bass weight and replacement bridge

JoeyFunk · #1 03-15-2006, 03:45 AM

I have a very nice project Precision-4string-Bass (Warmoth). Sound is quite nice, but the beauty is quite heavy. This was not my mein concern as I use it mainly in my home studio. Now my question: I plan to drill some holes in the body in the place under the pickguard to lower weigth, and plan to buy a set of leightweight mini-tuners.
Will this seriously alter my real good sound into bad?
Also I like to change the bridge of the bass which at the moment is an old squier (trash) bassbridge into .....any suggestions?
I like the look of the sadowsky-bridges, and also the celinder-bridges or the badass-replacement, but am interested if you can name some others which look cool. (b.t.w. is the sadowsky bassbridge the same as the gotoh-bridge?),
Thanx for any answer
Joey

62bass · #2 03-15-2006, 07:58 AM

Lightweight tuners will help some. For a bridge, the Carvin Hipshot bridge is good and very light. You can drop a bit of weight drilling out the body but be careful ot you may compromise the strength along the line where the strings lie. That's where most of the stress will be. That shouldn't affect sound negatively.

If you have straplocks, get rid of them. They add weight. Use a good padded strap like the neoprene ones.

Jason Ungleich · #3 03-15-2006, 02:01 PM

Hipshot ultralites will help in reducing the headstock weight. The Hipshot B style bass bridge is also very lightweight.

Moo · #4 03-16-2006, 05:50 AM

I think those Hipshot bridges come in either brass or aluminum, be sure to get aluminum if weight is important.

Chasarms · #5 03-16-2006, 11:23 AM

If you remove enough wood material to significantly alter the weight of the bass, it will certainly affect the tone of the bass as it will totally change the resonant frequencies and dampening characteristics of the instrument. The harmonic overtones will very different.

Good or bad? Well that's hard to say. You won't really know until you have done it. Then again, if it is the later, there's not a whole lot you can do at that point.

As for the hardware, it's hard to imagine that the difference in weight of one type of hardware verses another would make a significant impact on the overall feel of bass. If it's heavy, it's still going to be heavy with lighter tuners. "Regular" tuners are not that heavy anyway.

Ultralight tuners are "about half" the weight of a normal tuner. So what does that really save you 3-4 onces? Woo Hoo. Slap on a "ultralight" bridge and your 10 lb. bass is down to what, 9.7 lbs? That's an incredible 3 percent!! I am sure your shoulders are thanking you already.