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Bass height versus Age

micguy

micguy

May 17, 2011
23,902
54,807
#1
I've been playing bass for decades. In my 20's, the top horn of my bass was about belt height - It was a time where playing with guitars and basses slung low was cool, I was young, and that position meant my right hand was pretty straight. That afforded a lot of power in my right hand to attack the strings. I had an inadequate amp to start with; decades later my technique is similar, in that the strings are very often bouncing off the frets (or fingerboard on a fretless).

Anyway, over the years, it seems every 5 or 10 years, I decide it'd be more ergonomic to move the bass up a little - not a lot, just a little. Net result is, over 38 years, my basses now sit about 6 inches higher than when I started. It's still an inch or so lower than playing in a seated position, but pretty close at this point.

When i started, I had a hard time getting a strap that was long enough - a bass slung low on a tall person meant I had to search a while to get a strap long enough. Now, not so much - 6 inches higher means the strap is about a foot shorter.

I have also made these moves very slowly - half an inch or an inch at a time - more than that, and it felt really awkward. like the bass was goig to choke me or something.

Anyone else experience this?
 
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#2
I used to play slung low, but my basses have followed my guitars quite a bit and now they all sit above my belt in the mid stomach region.

I find this position allows me better access for modern shredding on my guitars as well as excellent fret access on my basses; it almost feels like the instruments play themselves when you're not fighting them in an awkward position.
 
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#3
Because I favor long-scale hollowbodies, my bases must be slung low if I am to reach the first couple of frets. But I also am trying to figure a way to hang them at about a sixty-degree angle a la early Bill Wyman, mostly to access the higher frets as well (and it does seem to make weight less of an issuel).
 
#4
I started very high back about 20 years ago in middle school. I liked the way my very-long fingers hung right over the strings at the neck. I worked my way down to the belt shortly after college and now am sort of in the middle. I find a medium-slung (neck plate slightly above my belt buckle) bass as seen in my avatar to be pretty comfortable, but I've also got long monkey arms so reaching the furthest frets is never really a problem.
 
#13
micguy said:
I've been playing bass for decades. In my 20's, the top horn of my bass was about belt height - It was a time where playing with guitars and basses slung low was cool, I was young, and that position meant my right hand was pretty straight. That afforded a lot of power in my right hand to attack the strings. I had an inadequate amp to start with; decades later my technique is similar, in that the strings are very often bouncing off the frets (or fingerboard on a fretless).

Anyway, over the years, it seems every 5 or 10 years, I decide it'd be more ergonomic to move the bass up a little - not a lot, just a little. Net result is, over 38 years, my basses now sit about 6 inches higher than when I started. It's still an inch or so lower than playing in a seated position, but pretty close at this point.

When i started, I had a hard time getting a strap that was long enough - a bass slung low on a tall person meant I had to search a while to get a strap long enough. Now, not so much - 6 inches higher means the strap is about a foot shorter.

I have also made these moves very slowly - half an inch or an inch at a time - more than that, and it felt really awkward. like the bass was goig to choke me or something.

Anyone else experience this?
Click to expand...

Stick around long enough and you will find yourself wearing your slacks six inches higher as well.
 
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#15
I played in a metal band back in the early 90s and was slung down low... It's what you do...but as I approach 50 I find I'm just a couple inches lower than when I'm sitting for my standing strap height. Ergonomics definitely means more now than back then. I think if I'm playing better and more accurately and I hope I look cooler than slung low and playing about 50% of what I could be.....if you look at someone like Hadrian Feraud, his height is definitely set for optimum performance over a "sense" of cool. Good enough for him...definitely good enough for me.
 
#17
Belt intersects bridge - angle's pretty flat. Hasn't changed in a long time. When I was having some tendinitis a couple of years back, any place I could move it to that wouldn't hurt is where I'd play it, but that's over now and everything's back to where it always has been.

Lower back is a mess, so I've dropped about thirty pounds in the last two years and planning on losing another thirty, in hopes that practicing standing up won't be the ordeal it has become these days. I don't like playing sitting down, even for practice, and absolutely won't do it in public.
 
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