What's the weight of your bass?

Eric Rene Roy · #1 10-23-2008, 06:15 PM

Just a curiosity of mine. Some of the best basses I've ever heard were tanks (and some were light as a feather. definitely not saying a bass has to be heavy to sound good!)...but as a maker I'm always conscious of the overall weight.

What does you bass weigh?

What kind of bass is it? (i.e. - lam, hybrid, flat back or fully carved)

bejoyous · #2 10-23-2008, 06:34 PM

I had an Italian flatback with really thin wood that was only about 15 pounds. It sounded awesome. Sigh, I really miss it.

My present bass is about 25 pounds. The luthier, Peter Chandler, said a bass start off around 200 pounds then in the end, you have a 175 lb bag of the nicest, most expensive kindling in the world.

Hans Preuss' bass (of the National Ballet of Canada) has an extremely heavy bass. I guess near 50 lbs. When I first went to pick it up, I thought someone had glued it to the floor! It's a boomer, BTW.

Martin Sheridan · #3 10-23-2008, 06:40 PM

I've thought a lot about this over the years, and early in my bass playing and luthier career I thought that the lighter basses were better. Since then I've played and heard some that I could hardly lift that were wonderful sounding instruments. So I don't think there's a hard and fast rule on this.

Paul Warburton · #4 10-23-2008, 06:46 PM

Hey Eric, the Bohmann weighs in at a hefty 29 lbs.
If you don't get enough feed back on this thread, we did one a few years back. I guess search under weight.

Eric Rene Roy · #5 10-23-2008, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

If you don't get enough feed back on this thread, we did one a few years back. I guess search under weight.

Musta missed it, I'll take a look!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Sheridan

...I don't think there's a hard and fast rule on this.

Me neither...just fulfilling a curiosity of mine.

In my own making, I ignore the weight and worry more about the flexibility of the plates. In some of the violin circles I follow some people tend to get obsessive about plate weights. I've tried not to go there myself.

Gearhead43 · #6 10-23-2008, 07:24 PM

Very interesting subject!

Lets keep it going.

I wonder what the average weight of a Kay or Engle is?

Eric Rene Roy · #7 10-23-2008, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Warburton

...we did one a few years back. I guess search under weight.

Yup! Found it!

Greg Clinkingbeard · #8 10-23-2008, 08:40 PM

My main bass is a hefty 28lbs. The fact that it is also enormous doesn't help either. I just bought an old plywood that weighs 23. It feels more like 20 though, so it will get more use.
Luckily, it sounds good too.

bankerwithabass · #9 10-24-2008, 02:11 PM

I have a Westcoast String Instrument (Chinese), carved 3/4 with spruce top, deep maple sides and curved back weighing in at 26 lbs. It's heavier than my plywood but the sound is so much better I still lug the extra weight around.

Eric Rene Roy · #10 10-25-2008, 12:01 PM

Let's hear from some of the lurkers since the "regulars" have weighed in in the past!

If your reading TBDB and have never posted...nows your chance!

Gearhead43 · #11 10-25-2008, 01:16 PM

In the old thread, a poster said his Engel ES-1 weighed only 20lbs, does that sound correct?

Might be, I need to get a bathroom scale and do the math. My wife doesn't want a scale in the house though! haha.

Michael Eisenman · #12 10-25-2008, 06:52 PM

Johannes Köhr hybrid busetto (named "Muffin") weighs about 25 pounds.

R Sturm · #13 10-25-2008, 07:03 PM

5/8 Lemur Huntington Quenoil Design: 20.0

5 String Wilfer Lionhead 24.6

3/4 Czech Hybrid 22.8

While the Wilfer feels big, at least a few pounds come from the big neck, extra tuner, longer peg box, the large carved head. If it were a regular 4 string, it might be 22 pounds.

Marc Piane · #14 10-25-2008, 07:47 PM

Warwick Corvette Standard - 5 string - 11lbs

Eric Rene Roy · #15 10-25-2008, 08:42 PM

Marc Piane · #16 10-25-2008, 08:51 PM

Ok. Ya got me.

Shen Willow Flatback SB200 - 20lbs

bejoyous · #17 10-25-2008, 09:41 PM

My old housemate, Rob Clutton, has an awesome Prescott that must weighed close to 40 lbs if my memory serves my correctly. I think it has a slab cut top. He would have to recover before playing a note when arriving at a gig!

This is a beautiful sounding instrument. Every pizz sounds like there is a little bass drum playing along with it. An instrument deserving of Rob's amazing talents. Hear him here: http://www.stevekoven.com/discography/

Check out the beautiful tailpiece: http://www.linaallemano.com/picts/n.jpg ,
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1308/...f2c753.jpg?v=0
http://www.zoilus.com/documents/on_r...005/000401.php

chris dammann · #18 10-26-2008, 02:08 AM

sorry to be off topic-- but is there any correlation between weight and tension? i've heard heavy basses like higher tension? my bass weights 30lbs.

Eric Rene Roy · #19 10-26-2008, 09:28 AM

My immediate thoughts on this would be the amount of energy needed and the resistance to that energy.

How hard do you have to push to knock over a 100 pound person versus how hard to knock over a 200 pound person? If your pushing a 200 pounder with the amount of force that would have knocked over the 100 pounder...you wont get the desired effect.

ctregan · #20 10-26-2008, 12:06 PM

My 1940's Cleveland American Standard tips the scales at 10.42 kilograms.