Does a bass being a lightweight indicate a negative?

[Miles_ONeal]

Seems to me that most folks ask about the weight because they hope to avoid an aching back after standing up at a gig for two hours with your bass strapped on. Ouch!

^^ this

 

[Kinky Afro]

From my experience the lighter the bass the thinner the sound. I had a cort curbow model and it was so light. You could stand for days with it on but when I did live gigs with it my bass player friend would always tell me it sounded thin and light, not much meat or fatness.

 

[aureliab20gt]

My 7lb (1973) PBass sounds phenomenal as does my 7.2lb Sadowsky.

I think 68-74 were the best P basses, especially if one can be found with an A profile neck

 

[Paul New]

These bodies need to work. You do yourself more damage sitting in a cubicle 40 hours per week than carrying around a 10 lb load on your shoulders.

 

[gigetto]

I'm waiting an increase of lightweight aluminium basses not so expensive as today. Great sound for less than 8lbs.

 

[Gary Stevens]

From a musical acoustics perspective it is the boundary conditions that rule sustain. If the bridge and the nut are extremely stiff and do not wiggle then the sustain goes on for a very long time. If they are loose not so much. Could a heavier bass be stiffer - yes but so could a graphite neck or an aluminum neck. When the boundary points move too much they absorb energy and take it away from the vibrating string, when they are very right the string keeps its energy. This one is simple laws of physics - the degree to which a string is damped and how long a vibration lasts until it drops by a given percentage is very measurable and objective.

The issue tone is far more complex in part because of how subjective tone is and also there are no units of tone so it is incredibly hard to measure. I have half a dozen basses and a dozen guitars and think (again subjectively) that the majority of the tone is in my fingers. And after that in the strings - skinny strings do not have now end, they do not sound "fat", same for soap bar pickups versus humbuckers. Bottom line is I think tone depends less upon the wood than on your fingers, strings and pickups. But clearly the mass (weight) matters because almost no one in the world plays semi hollow basses even if they weigh less. Why is that? I suspect for the same reason that hollow body guitars do not sound like solid body guitars. but this may be more about sustain than tone.

Instrument Weight is not a deal breaker for me, but amp and speaker cabinet weight sure increasingly are. In my teens and twenties it did not matter but in my fifties and sixties they sure do. But the weight of an instrument not so much. Then again I now play jazz which means I can always sit down.

My two cents but I have been a professional acosticican once upon a timer fifteen years.

Exactly!

 

[ElectricBass72]

I have 2 heavy G&L Tributes... LB-100 and JB. The tone is PHAT.

 

[steveinohio]

No reason to play a heavy bass if you don’t have to. Lightweight is the way to go.

 

[TrevorG]

What Spector do you have? Mine isn't that heavy. Yours must be solid maple maybe? I have the 2020 euro and this thing is amazing!View attachment 4429474

1999Woodstock build by Mr.Spector himself (blue bass near the Center) Issue number “18”!! Still a great player but a tad heavy.

 

[Mikewhittaker]

1999Woodstock Bullus by Mr.Spector himself (blue bass near the Center) Issue number “18”!! Still a great player but a tad heavy.

Very awesome!

 

[RubyTuba]

With a bolt-neck instrument, you have two different pieces of wood, each with its own resonant frequency that affect the response of the vibrating string. A dead spot on the G string is caused by the resonant frequency of the neck absorbing the note. I believe it's the balance of the way the two pieces interact with the string, rather than weight alone, that produces tone in a bolt-neck instrument. I had a Tele bass that weighed 13 pounds, sounded smooth as a sax and sustained like a grand piano, with a wolf tone on the 4th fret of the G string. I had a P-bass that weighed 7 pounds (!) and had a beautiful peak in the mids, but a monster wolf tone around the 6th and 7th frets on the G string. Set necks smooth out the resonances.

 

[Gary Stevens]

With a bolt-neck instrument, you have two different pieces of wood, each with its own resonant frequency that affect the response of the vibrating string. A dead spot on the G string is caused by the resonant frequency of the neck absorbing the note. I believe it's the balance of the way the two pieces interact with the string, rather than weight alone, that produces tone in a bolt-neck instrument. I had a Tele bass that weighed 13 pounds, sounded smooth as a sax and sustained like a grand piano, with a wolf tone on the 4th fret of the G string. I had a P-bass that weighed 7 pounds (!) and had a beautiful peak in the mids, but a monster wolf tone around the 6th and 7th frets on the G string. Set necks smooth out the resonances.

Interesting reply. I build neck- thru basses to avoid any resonance-robbing Interaction.

 

[Gary Stevens]

My opinion is that Leo designed bolt on necks purely as a production enhancer, not a tone enhancer

 

[PhatBottomBass1]

A 12+ lbs Alembic Series 1 was too much for my back/shoulder for 4 hours a night at age 25. It's heavy!

Xotic has the philosophy that in order to have the correct mass/weight for a 5 string Bass needs to be 9.5 lbs for the XJ-1T5 Basses. I've been amazed at how consistent they are at doing it. Bass at 34" scale sounds great with a solid B string.

Fender Custom Shop decided that the 8.5 lbs was the optimum weight for a P Bass. Perhaps 8.75 - 9.0 lbs for a Jazz Bass but not over 9 lbs because there is an older clientele.

Music Man has the "Special" now because the market doesn't want a 10 lbs 4 string Bass. More QC on body wood and moisture content, as well as, trimming weight in every conceivable way!

Myself, I have an all Maple Warwick Braodneck 5 that is extremely well balanced, I keep it on a 3.5" front and rear adjustable neoprene padded GruvGear strap and it has to be 11.5 lbs (but I've never weighed it) and it doesn't bother me at all many years later due to ergonomics and weight dispersion and center of gravity. Great sound, sustain for days and plays smooth....

 

[Afc70]

the dingwell looks really cool. Is that a real case it is in? It looks like it. Not a 'gigbag' I hope.

It’s a Dingwall gigbag, very thick & heavily padded... thanks, I’m absolutely loving my Dingwall!

 

[Miles_ONeal]

My opinion is that Leo designed bolt on necks purely as a production enhancer, not a tone enhancer

I've read in multiple places that decision was highly influenced by the need to replace just the neck when an instrument got broken.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

With a bolt-neck instrument, you have two different pieces of wood, each with its own resonant frequency that affect the response of the vibrating string. A dead spot on the G string is caused by the resonant frequency of the neck absorbing the note. I believe it's the balance of the way the two pieces interact with the string, rather than weight alone, that produces tone in a bolt-neck instrument. I had a Tele bass that weighed 13 pounds, sounded smooth as a sax and sustained like a grand piano, with a wolf tone on the 4th fret of the G string. I had a P-bass that weighed 7 pounds (!) and had a beautiful peak in the mids, but a monster wolf tone around the 6th and 7th frets on the G string. Set necks smooth out the resonances.

Neck throughs for the win!

 

[gigetto]

There are some instruments that have a lack of tone and response. But not for the weight...

 

[Frank Vozak]

WHEN i WAS YOUNGER I PLAYED HEAVIER BASSES BUT NOW MY FENDER ACOUSTIC CB-60 AND MY SQUIER PRECISION MINI HAVE SERVED ME WELL AND I BELIEVE ARE ON THE LIGHT SIDE

 

[Bartrinsic]

Interesting reply. I build neck- thru basses to avoid any resonance-robbing Interaction.

My neck throughs have maximum phase cancellation at higher spots, usually at the G string 10th-13th fret vs. 4-9 for bolt-ons. However, the spot is usually narrower, shallower, and rarely affects the D-string. Lightweight bolt-ons are the worst on average, but there's quite a lot of unit-to-unit variation for identical models. Even for bolt-ons, I think deep set 5 and 6-bolt designs help reduce the severity of 'wolf' tones. Love that term! I played one lightweight bolt-on recently and the E and F on G string 9-10 switched tuning from the fundamental to the 5th in less than a second. I watched on a real-time analyser and both the fundamental and first-octave overtone cancelled so quickly that the tone becomes almost identical to the harmonic above that fret.