Removing all guitar strings for about a week?

Megadebt

Experienced
I want to do some work on a guitar. Will it be OK to take all the strings off for about a week? I don't want to mess the guitars neck up or anything of that nature. Thanks!
 
Yeah, you'll be fine, I'd do it with no worries.

But if we wanted to go full-nerd on the topic for argument sake, there are reasons you might not want to take all string tension off. Most would apply only to a poorly made neck and then only when leaving strings off for a longer time, through big temp or humidity changes.

If you have any unknown loose fret slots that are just on the verge of popping up out of their slots, removing all string tension could be just enough to allow them to pop up. Very unlikely on a quality neck, but possible. Easy enough to fix if it happens.

Guitars have this ongoing tug of war between truss rod tension and string tension on opposite sides. The balance keeps the neck stable and in theory if the wood was gonna dry or warp over otherwise react over time it could be worse with no tension. In theory.

In reality, if you leave strings off for a year, most will be totally fine, some might need a minor truss adjustment. Very very few would have bigger issues as a result. Then again, some necks develop twists and warps over time regardless, so the lacking string tension might be a coincidence.
 
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