Is it a bad idea if...

Tell him is so intelligent he should become a drummer!

It is a load of rubbish. If you take all six strings off, all you are doing is removing the tension, created by the strings.

If his argument were true, then all guitar necks, in factories all over the world, would be warped.

Hey that's my argument.....

Ditto what greybeard said except insert "crap" for "rubbish".

But ... if it's a two-point knife-edge floating trem, you might want to block the trem before removing all the strings. Use a small strip of wood, an eraser (rubber in Britain) or toothbrush handle, usually between the back of the bridge plate and the body. This will hold the bridge in position while the strings are off.

Hurt the neck? Replace Nick's crap with bst.

-G

or if you have an archtop make sure you mark the position of the bridge

I took all 6 strings off at once and went back in time.

very wierd. :?

Often you can drop parts like acoustic saddles, Gibson stop tailpieces, archtop bridges, etc., and the cones of resonator guitars will shift with all the strings off. So you need to know how everything goes back together. But it's unadulterated BS that it will harm your guitar's neck.

I once took all the strings off, and the guitar's neck fell off.

Seriously.

I still have it, i put it back together with glue...good learning experience. It even plays (sounds like crap, but hey whatever). Looks like crap too. I wasn't concerned, it cost me $50 to begin with and was a piece of junk, prolly made from a kit. Not exactly the finest of craftsmanship.

Lol, thats funny.

I had this old 30 dollar guitar. I was gonna lend it to a friend so she could learn how to play, but it made these frightful creaking and snapping sounds when I replaced the strings. :shock:

Wait a second......You mean you actually change the strings? Crap, that's gonna cost me more money now. :shock:

Agree with what's been said already. There are 1000 reasons NOT to take them all off at once, but warping the neck isn't one of them.

The only reason I ever have all my strings off any of my guitars is for "serious" maintenance that can't be done with them on: bridge replacement, nut shimming, tuner replacement, etc.

Any comments on what occurs over the long term with no tension or excessive tension on the neck? I've heard those argued convincingly.

Any comments on what occurs over the long term with no tension or excessive tension on the neck? I've heard those argued convincingly.

With no tension, it's a piece of wood and it won't do anything that a piece of wood wouldn't do in the same circumstances.

Excessive tension is another matter. No guitar should ever be subjected to excessive tension - anyone who does this should have said guitar rammed sideways................well, let's no get into that.

Under normal tension, with a properly adjusted and working truss rod, there should be no effect at all. I can tell you from personal experience of a guitar left for 35 years. When taken out of it's case, it was not that far out of tune (a new set goes further out of tune in two hours than these were) and needed only a small truss rod adjustment (it may have been like that when the guitar was put away) to bring it back to playing condition.