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Bass weight. What accuracy do you expect?

What do you do abou

  • I expect it to be less than an ounce off

    Votes: 27 19.3%

  • A few ounces don't bother me

    Votes: 63 45.0%

  • Half Pound?

    Votes: 19 13.6%

  • Eat more carrots and don't be a weight wimp!

    Votes: 31 22.1%
  • Total voters
    140
#102
bassbenj said:
I figure that if I'm buying a bass from Craig's list, Reverb, or even TB classifieds. there is a good chance that a bathroom scale was used to weigh it. They are designed to be accurate up past 100 pounds or so and are notoriously inaccurate down in the bass range. You have to assume that to be the case. When I list bass weight I use my electronic fish scale which does pounds and ounces and seems very accurate. Businesses on the other hand might be as accurate as my fish scale, or they might just pull some "average weight" they guessed at out of their rear and go with that. Buyer Beware if weight is important to you.
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I weighed myself, holding my bass, on the bathroom scale and subtracted my body weight. Bass showed 8.8#. I then weighed it on a postal scale. Bass showed 8.8#. That’s 8lbs. 12.8 ounces.
 
#103
About this much.

small-b2.jpg
 
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#104
Scottgun said:
Don't forget that 9 pounds of Ash weighs less than 9 pounds of Alder and sound so different you will lose gigs if you don't pick the right wood. :D
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Tort adds some weight variance too

ixlramp said:
A weird thing about TalkBass is how over-represented the USA is, and how weight topics almost always state imperial measurements despite imperial usage being a tiny minority in the world, and even in the English speaking world.
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As long as it's accurate conversion will give you what you want. Probably the best thing about Windows 10 is the calculator with conversions.
 
#105
Oh and the guy I bought the bass from is going to take it back and refund my money. Just to wrap this up. Moving forward I will always ask how the weight was obtained.


I use a scale purchased for brewing. Only goes up to 14 lbs (also measures in grams which is helpful for fine parts) but is very accurate (checked against verified scales at work). It cost I think $20 or $25. I gave up on the bathroom scale years ago. My opinion is if you're going to sell a lot of basses on TB like many of us do it's worth the investment in a scale. I won't buy a bass if I don't know the weight unless it is custom built and I spec weight. So I figure an accurate weight is helpful.
 
#106
aproud1 said:
When I buy a bass one of the main considerations is weight. A perfectly balanced bass is comfortable up to around 9.5 lb's but I usually hope for under 9(my current 5 string is a hair over 8lbs).

I've found that most basses I receive are either spot on or slightly over the advertised weight. Which is fine. A few ounces can be method or calibration error. Every once in awhile I get one that is far over. Received a new bass today that was advertised as 9 lbs but weighs 9 lbs 13oz. And it made me wonder what other peoples expectations are. If it's a few ounces I don't care but where do you draw the line?
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M-60 machine gun.jpg
To be honest... I don't expect much of anything from people, as far as an accurate weight is concerned. And, frankly, what a bass weighs doesn't concern me much, either. If I decide I want a particular bass - like, for example, a '70s P-Bass. I know going in, that they can be on the heavy side - and I don't care. The one I have, for example, weighs 11.1 lbs.; I know, because I weighed it - properly, on an accurate scale. But, that was for Pilgrims weight spreadsheet thingy; I really don't much care what it weighs. Like I've said before; I humped one of these things around for a lotta years. The one in the picture? With that little dab of ammo, you're looking at about 25 lbs. And I didn't have it over my shoulder on a combat sling for a 4 hour gig; I carried it for days... So, where do I draw the line? At being told a bald-faced lie, probably. I don't care about a bass' weight per se, but if somebody tells me an obvious lie about that, then you can be sure I'll be suspicious about anything else they have to say...:cool:
 
#108
I get back problems, old age, hernias and all that stuff. Really, I do. My back hurts too, usually after shoveling snow, and I too spent part of a lively young adulthood humping machine guns like GIBrat51, and even longer hauling radios and batteries for same.

For me? Life's WAY too short to worry about tenths of ounces. Or even halves of pounds. I own a few basses, all at varying weights, and if I feel like my back will need me to grab a lighter one, I just use a lighter one. If it still hurts, I just sit down. All of that seems less stressful to me than developing an ulcer over a few ounces, or grams, or what have you.
 
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#113
Grams are more precise if you care about 1/4 of an ounce. But it has nothing to do with an accurate measurement. My postal scale can be set for grams or ounces. It measures, or mis-measures the same weight in either format
 

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