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Does a bass being a lightweight indicate a negative?
- Thread starter FishDub
- Start date
There are some. Juan Alderete liked heavy basses better for a long time until he couldn’t take it anymore, because he believed it, then he got a handful of light basses he also loved. I’m for people playing whatever they want but there’s no prize for heaviest bass.
I've owned a lot of basses(and guitars). I've had plenty of good and bad sounding instruments that were both heavy and light, no discernable pattern that I could find. I will say the best sounding bass I've ever owned was a Roadworn P that was 7.6lbs. It probably started at 7.8 or so and I swapped out the tuners for the gotoh lightweight ones. Couldn't get along with the 1.75 neck so I sold it, but man that thing sounded nice.
I was figuring that over 10 pounds would be a deal killer. But when an instrument growls, sustains, projects the low B and has a super beefy neck the way my Warwick Streamer Stage I does, apparently it isn't.
I find I get sore after playing too long with any bass guitar, regardless of weight. (Of all things, switching back & fourth with upright bass seems to help the most.)
I find I get sore after playing too long with any bass guitar, regardless of weight. (Of all things, switching back & fourth with upright bass seems to help the most.)
Weight is pretty far down on the list of things which effect tone, and by itself is no guarantee of any particular tone.
Whenever I will decide to sell my '78 Jazz Bass, I might feel seduced to inform potential buyers how much the weight adds to the tone. But this is the only circumstance I can think of, under which I would stick to such a claim.
Own a lot of Fender basses and sold a G&L L2000 that was a boatanchor. No, weight isn't the price you have to pay for a good sounding instrument. Although I never had a problem with heavy instruments causing shoulder or back pain, rather with neck heavy instruments. And I am thin, lightweight, 57 years old and sound extremely good
I simply rather pick up a lightweight well balanced instrument. If I just play my '78 sitting at home, I don't care about the weight and enjoy it.
Not all 70s Fender basses are boatanchors. My ash '74 Precision is under 4 kilogramms and a lot of those earlier ash Fender basses aren't that heavy.
Own a lot of Fender basses and sold a G&L L2000 that was a boatanchor. No, weight isn't the price you have to pay for a good sounding instrument. Although I never had a problem with heavy instruments causing shoulder or back pain, rather with neck heavy instruments. And I am thin, lightweight, 57 years old and sound extremely good
I simply rather pick up a lightweight well balanced instrument. If I just play my '78 sitting at home, I don't care about the weight and enjoy it.
Not all 70s Fender basses are boatanchors. My ash '74 Precision is under 4 kilogramms and a lot of those earlier ash Fender basses aren't that heavy.
I heard that all the people touting heavy basses as tone monsters were chiropractors. They also touted the old, heavy amps and cabs as sounding better.
Weight means absolutely nothing. There are tons of sub 9lb Sadowsky's out there that kill among other bass makers. Ibanez SR's are routinely less than 9lbs.
Gonna post again on a slightly different angle, to support a lot of what I have read in this thread.
Weight is not a primary factor to tonality. Indeed.
When CBS Fender switched to the heavy Northern Ash (to save $$) they marketed/spun it as a positive for sustain and the like. Same with Norlin Gibson, save $$, buy the heavy woods. Who cares? It will sell!
Add brass hardware, too! Seems many manufacturers followed suit. Dense hardwoods, brass, massive hardware, etc... Of course, when Fender realized that they had strayed far from what made them iconic, they made strides to try to capture some of that 'Golden Era' late 50s-early 60s vibe with better quality and (hopefully) lighter weight instruments in the early 80s.
When Peavey entered the instrument market in the late 70s with the T series, they produced heavy instrumements, just to fall into line and blend with the current school of thought, to not cause a stir. Chip Todd and Hartley Peavey did not buy in to the belief that heavy was better, because they knew that there was more to great tone than just weight.
When that corporate, bean counting 70s thinking gave way to a more pragmatic approach to what makes a great instrument, the market corrections of the 80s saw some change. The T series lightened up and gave way to the next wave of instruments that were noticeably lighter. Not light, necessarily, but lighter. It's tricky to find a T40 under 10 pounds, but the Foundation, Fury and Patriot, et al. basses are commonly under 10 pounds.
Weight is not a primary factor to tonality. Indeed.
When CBS Fender switched to the heavy Northern Ash (to save $$) they marketed/spun it as a positive for sustain and the like. Same with Norlin Gibson, save $$, buy the heavy woods. Who cares? It will sell!
Add brass hardware, too! Seems many manufacturers followed suit. Dense hardwoods, brass, massive hardware, etc... Of course, when Fender realized that they had strayed far from what made them iconic, they made strides to try to capture some of that 'Golden Era' late 50s-early 60s vibe with better quality and (hopefully) lighter weight instruments in the early 80s. When Peavey entered the instrument market in the late 70s with the T series, they produced heavy instrumements, just to fall into line and blend with the current school of thought, to not cause a stir. Chip Todd and Hartley Peavey did not buy in to the belief that heavy was better, because they knew that there was more to great tone than just weight.
When that corporate, bean counting 70s thinking gave way to a more pragmatic approach to what makes a great instrument, the market corrections of the 80s saw some change. The T series lightened up and gave way to the next wave of instruments that were noticeably lighter. Not light, necessarily, but lighter. It's tricky to find a T40 under 10 pounds, but the Foundation, Fury and Patriot, et al. basses are commonly under 10 pounds.
Basswood obviously deserves more credit. It's probably the cheapest way to get a light guitar or bass without chambering, although there was a nice supply of super light ash a few years back, which sounded great while being extremely light.
Downsides to basswood:
1. Can require different pickups. Less natural bass and mids compared to the usual suspects.
2. Can ding and dent easily. Avoid fine threaded screws like the plague since they can strip out.
3. Requires a solid finish due to lack of grain and potential mineral streaks.
yup. Just for clarity though, cheapness isn't why it's used by my guitarist's $2000 to $4000 guitars.... it's used because of lightness plus tone qualities that the guitarist prefers.
I bought a 5 string that came with flats. It weighed 9 pounds when I got it, then 8.5 pounds after I put rounds on it!
Perhaps I could have changed "cheaper" to less expensive or less labor intensive. You can usually match the weight of basswood if you chamber something, which is more labor intensive due to the routing and gluing on the top.
Tom Anderson and a few others have a long history of nice basswood guitars.
Standing for 1hr is a factor. But not if the bass sounds rubbish.
With the time we have had off, getting back to gig fitness is an issue too.
With the time we have had off, getting back to gig fitness is an issue too.
The premise is wrong. Most vintage basses are light as feathers.
What happened was a 70's fashion that linked weight and tone,. It vanished some time after and since then, heavy weight was considered a burden.
What happened was a 70's fashion that linked weight and tone,. It vanished some time after and since then, heavy weight was considered a burden.
No amount of fitness is going to fix the pins and plates I have in my clavicle. It's not all about fitness.
A big reason I prefer light basses is because I use a double gig bag. Lugging 2 heavy basses is no fun. Technology is supposed to get better, lighter, etc. as time passes. Otherwise, we should all "man up" and just play uprights.
