A friend of mine told me that I should avoid having zero tension in the neck (as in no strings). He told me that the neck could get fucked up and get a bow like shape . Is this true ? If I change the strings i should replace them one at a time?

I read that too. They suggest replacing one at a time. It couldn't hurt to follow their advice.

It is true. It depends on the guitar, f.e. a Jackson SL-2's neck is way too thin and will be fucked up. Other guitars might last (like my old Jackson Kelly).

Nonetheless, it is a common method to replace your strings one by one. If you would cut all the strings at once, you'd remove a pressure of (I think it was) about 70 kg.

+ changing string per string and tuning them each time is a good hint when you have a Floyd rose bridge.

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what about when I have to mess with the pickups ? I can't operate with the strings in place . What do I do then ?

I would have no idea, lol.

I guess take all your strings off one by one and hope your neck keeps straight untill everything is back in place.

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Then you'd need to loosen the truss rod.

See, the strings pull the neck "forwards" (to the fretboard side of it). That would cause the neck to bend forward, unless you had this little thing called the truss rod built into the neck. It quite simply tries to bend the neck the other way (backwards), to counter the string tension (which is, as Exodus said, about 70kg). When you remove the strings, the truss rod will force the neck into a back bow, which in a bad case could crack the neck, which is why some people won't take all strings off at the same time. But if you loosen the truss rod, it is no longer going to pull the neck backwards, and then it won't be a problem.

However, if you have a double action truss rod (which is very likely), it can be tightened "the other way" to create forward bow, so you can't just turn it all the way in one direction.

Also, keep in mind that wood can be slow to adjust. My own practice for "fucking with the truss rod" (as it is commonly called on these forums) is to make adjustments with at least 2 hours between them.

Now, I can't be bothered typing more ('cause I'm in a pissy mood), but if there's something you don't understand, or something you'd like to know, just ask.

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If you take all the strings off for only a short time then it shouldn't hurt the neck; as long as it's just for a day of two. Now that doesn't mean to cut them all off at once with a pair of scissors, but slow loosen each of the strings a few turns at a time. I only do it when I'm working on the pups or leveling the frets though because if you have a floating bridge then you will have to resetup the bridge again.

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never cut all of your strings off all at once... that's asking for trouble... i find it will usually be alright(from personal experience mind you) if you remove each string by loosening it alot and then either snip it or just take it off.
when you snip every string in one big snip, you're throwing away all the tension all at once and the neck might not be able to handle that. so even one at a time until they're all gone is better than that...

when i replace strings i replace them one at a time...
but if you want to mess with pickups and have no strings a truss rod adjustment might be wise. but make sure you know waht you're doing.

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When i take strings off i just turn the tuning pegs the "wrong" way til its real sloppy then i pull them out.

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i always take off all my strings wen changin them for new ones, even with a floyd. Anyways this never hurts my guitar its always fine afterwards, but then again its only stringless for about 20 mins, the amount of time i leave the fretboard conditioner stuff on.

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What G_urr_A said was good advice.

And I also like to take off all the strings when I replace the strings. Its just easier to adjust things and use fretboard conditioner with the strings off. When doing this with floyds, just use a 9v battery to keep the bridge up.

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Really wont make a huge difference.

All neck nowadays have Double Action truss rods which prevent any major problems.

So unless you take your neck off your guitar (after having it sit in a 100+ degree case or room for several months) then go throw it in the freezer you should be ok.

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How the fuck would you fit a guitar neck in a freezer?

open the freezer and place the neck inside it....

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dimmu's forgetting the ubiquity of standing freezers - not to mention walk-ins - and thinking of trying to fit a guitar neck into one of those little freezer-boxes at the top of your standard fridge. It's probably an easy mistake to make.

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likely story...

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I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt because I don't know him. If he turns out to be a neophyte of the easily discovered, I'll adjust my attitude accordingly.

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Snap the headstock off first ... if your putting the neck in the freezer you might as well, right!

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Well, you can always chop it up into little pieces and re glue them back together afterwords in order for it to fit into the freezer.

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Why put it in the freezer when you can use it as a bat and play baseball with it... or criket if you live in England?

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Because it would be cooler to burn it.

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It would be much more useful as a cricket bat.

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But not as cool if you were to burn it!! Or stick a lot of firecrackers in it.

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Why burn it though when you could paddle freshmen with it?

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Or, soulinsane could use it as a gaint dildo!!!

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I could use it as a giant dildo... to do your Mom

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Yeah! Thats actualy what I had in mind!!

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What!!!!

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I don't know!!!!

No wait. I meant that you could use it on YOUR mother. There. Thats what I meant!

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Too late

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