I have heard both sides of the argument: Should I loosen strings on a guitar that will not be played or maybe even stored for a while? Some say the neck is built to take the constant stress while others say the top and bridge need the relief. What say ye?

Use standard tension.

That's why there are truss rods.

Dear Jim,

As far as I am concerned there are not two sides, sir.

If you are going to store your instrument for a significant amount of time you should lossen the string tension.

I know of no actual luthier who would disagree agree with this bit of guitar care.

If you intend to play it a lot less, but still play it once in a while you may not need to loosen the strings.

Some guitars, like the Taylors with the NT Necks, can take an elephant standing on them and would suffer less ill effects. However, I have seen a number of instruments suffer greatly from not looening the strings.

Can you guarantee the atmospheric environment your tensed-up guitar will live in -- for how many years?

Anyway, why would one NOT ease the string tension? This general issue evades me. We are talking about a wooden product in a constant tensed state. 15 years ago, this would not have been an issue. I do not know what has changed.

I think the interesting point is, if you always play it, just like your only concert violin, viola, or a cello, the instrument survives the constant tension -- yet stored and not played, it suffers...

TTYL.

Regards,
Mac

Mac,
Here's a theory: instruments that are played regularly are stored in living conditions where the temperature doesn't have wide fluctuations. Stored instruments, especially those that are put in storage by non-players, may be put in locations like attics or basements where there can be much wider variations in temp and humidity, resulting in wood or adhesion failure. Just a thought.

Any well-made guitar (which Collings certainly is) should suffer no ill effects from being stored for long periods tuned to standard pitch or thereabouts. With the steel-reinforced neck that Collings uses, I wouldn't give it a second thought.

The more troubling question is why would you store a Collings for an extended period without playing it?

quote:

Originally posted by musicologydoc:
Any well-made guitar (which Collings certainly is) should suffer no ill effects from being stored for long periods tuned to standard pitch or thereabouts...

Yup ... if you were going to ship it you may want to detune it (and pad the area behind the headstock), but unless there's structural problems at the top leaving it tuned up won't hurt. Actually it'll tend to detune itself somewhat over time.

I don't think detuning it would hurt either except that (as mentioned) it'd take a bit for the neck relief to settle in when you retuned. I'd leave it tuned up myself.