Are all ASAT's Neck Divers

[Bassmore]

ASAT Owners,

To some, "neck dive", may not be an issue but to me it certainly is. I guess it comes from way back when in 1977ish when I saved up and with a little help from Mom & Dad got a beautiful new Guild B-302-A (Ash) Natural Blonde Bass. Still have it, still love it. Many memories and even played on it some just last night, it still sounds awesome. BUT, if you put on anything less than a very healthy wide leather strap (even then she tilts) and you get momentarily distracted and let's say reach for a beverage with your left hand while not anchoring the body with your right arm. Down she goes! And what she hits everybody knows!!! Thank goodness her neck is just short of a baseball bat, otherwise I think I would have been minus #2 bass along time ago. Okay, let me get to the point here. Do most ASAT's tend to be neck heavey and exhibit "Neck Dive"? If I were to get one it would be all solid ash body with a #8 neck, I'm not out for the semi-hollow. Should I just play it safe if this is such an issue for me and lock my sites in on a L2K?:

[Freddels]

I have an ASAT semi HB with #8 neck. I use it with a 4" wide (very soft) Tango leather strap that has suede on the inside (which stops it from sliding around). The bass seems to be balanced so that it wants to be close to level (neck straight across) rather than having the neck tilted up at an angle.

If it's in the natural balanced position then it doesn't want to dive any further (not like my old Pedulla).

The ASAT looks cool but it is basically the same as the L2K so you have to determine if it's what you want.

There are strap extenders that you can get to put on if you want.

[vroc38]

I don't have any deck dive issues with either of my ASATs on a fairly thin leather strap, but have certainly heard people complain about it. I wonder if an individual's body shape has anything to do with it? I'm pretty beefy, and might have more strap contact area than a skinny guy. Or maybe it has more to do with my particular strap. Who knows? The only thing I know for sure is that my ASATs (one solid, one semi-hollow) don't dive on me. The only thing I notice re: the ASAT is that the reach to the first position is a bit longer than usual, but that doesn't bother me either.

[FidgetStone]

I have a 2002 vintage ASAT with the 3-bolt neck. I love the bass but the neck dive did bother me even with a 4" wide strap though the wider strap helped. The good news for me was that I found a strap extender from another TB'er that another TB'er designed for the 3-bolt model a few years ago. It made a significant improvement for me.

Without the extender the bass sits where it makes me extend my left arm farther out and bend my left wrist more in the first through third fret position than any other 34" scale bass that I have owned. Not drastically but enough for me to notice that the neck was not ideally positioned for me personally. The extender allows the bass to feel more like an L-2000, or other bass with the normal extended upper horn.

The only bad news is that the extenders are getting more rare since only a few batches were made.

Searching on "ASAT strap extender" should yield a good number of hits.

All that being said, I am a major ASAT fan!

[quickervicar]

Originally Posted by Freddels

The bass seems to be balanced so that it wants to be close to level (neck straight across) rather than having the neck tilted up at an angle.

This has been my experience as well. I've never had a problem with dive, just leveling out.

[Bassmore]

Thanks all,

This is really good stuff to know, although I'm still leaning my sights toward the L2K for this first G&L (#9 Bass for me...for 30 years, that's not too bad is it?), my dealer did say he might see if he could get an ASAT in for me to test drive. I hoping to get as G&L hooked as some of you guys so, who knows, I may end up having a G&L trio before I'm done, perhaps lonely when the wife and kids toss me out for being a complete Bass Fiend Lunatic with no platinum album and golden royalties to show for it but hey, like they say "You can't have everything...Where would you put it?" Should have plenty of "wood shed" time on my hands then, huh?

Thanks again

[mrpackerguy]

It can be what I'd call a "minor irritation" on some of the heavier solid body ASATs. I had one and a wider strap solved 90% of it.

I now have lighter a semi-hollow body and no neck dive.