Gyroscopic Investing

I'm really tempted to tax loss harvest my EDV shares and buy individual bonds. The EDV has gone down substantially and I would prefer to own the bonds directly anyway. Can anyone think of a reason why this might be a bad idea?

A further question: does it matter for tax loss harvesting purposes whether it's a short-term or long-term capital loss? Or is that distinction only important for capital gains?

Short vs. long term aren't relevant for capital losses.  Because you'd have the benefit of switching from a fund (that hits you with big dividends once a year), I'd say do it. 

I also have taxable bonds, but my tax loss quota for this year will be taken up by physical gold.  If you're considering that you might want to defer the bonds until next year, when rates may be higher.