

Rick