Guitar Storage?

[BigEvil]

Just curious to know if anyone has been put in this situation.

I will be away from home for some time. Up to six months maybe.

Anyway, should I unstring the guitars and leave them, or is there no problem leaving them strung?

 

[Spudmurphy]

Leave it strung - it'll be fine for 6 months - obviously careful that you store the guitar (in its case) in a temperature stable environment - not the boot of your car

My Les Paul was stored for years without seeing light of day and the neck was perfect.

 

[the24thfret]

Spud is right. Leave the strings on it and keep it in a stable environment. A basement can work if it's not overly overly humid... and don't store it on the floor in case the place floods!

 

[spychocyco]

I've stored guitars longer than six months, strung, with no problems whatsoever. The only time I had a problem with storage was with the one I left at my mother-in-law's. She decided that she'd stash it in the crawlspace storage area under a bathroom. That was ugly. Luckily, it was a cheap guitar. Keep it away from drastic temperature changes and humidity, and it should be OK.

 

[glockaxis]

Boy, lucky tha was a cheapo. If my mother-in-law did that, I'd be more than happy to store her in the same crawl space.

 

[Sweat]

Definetly keep them strung and in the case in a climate controlled space, all will be fine then.

 

[Spudmurphy]

A good way of thinking about it, is that a guitar neck is like a "tug of war" between the tension of the stings and the tension induced by the truss rod.

If the neck is as straight as a a die then neither "team" is winning.

If the tension of the strings is greater than the tension of the truss rod then the neck will start caving (concave) and you will be adding what is known as "relief" to the guitar.

If the truss rod tension is greater than the string tension than you would have a back bow in the neck - which could happen if you left your strings off - or slackened the tension.

So just to reiterate what everyone is saying - leave the strings as they are in storage.

 

[BigEvil]

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[GoKart_MoZart]

... a guitar neck is like a "tug of war" between the tension of the stings and the tension induced by the truss rod.

If the neck is as straight as a a die then neither "team" is winning...

Well put!