Bad Case of Neck Dive

[Ben Coffin]

I bought a Brice J-bass knock off 5 string from a friend and its a great bass. A little pickup R&R, and it'll be well worth the $40 I spent on it . Problem is, I can barely play the damn thing because the neck is so much heavier than the body. Any easy solutions? I tried having a wide strap, I have a 3.5 inch Levi's that's fantastic for some of my heavier basses, but even that didn't do the trick. Perscription?

 

[The Passenger]

Is the strap leather? I have a diver and I can play it fine with a leather strap.

 

[bassbenj]

I bought a Brice J-bass knock off 5 string from a friend and its a great bass. A little pickup R&R, and it'll be well worth the $40 I spent on it . Problem is, I can barely play the damn thing because the neck is so much heavier than the body. Any easy solutions? I tried having a wide strap, I have a 3.5 inch Levi's that's fantastic for some of my heavier basses, but even that didn't do the trick. Perscription?

Standard fixes for neck diver include:
1. more sticky stiffer strap (leather or with rubber pad at shoulder)
2. move the rear strap button higher on the bass body.
3. If all else fails construct a strap button extension from tubing for the upper horn that moves the button out away from the horn an inch or two.
4. Light weight tuning machines can help but run into some cash for a $40 bass.

As a hint about things, the normal position for the strap button that does not give neck dive is somewhere around the 12th fret. If it's way further up the neck you will probably have to deal with neck dive one way or another.

2 and 3 above completely fixed my ultra neck dive Carlo Robelli 8 string. Which strap you use no longer matters.