I understand. Thanks for the reply 
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I imagine the wipe down after this music video took quite awhile… (not sure how that cannot sound dirty but oh well)
Seriously though, I wonder if she had a prop bass for this or how they did the magic.
The natural state of bass neck once the strings are installed is under tension so I just usually try to keep it under tension. Most necks nowadays are pretty bomb proved.
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It’s more of a thing where I don’t want to rapidly release and then re-add tension. Might be futile but I am assuming the flexing and unflexing adds more wear than keeping it under one tension.
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Is that not more to do with just cutting the strings as opposed unwinding them?
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Yeah that’s a bad idea to begin with. I just unwind and then cut them 
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I usually change one string at a time starting with the smallest gauge it seems to yield the least amount of retuning.
I always pull them all off because thats when I clean and polish the fretboard and frets.
Sorry gunk fans, guitar gunk is disgusting 
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Ha ha. I agree. I do that when I get the new instrument basses or guitars. I usually change the strings and clean and sanitize the e fingerboard before oiling it. After that they are all my gunk, which is a lot more desirable, lol.
Yep, me, too.
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Or just use a fret guard. Saves on all that taping. More time to play bass not tape it. Win / win.
Ot just use neither and just buff the scuff marks out of the fretboard
Not joking, works fine.
That is my preferred method.
One word of caution on fret guards though - They are usually made by punching a group out all at once on a single sheet of metal and it is a good idea when you first get them to make sure there are no burrs or sharp edges on the guards that could mark your fretboard.
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That was after scrubbing the fretboard, to keep the metal polish off the wood 
I had plenty of tape, lost some of its tack for masking cars, may as well make use of it somewhere 
If you mean the fret wires themselves, can you please explain what you use to buff the fret wires?
4\0 steel wool works petty good. I’ve also used nev-r-dull but it leaves an oily film, so the taping is important.
Yeah I made this mistake. Never again
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For the fret wires I use a very high grit nail buffer to clean and polish the frets. Works perfectly, like a gunk eraser. StewMac even sells them but forget that, just buy them in bulk for a couple bucks. Just make sure you go high grit, a few thousand grit at minimum.
But I meant the wood. You can use fine abrasives to buff and polish unfinished/unsealed wood just fine too, so if you scuff a rosewood fretboard while polishing the frets, I have had good luck just buffing it out with the same nail buffers.
High grit nail buffers are what I am using. I have used 4/0 steel wool like @autumnsdad1990 mentioned but always felt it was still not fine enough grit wise.
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