When to twiddle a truss rod?

[Skol303]

This coming weekend I'm planning to strip down a cheap 'project' bass I have and remove the resin finish on the body. I've already set up a thread about this impending nightmare [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/196051-how-easy-is-it-to-remove-a-polyresin-finish/"]here[/url].

I'm obviously going to remove the neck from the body while stripping the resin. And if I don't get the job finished over the weekend, it may be a couple of months before I get round to completing it and re-attaching the neck (I'm staying with relatives and using their workshop/tools).

If that's the case, and I have to leave the neck un-strung for a few months, then should I slacken the truss rod to compensate? Or should I leave it well alone?

Apologies if this has been asked a billion times before! I did a search and read some related discussions, but there's seems to be a lot of conflicting opinion on the subject.

Any advice gratefully received!

Paul

[Dave Vader]

opinion does conflict.
IME however, I have forgotten to do anything to many necks that I have taken off, and then left lying about for projects that never get finished. When they are finally done, I do any tweaking that needs doing after it's firmly slapped on an instrument.
never had any problems.
Leave it, you'll be fine.

[lettsguitars]

It wouldn't hurt to loosen it off and will take 5 seconds. I shouldn't leave it in a backbow forever, not that it necessarily will do any damage but It'll give you peace of mind if nothing else.

[Skol303]

Cheers guys! I might just loosen it off by a half turn (at 1/4 per day) to be on the safe side. Last time I took the neck off for about a week (while de-fretting it) and didn't bother, as I figured it wouldn't cause any problems in that time. But this could well be much longer if things go wrong... which they almost certainly will