Evening out the weight on a bass

[MartinB200]

I have most likely but this in the wrong section, if I have then I do apologize xD

So, I own an Ibanez SR506 bass. It's a lovely bass but take one look at it and how thin it is and you can guess the rest of this topic. The neck is so heavy in comparison to the thin body so when playing it, it goes more or less horizontal. My preferance, like with most others is to atleast have a bass that's sort of inbetween vertical and horizontal. A bit like this cool fella:

So, asides from keep pushing the neck up with my fretting hand during performances. What can I do to make the bass level out a bit more?

Thankyou

- Martin

[joesgarage]

duct-tape and a Shake Weight

[MartinB200]

An idea a little more sensible than that please? xD

[SolidFooting]

There are two options.

1. Subtract weight from the neck and headstock by removing mass.
2. Add weight to the body.

The first option is much more difficult, and could involve thinning the neck (which is probably a bad, bad idea on an Ibanez), or trying to find lighter tuners, removing material from the headstock, whatever.

For the second option, a common solution involves duct tape and a shake weight. If you need a schematic, let me know.

[jbrooks]

relocate the strap button from the upper horn to the body just behind the neck.

[SolidFooting]

Originally Posted by jbrooks

relocate the strap button from the upper horn to the body just behind the neck.

I've heard of people doing this successfully, and if it works, it's an easy fix. However, I'd test it before drilling or modifying any holes by tying the strap around the neck near that point. You're putting the center of gravity further away from your body, increasing the possibility of neck dive, but you're also increasing friction against your body, which could help. If that's the strategy, you could always change your strap out for something less slippery, wider, or with a rougher inner texture.

[Muaguana]

You could switch to lightweight tuners, and/or a heavier bridge, though either option will be expensive. If you have small weights, you can try suspending them from the rear strap button with a string (though you might want to wrap them in cushioning material to prevent dings on your bass.)

If you want to be technical about it, work out the torques needed to act on the bass in order for it to be suspended at a particular angle (use the top horn strap button for the pivot point), then calculate the actual mass distribution on your bass, and tape weights at the necessary points to balance it out.

[MarkA]

I have one of those basses. I'd call it slightly neck heavy -- at least compared to its neck-through brother, which is almost perfectly balanced (and heavier overall). Another 506 that I tried out in the same store was considerably more prone to diving -- it was a little lighter overall, but it felt like all the weight savings was in the body.

For what it's worth, my brother tried the aforementioned strap button re-location on his guitar. Seemed to work okay. I tried the same with my Fender with bad results -- made it dive like a pearl-fisher. in both cases, the "mod" was accomplished by putting the strap button on one of the neck bolts (easy since my bass and his guitar both have neck plates), so no new holes. If you did something like this and liked it, you might want to get a correspondingly longer bolt (so that it goes into the neck the same depth as before), but be careful not to get too long a bolt.

People use lightweight tuners, and I've wondered about the effect of moving the bridge-side strap button a couple of inches up the bass.

I'm not a tech, and I'd be very careful before doing anything irreversible to my instrument.

[slaphappychappy]

I've tried singers in the body cavity . It kinda worked. But one of my basses had a rear access panel which I replaced with a 1/2cm thick steel plate. It worked a treat. It was just heavy enough to counter balance the bass. I had it laser cut to the exact size of the plate.

[darkstorm]

Moving front strap button to neck area in my experiences does little to correct neck dive and adds a tendency for bass to want to roll over forward away from the player when standing. This is especially true with light weight body instruments like SG guitars in my experience.

Upper horn extender to get strap closer to 12th fret would work better imo.

[Turnaround]

Originally Posted by jbrooks

relocate the strap button from the upper horn to the body just behind the neck.

This is not a good idea on at least two counts -it's likely to make the situation worse. Currently the button on the upper horn is at about the 12th fret. Moving the button onto the body at the neck joint will move that point closer to the 18th fret. That means there will be proportinately more weight on the headstock side of the strap button, making the neck dive more. The second effect is that it will cause the body of the instrument sit further to your left making the reach to the first frets even further.

The tuners on this bass are pretty lightweight as it stands so there won't be much to be gained by going to lightweight tuners. And the headstock is pretty small - there's not a significant amount of wood you could remove. So you are left with adding weight to the body or adding an extension to the upper horn.

[Turnaround]

Originally Posted by slaphappychappy

I've tried singers in the body cavity . It kinda worked. But one of my basses had a rear access panel which I replaced with a 1/2cm thick steel plate. It worked a treat. It was just heavy enough to counter balance the bass. I had it laser cut to the exact size of the plate.

Does it matter if they are sopranos, altos or tenors? I wouldn't add a bass since that would make your electric into a double bass.

[slaphappychappy]

Lmfao. Sinkers. The stupid auto correct on my phone.