Anyone else do this ocassionally? I say ocassionally lightly here, because I'm too paranoid that I'll snap the neck right off the bass.

I've done it for 15 years and never had a problem. Here are two examples:

http://media.putfile.com/Neck-bend (The effect can barely be heard here)

http://media.putfile.com/Bass-neck-bending

Of course, that's the only way I've done it. I mean, never tried anything as extreme as this (http://media.putfile.com/Billys-neck-bend), for instance.

Anyone else do this ocassionally? I say ocassionally lightly here, because I'm too paranoid that I'll snap the neck right off the bass.

All the time on my old Yamaha Attitude, but it has an aircraft aluminum reinforced neck!!! (or something like that) ;)

i'm too afraid, i'v only got one decent bass and i'd cry my leg off if i snapped the neck on it!

I do it sometimes. I've never had a problem. I would only do it on a bolt-on neck, though, just in case something went wrong. I would never try it on a boutique bass - Fender-style, sure. I do it with my Strat all the time.

Has anyone ever heard of someone snapping a neck? Seems like that would require an awful lot of force.

Why not just get a whammy bar installed?

I bend from time to time, though probably not more than a half step in either direction.

No more than a half-step here, either.

To answer the question about the whammy bar: It's not worth the $ or loss of sustain, for how often I do it. Plus, it's a lot cooler than using a whammy bar, as far as getting house, I mean. For my Strat, it does have a whammy bar, but you get a lot more house out of bending the neck :)

I've broken a neck live before, but it was a Gibby, and at the headstock, which isn't hard to do. Gibsons have 13 degree headstock tilts, IIRC, and without a volute, using a 1-piece neck, well, it's easy enough. A Les Paul is not a Strat, that's for sure - there's a reason you never see vintage, beat-to-crap Les Pauls for sale for thousands of dollars - the beat-up ones all have broken necks and aren't worth crap! haha.

Anyway, I'd have a hell of a time finding a whammy-equipped bridge to replace my Variax one. It has 19mm spacing and piezo saddles that go to the Variax electronics. I wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole.

- Dave