G’day all,could I have some opinions please…
When storing/not playing stinged instruments for a while,is it better to de-tune them or keep 'em tuned to pitch ??
I have a couple of solid body electric guitars,an acoustic guitar and an octave mandoilin that sometimes dont get played for a year or or so and I’m wondering whats the best way to look after them…
Thanks… best wishes from Oz…weedie…
This is probably one of those chocolate vs. vanilla, Mac vs. PC issues. 
The way I tend to see it, these instruments are designed and built for normal strung tension. And they’re certainly set up for that, assuming they’ve been properly set up. If you were playing them instead of storing them for X amount of time, they shouldn’t move around anyway, or only very slowly. A properly tensioned neck should keep its relief, and a properly braced bridge shouldn’t pull up. Stress on the neck joint is a danger, but that’s normal over the course of time anyway.
So I’d say keep them strung, and slacken them only slightly, maybe a down a 3rd. Slackening throws the geometry out of whack, and it always takes time for wood to move and settle in to a particular shape and tension*. But a 3rd is pretty small, and they should bounce back pretty quickly when you want to play them. Otherwise you may find you need to wait a while and/or set them up again.
- I’ve seen tension calculators online that let you figure out string tension and tuning.
It depends on the instruments, too. If they have Fender-type or Taylor-type bolt-on necks, then a neck reset is fairly trivial if and when needed. Otherwise not (don’t ask me how I know!). If they have adjustable neck trusses, then compensating for tension movement is easier.
Of course, keep an eye on temperature and humidity, too, if you put them away now in summer when it’s hot and humid, and let them sit through winter when it’s cool and drier indoors.
But I’m no expert. So now someone else can chime in and tell me I’m completely wrong … 
I also have to leave several instruments unattended for over a year at a time. I’ve always stored them at concert pitch and have never had a problem myself. But I’m sure there are other experiences out there, as instruments are quite individual things and one piece of wood may well react differently than another.
My reasoning has always been that leaving strings at tension unplayed for a year puts no more stress on the instument than playing it daily at concert pitch for the same year. Indeed, playing probably increases the overall stress to some degree. If the neck of your particular instrument is going to bow or warp, it probably will do that no matter what. Some necks change, others don’t.
I think storing it in stable humidity and temperature has far more to do with avoiding undesireable changes than anything else. I’ve seen instruments need adjustments within the first year of ownership (for new instruments), need adjutment when moving from one climate to another (for older instruments), and I’ve seen instruments in need of attention because of their storage conditions. But none of it was caused by having strings at full tension.
I have a mandolin that I bought new 30 years ago that has never moved a millimeter, yet I had a banjo that needed such constant adjustment that it used up all the threads on the truss rod in short order. Just the characteristics of two different bits of wood from two different trees.
If you’ve been playing your instruments for some time and they seem to have settled in, I doubt you’d have any significant problems storing them under tension as long as you take reasonable precautions to provide humidity and temperature stablity, that is, to avoid sudden drastic changes. Slow, gradual changes are OK, it’s rapid shifts that do the most harm. In most instances, a good case provides the buffer required for this. I also believe it’s important to avoid storing them in any way that might put additional mechanical stress on the neck, such as putting the case in the closet upside down, and to store them away from an exterior wall out of direct sunlight, and away from a heater (again, avoiding rapid changes).
Ditto to all of the above. Conversely, should you decide to take the strings off for an extended period you need to back off the truss rod all of the way. In the course of my luthierie work, I’ve seen plenty of instruments with necks that went into backbow from a tight truss rod that had no string tension to pull against. Cheers,
Rob
I figured you would know for sure, Rob. Thanks for your expertise! 
I agree with the above with one caveat: it assumes you’re using light or medium strings. I play jazz rhythm on an archtop acoustic, which I have strung with heavy gauge flatwounds. I usually tune down a semitone after each playing session. This might not really be necessary — Freddie Green sure didn’t worry about it!
Thanks for your input folks…well done …
The guitars are in the shed …40’ x 20’ with a thick concrete floor…and are kept under the benchs close to the floor so I the think the temp would be reasonably constant there…except of course for the occasional extemes,like the last few days when the temp was nearly 100 deg for three days 
…
What I think I’ll do is tune them all down maybe a semitone/tone…the best of both worlds ??? …
best wishes to y’all…weedie…
Storing in a shed is not exactly what I would consider stable ideal conditions. 
So slacking off a bit for long term storage would probably be a good idea.
Keep in mind that you will need to allow for them to settle back in after you return them to pitch. But they are going to need some time to resettle anyway after you bring them back in from the shed.
Hmm. That’s a good point, and one I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.
or you could just fold them up:
http://www.voyageairguitar.com/
I’ve just checked some instruments (banjo and classical guitars) stored at pitch for 20+ years, and they were even reasonably in tune.
My guitar is not adjustable, just a 1/4" x 1/2" solid steel rod down the center of the neck (David Russell Young school of guitar construction), so it pretty much doesn’t move anyway. Usually playable after a long time away without tuning, or a minor tweak.