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Bass Weight Clarity

What is 9.8 pounds?

  • 9 pounds 8 ounces

    Votes: 4 3.3%

  • 9 and 8/10 pounds = 9 pounds 12.8 ounces

    Votes: 74 60.7%

  • I prefer metric

    Votes: 24 19.7%

  • Who gives a f@$k?

    Votes: 20 16.4%
  • Total voters
    122
#41
Templar said:
Fair point. But who mixes pounds and tenth's of pounds? Is this commomplace in your circle?
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I think you're just looking for too much sense in the imperial system. It is a system designed explicitly not to make sense. Don't try to make sense of it, just accept it. If you try to think about it logically, you won't get anywhere, because it's an illogical system. If we had even the slightest bit of sense, we'd be using metric, but here we are.

A period between two numbers indicates that the decimal system is being used in every application I have ever seen. That's what I've always assumed it to mean, even when the unit is lbs. Nonetheless, I cast my vote for the metric system.
 
#42
Templar said:
Fair point. But who mixes pounds and tenth's of pounds? Is this commomplace in your circle?
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be uncommon to refer to a half of a pound, or a quarter of a pound. I really don't hear reference to ounces come up much at all outside of recipes, and I'm not being facetious when I say I would have *never* thought that a weight of 9.8 pounds referred to anything other than what I said.
 
#44
Templar said:
Fair point. But who mixes pounds and tenth's of pounds? Is this commomplace in your circle?
Click to expand...

I have a digital kitchen scale that works wonderfully up to about 15 lbs. It can be set to report grams, pounds or ounces. If I set it to ounces, place a container on it and fill said container with some instance until it reads "8 ounces," I can then remove the container, switch the units to pounds, replace the container on the scale and observe a reading of .5 lbs.

9.8 pounds is just slightly less than 9 lbs, 13 ounces.

Grocers sell meat, poultry and many other in-store packaged foods by this method regularly. If you see 1.8 lbs on a package of ground beef, do you expect it to weigh a pound and a half?
 
#47
onosson said:
It wouldn't be uncommon to refer to a half of a pound, or a quarter of a pound.
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Usually expressed as "1/2 lb" and "1/4 lb". No?

I don't recall ever seeing "3/10 lb", or "one tenth pound" anywhere, have you?

I really don't hear reference to ounces come up much at all outside of recipes
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You'll see it regularly here, in the GFS forum.

I suppose now, in the GFS forum, questions will arise...

"When you say it weighs 8.7 lbs, do you mean....?" ;)
 
#50
Bean639 said:
It seems by the mixed responses that the OP asked a valid question.

also... LOL!
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... absolutely ... what was first shunned as a silly question, is in fact pointing out the discrepancy scenarios possible when someone states a weight of a guitar for sale ... however, any response is better than when someone tells me 'average for a J bass" or average for a P bass" .. there IS NO AVG, that is why I am asking ... I have had P's all the way from just under 8 lbs to over 12 lbs ... and one (same) model MIM Standard P, that I had 3 of, went from 8 1/2 to 11+ in weight ...

... to the OP, good question ... it will help clear up the responses hopefully
 
#52
mccartneyman said:
Digital scales are metric. America, locked in the Middle Ages, declined to convert to metrics for some unknown reason. Do your best. Real question is, how many stone does your bass weigh? :)
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1982, Ronald Reagan disbanded the US metric board and canceled its funding... leaving the conversion to the free market... which has worked quite well...:help:
 
#54
Templar said:
Usually expressed as "1/2 lb" and "1/4 lb". No?

I don't recall ever seeing "3/10 lb", or "one tenth pound" anywhere, have you?
Click to expand...

Nope, but I see food items regularly listed as xx.xx lbs. (right next to xx.xx kg) - in fact, most fruits, vegetables, meat, and bulk foods sold in Canada have two prices listed - dollars per pound, and dollars per kilogram, with labels indicating (often to two decimal places) measurements in both weight units. I have never needed to consider that any of the numbers would refer to ounces.

To be perfectly honest, the only time I hear any kind of regular reference to ounces is in terms of marijuana. Which is interesting, because here there are regular conversions between ounces and grams (one ounce is about 28 grams, so "a quarter" is measured out as 7 grams). :ninja:
 
#55
tjh said:
... absolutely ... what was first shunned as a silly question, is in fact pointing out the discrepancy scenarios possible when someone states a weight of a guitar for sale ...
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No, one person is arguing incorrectly for 3 pages.

There are only 2 people that have voted for the wrong answer out of all the participants in the poll.

There is seriously no way to read 9.8 Lbs and assume it means anything other than 9 and 8/10ths of a pound. That's what decimals mean.

You wouldn't read 3.5 feet and assume it meant 3 feet, 5 inches.

And to be further ridiculous you certainly wouldn't read 9.25 Lbs as 9 Lbs 25 oz would you?
 
#56
Well I'm going to have to concede defeat in this discussion. There are indeed examples of tenths of pounds in use. Having been reminded of them, I do recall them now, which proves my position to have been wrong.

Still, I know for sure that on the bass forums, at least, weights have been posted with decimals to mean pounds and ounces.

And I have to wonder how often it's been meant that way, but then taken to mean the other way.

For myself, I find it easier to use pounds and ounces, sans decimals.
 

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