Actually thinking about it it was Ibanez to blame. From their Maintenance manual: “The strings should be replaced one by one
instead of removing all the strings at once.
This is done to avoid stress on the neck and to reduce the risk
of affecting tremolo balance.”
And I remember thinking that was a new one on me based on my guitar days. And that I was pretty sure these basses are not quite that delicate!
It might be a crossover from acoustic bass too, where string tension is actually holding things in place.
Hi @John_E - really? I replaced cheap chinese passive pickups with mid price active EMGs and found the difference significant (but not as significant as I hoped for…).
Can you explain?
We are talking about replacing potentiometers not pickups
Ah, sorry!
I was confused 
This stuff. I’ve installed one. It’s good quality.
Even if you cut strings you should take the tension off first or thy snap
maybe…maybe…if it was a fragile '59 something or another that might fall apart and it was just shipped to you in -20F weather. But otherwise - nope, it’s all junk.
How does one work on the fretboard then?
This is typical corporate CYA if you ask me.
Agree, this sounds like a boilerplate recommendation that made it’s way into the bass manual. I’ve seen this advice with respects to floating guitar tremolos like a Floyd Rose. In that case, the tremolo system is balanced based on the string tension, and it’s easier if you remove/replace strings one at a time to keep the tremolo more or less in place.
They exist, but I haven’t seen too many bass tremolos.
Got one on my Bass VI, but haven’t sen them much anywhere else
Oh that is really cool. The MS-60B has needed an update for a LONG time.
The one thing that you should not do with the bass neck is to leave it with no tension. For example, when I shipped the bass it’s shipped with the bass, fully tuned and not loosen all the strings. Same goes to storing basses.
Although, I changed my base stream one at a time, not because any of that PSA warning but simply I need to manage my cut strings I have three small children. I don’t want them to run into a Sharp end of the cut string. Doing one string at a time, make it easier for me to wrap the old string and properly dispose of it before I install the new ones.
Actually the advice is usually the opposite; definitely relieve tension for shipping so as to make the bass more resilient to being bumped around, and definitely loosen strings for long term storage.
I actually fixed some neck warp that way - I removed the strings and put in slight backbow on a bass, and let it sit for a few months until the wood became stable like that. Once restrung, the warp was much less an issue.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I have personally received basses from Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Indiana and California. Each and every one of them arrived safely with their strings not only under tension but several of them in tune to pitch.
I have also received and shipped myriad custom acoustic steel string guitars — which are far, far more sensitive and fragile than electric basses — all with their strings under tension. There was never problem one with any of them.
I store all of my custom acoustic guitars under tension.
That was exactly my thought!
There is absolutely no harm at all in removing strings
Fuck, i went down the dai/daw rabbit hole last night. I was planning on getting a better amp and start my peddleboard but now I don’t know wtf I’m going to do 
Well, with a DAI and DAW you have hundreds of different amp, cab and fx plugins available without killing your bank. Just get some decent monitors 