12 pound bass !!

Yup.

 

Hm, why would a particular model of bass be heavier than others? I'm not arguing, I'm trying to broaden my knowledge.

Is this not more or less a run of the mill Pbass with a high mass bridge and a fancy paint job? Surely the high mass bridge can't weight that much more...

John

 

Body Material: 2-piece Maple

 

Ah. That’s the reason? Maple is that much heavier?

 

It's got a maple body, like Mr. Harris's. No idea how/why his bass came out of the Fender factory with a maple body, other than there are known oddities like that out there. In a recent thread here, a TB'er sent a Fender Jazz out for a refinish and found that the body was made of poplar, which wasn't supposed to ever have been.

 

Thank you for clarifying this.

Blows my mind that a maple body would add that much weight to a bass. But I guess this is the case.

John

 

Huh? Fender used poplar back in the early to mid-90s on all of their standard models. They used to apply a VERY thin veneer on the top and back, and then black out the cutaways on the sunbursts.

 

A tad unrelated but still concerning heavy basses. My '79 Peavey T-40 has the dubious honour of being one of the heaviest basses of all time for its era and beyond. Mine is on the lighter side of the weight for a T-40 at 10.8lbs. Average was between 11-12lbs but have ranged between 10-13lbs. Ash mainly used for the natural wood bodies of the T-40, solid coloured bodies were poplar and alder. They had "bi-laminate" maple necks.
If you are considering buying the Fender Steve Harris P at 12lbs make sure you have at least a 3" wide strap...I use a Walker & Williams 4" super-wide strap for my T-40 and it really helps with the weight.

 

Not sure the white version is worth it, but if it were the sparkle blue....well, weight be damned!

Good Luck!

 

Ha, I picked up a SH model at Sam Ash one evening & put it back w/o even seeing how it played or sounded.
It was that heavy!

 

I can't say I blame you... . 9+ lbs is my tolerance and 10 is too much.

Good Luck!

 

And although i love the zippy sound of maple, I've heard plenty of basses that sound amazing and weigh 7 or 8 pounds.

Getting older and this matters more now...

 

my 1981 gibson victory artist bass weighs 11.8 pounds..

 

I really don’t mind a heavy bass if I have a wide padded strap. Steve Harris is no spring chicken so if he can do it so can most of the rest of us.
I am surprised to see a 12 pound p bass as a norm for a production model though! I want to play one now. I bet it sounds fantastic regardless.

 

What would bother me more is that binding. I loved my aerodyne p bass and played it for a very long time and than I started getting tendinitis from my arm resting on the edge. I stopped playing that bass and now and it’s not a problem. Which bums me out because that bass is awesome.

 

He seems to have kept in shape.

 

I don't mind heavy... and i love the way it looks!

*sighs heavily and puts it on GAS list*

 

I recall Suzi Quatro bragging about how heavy her bass was in the day. Now I come to think about it, I'm not sure whether that was the sound or the weight.

I have a 75 Pbass that weighs almost 14lbs. Now I'm old and not gigging. I should probably sell it but it sounds great, so I keep it for recording. I worry about blood supply to my remaining good leg, but you're only old once. You learn to live with these things I guess.

 

Donkeys ago, I passed on a few Precisions because they felt too lightweight and consequently neck heavy (headstock dive).
I’d never considered weighing my ‘75 Precision until TB (it’s 10lb even). It just “felt okay” when I bought it. Still does.