Just keep an eye out for any potential problems. Shorter-term storage (or general, everyday use): don’t sweat it. Longer-term storage: loosen strings and rod. When a guitar's tucked away for a long period, nobody notices if anything's going wrong. If you're playing the guitar, or getting it set up on a regular basis, this gradual change will (hopefully) be noticed and corrected so the equalisation is maintained.

The string tension is relentless and, from time to time, an instrument may need a little truss rod adjustment as the neck 'succumbs' a little. The only real difference is that, during storage, you’re not going to notice if a problem is developing. So, that string tension is present all the time. If you’re picking up your guitar every day and playing it, you don’t loosen strings each time you finish. Don’t sweat itįor shorter storage periods, don’t worry about the loosening-strings thing. Now, if you know that you’ll be putting up an instrument for many months or years, I’d advise you to slacken the strings and the truss rod.Īnd, if you’ve got an older instrument with a ‘weaker’ truss rod, or an instrument without an adjustable rod, you should slacken strings for longer-term storage. So don’t worry about slackening strings for shorter-term storage. almost all modern instruments) your neck is already essentially ‘equalised’. If your guitar’s truss rod is properly working and strong enough (i.e. Think of it this way: that ‘equalisation’ word is really what you’re aiming for. This will detune your string but if you repeat it, itll reach a point where its stretched which means it wont fall out of tune. This seems a lot of effort if you’re putting your guitar away for a couple of weeks and, my view is that it’s unnecessary anyway. Really, you should slacken the truss rod too.

So, if you slacken off string tension, the truss rod is now pulling too hard in the other direction. However, your truss rod applies tension in the other direction in order to counteract that string tension. Yes, the strings can exert a huge pull on an instrument’s neck. Therefore, it seems to make sense to loosen the strings when we’re not using that instrument for a while. The tension of the strings can be a couple of hundred pounds.

When you drop your tuning, there is actually a proper procedure to follow. We’ve all got some appreciation of how much pressure your guitar or bass neck is under. Playing In Different Tunings Affects Intonation. Should I slacken guitar stings for storage?

Should i detune my guitar after playing