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Another Noob Question - Hanging?

A

airbass

May 24, 2007
23
0
DFW Texas
#1
After spending time getting your bass setup properly, does hanging it on a hook on the wall affect the setup or put undue stress upon it from the weight of the body hanging down?

Is it better, setup-wise, just to put it on a stand or in a case?

Thanks for your answers.
 
#2
airbass said:
After spending time getting your bass setup properly, does hanging it on a hook on the wall affect the setup or put undue stress upon it from the weight of the body hanging down?

Is it better, setup-wise, just to put it on a stand or in a case?

Thanks for your answers.
Click to expand...

I don't think there's any conclusive evidence that a hanging bass or guitar suffers any ill effects.

However, I spend a lot of time setting up my bolt-on neck basses to perfection, and I don't like doing anything that might tweak the neck out of alignment. I don't pick them up or hand them off by the neck; body-only. So, to satisfy my neurosis, I only use stands with no neck support (like the Fret Rest version), or case the instrument when not in use. I never use hangars with bolt-ons.

Now, set necks and neck-through basses, it doesn't matter so much to me.
 
#5
electracoyote said:
I don't think there's any conclusive evidence that a hanging bass or guitar suffers any ill effects.

However, I spend a lot of time setting up my bolt-on neck basses to perfection, and I don't like doing anything that might tweak the neck out of alignment. I don't pick them up or hand them off by the neck; body-only. So, to satisfy my neurosis, I only use stands with no neck support (like the Fret Rest version), or case the instrument when not in use. I never use hangars with bolt-ons.

Now, set necks and neck-through basses, it doesn't matter so much to me.
Click to expand...

I suppose this is going to be one of those subjects like "does tonewood matter?", but I'm rather of the opinion that hanging a bass is BETTER for the neck than putting it in a case or gigbag! I don't have any definitive proof, (so obviously if there is a difference it is small) but I have noticed that especially in many hard cases the lid often has some padding that presses down pretty hard on the neck while the neck is usually only supported in the middle thus applying some kind of bending force.

Gig bags in my opinion are MUCH worse, not only because they can fall over even damaging the necks inside but even when you stack a bunch in a row the bags all sort of lean on each other which could it seems to me apply undesirable forces to the instrument. Most of my bad storage experiences have been with gig bags.

On the other hand a hanger seems to minimize bending forces on the neck. To me the big minus with hangers is that while I love the ready availability of the instruments to play, being in the open they collect a lot of dust and crap from the air. The bad news is that this dust gets into all the cracks and crevices (like around the pickups etc.) and it makes the instruments nearly impossible to REALLY clean short of disassembling them! To solve this problem I have seen people with wall hangers who fasten a plastic sheet over all the instruments to keep the dust off.
 
#7
I agree with most of your post except this:

bassbenj said:
I have noticed that especially in many hard cases the lid often has some padding that presses down pretty hard on the neck while the neck is usually only supported in the middle thus applying some kind of bending force.
Click to expand...

I would call that an ill-fitting case. I have 30 basses stored in hardshells, none of the cases are having the negative impact on the bass that you describe.

On the other hand a hanger seems to minimize bending forces on the neck. To me the big minus with hangers is that while I love the ready availability of the instruments to play, being in the open they collect a lot of dust and crap from the air. The bad news is that this dust gets into all the cracks and crevices (like around the pickups etc.) and it makes the instruments nearly impossible to REALLY clean short of disassembling them!
Click to expand...

Great point, I nearly mentioned this, but I didn't want to sound like a complete psycho. Dust gets into pots and other electronics as well.

I think it's one of those things where you do what feels right. There is no objective "right or wrong" here.
 
#9
electracoyote said:
Yeah, because those guys at the guitar store take such great care of the instruments :rollno:
Click to expand...

Some of them do. The couple luthier's shops I've been to have all hung instruments from the neck, as have violin shops.

My favorite set of D'Addario strings puts 198 pounds of force on my bass's neck 24/7. I don't think hanging my 10 pound bass by its neck is going to change things much. :p
 
#11
The ONLY drawback to hanging(my brother-in-law has a music room for his basses all on hangers) is that the strings can and do collect dust and possibly moisture. Learned this first-hand with an acoustic-electric at home when I left it "out for convenience". The strings got funky fast but south Texas is pretty dusty to start with, your environment might be more bass-friendly.
 
#12
electracoyote said:
I agree with most of your post except this:

I would call that an ill-fitting case. I have 30 basses stored in hardshells, none of the cases are having the negative impact on the bass that you describe.
Click to expand...

I'll tell you what I noticed. I have several factory hard shell cases. And they seemed to fit the instruments quite nicely especially around the sides. But after having instruments stored in them for a couple of years, I opened them up and I noticed these deep grooves down the center of the lid! Then I figured out that it was the pressure of the padding on the lid that was pressing against the strings that eventually worked into the padding. This led me to conclude that there must be some pressure on the neck and as I stated the neck is typically supported sort of toward the body or in the center. I have NOT noticed these cases changing truss rod adjustments or other setup things, but all I"m saying is those grooves the strings made in the lid just got me thinking...
 
#13
I hate cases. My basses are always hanging or on a stand and they get played every day. For gigs they go into gig bags. Then again, right now I only have 2, and will max out at 6 after the first of the year. But they'll still be hanging. I've never noticed any damage or setup issues, and I'm not saving my instruments for the next guy. But for collectors, probably a different story.
 
#14
I play everyday so my basses are never anywhere but on their stands where I can pick them up and play. There is only one right now and it sits in a a traditional tripod stand. When I played a 5 string as well both sat in their stands everyday of their lives until it was time to pack them up for a gig.

I live in Colorado and it's very dusty here in this dry climate but I've never had a problem with scratchy or noisy pots. If you're playing the instrument and cycling those pots frequently I can't see where there'd be a problem. I'd worry about it more if they were exposed to moisture or salt air. Whatever surface dust I pick up can be wiped away or blown away using the same canned air I use to freshen a computer keyboard or camera lens.

I guess there are a lot of different opinions as to how to best store a bass but on their stands or upright in their cases neck up has always worked for me. The only thing I never do is store them flat.
 
#16
I keep my basses either hung on my wall, or in my Hercules stand.

I've been into a several high end music stores, and seen $30,000+ guitars hanging on the wall. If it was bad for them, I imagine it would hurt the resale value of vintage instruments, but it doesn't seem to.
 
#19
airbass said:
BTW, my question wasn't so much, will it hurt the bass? Basses are beefy! :)

My question was, if you just spent the money or the time getting your bass setup, would it affect the setup?
Click to expand...

Right. I agree with everyone who says it will probably not hurt the bass or do any long-term permanent damage.

My comments about the neck shifting in the pocket are meant to address your concern. Countless times, I've seen someone pick up a bass and handle it by the neck, and I heard this tell-tale "creak." That was the sound of the neck shifting in the pocket. I've had to re-set the necks on my bolt-ons several times over this, and it's a PITA. I just decided to stop doing that to my basses.

Is this going to happen if you hang your bass? Maybe not. Maybe. But if you're ultra-careful and concerned about the set-up, that's the one area I'd pay close attention to.

I have neck-through and set-neck basses that I don't have this concern over, and I use a Hercules (hanging) stand with my T-Birds.
 

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