jdthebassman
play to live live to play
I guess for me to have total protection it is not that much effort. PS I make sure the door is closed to my studio so my 3 cats cant get in.
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Hanging a Bass by the Headstock? Tuning Problems?
- Thread starter CoffeeLove
- Start date
No studio here, hung from the wall in the living room. If the basses are conveniently available, I play them more.
Same.
If anything, mine are more subject to variances in humidity in my guitar room. I try my best to keep humidity levels stable but not always able to.
Half my guitars/basses are on wall hangers, the other half in a rack type stand. Always need to tweak tuning before playing no matter how I store them. Those that stay in cases or bags seem to fare better WRT changes in humidity and tuning stability.
Most materials contract as they get colder. Most metals do more than most woods. Strings get cooler, instrument goes sharp. Pull it down to play it, moving to a different spot in the room, even body heat, can cause a change. That's just my experience, so it was my guess on what might be going on with yours.
I hate it tooI’ve never experienced what you speak of because I simply refuse to use a stands that my basses hang from. I positively hate the idea of my basses hanging by their necks. I always have. And I’m happy to be the only schlub on the planet that feels that way. I have a very hard time walking into any music store with all those basses hanging on the wall…I manage….
The neck screws are the correct screw for the job. The shear stress placed on them by hanging is negligible. They are also dealing with other stresses, but the hanging weight of the 4.5 pound body would be negligible for even one screw in terms of shear.
Here is another example: A kitchen cabinet will typically be held in place with 5 cabinet screws. It will hold the weight of the cabinet and hundreds of pounds of plates and china. No problem. BUT, use drywall screws to attach the cabinet and they will shear and snap when a the same load is placed on them. Wrong screw for the job.
Simple fact - wood does not stretch. So hanging is only a problem if 1) it is done in a way that potentially subjects the bass to a greater likelihood of falling and getting damaged or 2) exposes it to slightly different temperatures - even in this case, the differences if in the same room from on the floor to on the wall would be slight.
OP here. After all the great insight, guessing the problem is environmental conditions, and maybe the AC unit blowing to close to the hanging location. Going to experiment a little with hanging location.
Thanks everyone
Thanks everyone
Fasteners actually don't work that way.
If they are tightened, they exhibit properties that are similar to that of a loaded spring, and they only see tension along their length -- they don't see any shear stress, because it is entirely taken up by the joined surfaces (this is why loose screws and bolts break so much more readily than correctly fastened ones). Any lateral forces less than the friction force at the mating surface is "seen" at this joint as if the two pieces are one. A neck-through would have exactly the same forces at work on that part of the neck.Link Removed
Last edited:
- Apr 18, 2008
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- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
I’m pretty sure 100 lb of string tension is going to trump 5 lb of body weight….
I've always been against hanging them on the wall. But now I'm thinking of doing that just because a) it takes less space b) it looks cool, and c) even though that might cause problems in the long future, life's too short to worry about that.
per the OP: it's environmental! and my experience is the same as @DirtDog's and others regarding "the hang."
i check tuning before a play, day to day. half of my axes sit in stands, the other half hangs, and i rotate them from stands to wall and back to stands again, per whim --- every few days, and no matter where they are kept = all the axes require the same re-tuning to be in tune: they're all sharp or flat per @Ric5's post #24. they may not be equally out of tune from ax to ax, but all of them follow the weather conditions, inside and/or outside... just like your instruments.
just check your tuning and make it right before you play --- it's what musicians do --- tuning is 'a thing', but it's no big deal!
i check tuning before a play, day to day. half of my axes sit in stands, the other half hangs, and i rotate them from stands to wall and back to stands again, per whim --- every few days, and no matter where they are kept = all the axes require the same re-tuning to be in tune: they're all sharp or flat per @Ric5's post #24. they may not be equally out of tune from ax to ax, but all of them follow the weather conditions, inside and/or outside... just like your instruments.
just check your tuning and make it right before you play --- it's what musicians do --- tuning is 'a thing', but it's no big deal!
I have been using hanging type guitar stands for all of my instruments (guitars and basses) for years. The instruments all pretty much live on the stands unless I am taking them out of the house. I have never had such an issue. Music stores have been hanging guitars and basses from their headstocks for decades. It is not an issue.
There are many reasons that an instrument could experience what you are describing but hanging from the headstock is not one of them. Take your instrument to an experienced guitar tech and have them check it out and do a set-up with new strings.
There are many reasons that an instrument could experience what you are describing but hanging from the headstock is not one of them. Take your instrument to an experienced guitar tech and have them check it out and do a set-up with new strings.
My music room doesn't have a bunch people who are looking with their hands who don't care about treating my gear well. GC does.
My basses aren't packed in so tightly that I can't move one without hitting another one. They are all straight to the room and spaced out. At GC they usually angle them so that they overlap, to increase the density and have more on display.
My music room has a locking door handle, so if there's going to be a question of someone getting in there who shouldn't be (my wife's friend's toddler, for example) the door is closed and locked. GC wants people to come in.
I have some beautiful basses (to me at least - TSB with Tort!), so hanging them on the wall is using them as art. It keeps them readily available to play - take one down, plug in, play. If I want to switch basses during a practice session it takes seconds. I have 2 that will sway when the AC is blowing on them - one of them is sometimes a hair sharp, especially on hot days where the AC runs more. I've just assumed it's due to the cold air on the metal strings - and I check tuning at the start of every playing session anyway so it's not a big deal to tune it. I also wipe the bass down when I'm done playing, so they aren't collecting dust, either.
I can understand why people keep their gear in the cases - there are some good reasons for it. There are also some great reasons to have them out.
Yeah, although the plaster board that a lot of people screw the rawl plugs into, might not be.
I've had half my guitars and basses hanging on wall hangers and half on floor stands for years now. I've never noticed any difference in tuning stability between the two groups.
The weight of the bass pulling down on the neck is only offsetting a tiny fraction of the string tension. A typical bass has 120-240 lbs of string tension (from a 4 string with really light strings to a 6 string with normal tension). <10 lbs pulling in the opposite direction is not going to affect that.
I'd guess you're misattributing (is that a word?) the effect of humidity and/or temperature. Even if you have everything perfectly climate controlled year round, your bass will go out of tune when you start playing because your hands will warm up the strings and cause the metal to expand slightly.
The weight of the bass pulling down on the neck is only offsetting a tiny fraction of the string tension. A typical bass has 120-240 lbs of string tension (from a 4 string with really light strings to a 6 string with normal tension). <10 lbs pulling in the opposite direction is not going to affect that.
I'd guess you're misattributing (is that a word?) the effect of humidity and/or temperature. Even if you have everything perfectly climate controlled year round, your bass will go out of tune when you start playing because your hands will warm up the strings and cause the metal to expand slightly.
