Bad to remove all strings from a guitar at once? (HEY WILL)

[JeffTD]

I'm not sure exactly what Jeff meant. (As in, I think he was replying to Marcus and explaining how it would put "stress" on the neck)


But, the truss rod puts counter tension on the neck to counter the strings tension. So in theory if you take off all the strings the truss rod is actually pulling the neck backwards. Taking off the strings for a bit and putting them back on won't make much of a difference, but if you leave them off for a long time you should consider relieving the tension on the truss rod.

Truss rod just keeps the neck straight, period. It works by counteracting string tension, but yeah... it's not gonna cause warpage unless you really leave it without strings.


To the dudes saying you only change strings one at a time... how dirty is your fretboard???

 

[abt]

Try it. I have and I'm not going back. Although I admit that it is hard to tell because of different instruments, but it seems to me like to intonation and action are rock solid and never change when you change string this way. Just think how sensitive the neck is, all you have to do is posh on the back of the headstock a little bit and is bends. That force is nothing compared to what all the strings are.

Like I said, it is no extra effort so why risk it. I'd be very surprised if any of you would be getting rid of a 20+ yr old Les Paul when it feels and plays as good as the day you got it.

 

[abt]

To the dudes saying you only change strings one at a time... how dirty is your fretboard???

Not dirty at all. You clean it just the same way. I use a piece of old t-shirt and a little lemon oil. You don't want to use too much lemon oil.

 

[JeffTD]

I've never noticed a change in intonation or tuning stability when removing all the strings.

How the hell do you lemon oil the entire fretboard with strings on it, and how do you polish the frets?? The strings HAVE to all be off to do that.

 

[Nebulous]

Speaking of polishing frets, mine could use that. What is the best way/ product for that?

 

[JeffTD]

#0000 steel wool, for sure.

 

[Keregioz]

I'm also a bit concerned about this, but like some of you said you can't clean the fretboard properly without removing all the strings. However, you don't have to clean the fretnoard every time you change strings. I always change one string at a time and remove them all at once only every few months to do some cleaning.