Help with making my bass light

[cnltb]

Heat treatments can help reduce weight in the wood. I would suggest setting your bass on fire.

Yes!
I hear it worked really well for both Tony Levin and John Abercrombie.

 

[James Collins]

Another suggestion is to use a wider strap. that way you are going to feel it a lot lighter and support it better.
i really think most of the problem comes from bad anatomic of the strap and the way you hold it.
try something different, even discuss it with an orthopedic and design a support system that will treat better your back.

I really have no back problems. My normal basses weigh around 10 lbs. I just wanted to do this to test if it impacts the sound. This is literally a bass I never play, so I thought I'd get some use out of it. I also thought about filling the route with different blocks of wood to see if they change the sound, but that may be too complicated.

 

[Watchootognbout]

Dude...really?
Bore holes in the back of the body.

But at some point you may risk structural collapse.
But that just might be your goal.

 

[bholder]

Hmmm, you want to convert all of the matter in your bass into light? Maybe try tossing it into an active galactic core supermassive black hole's accretion disk? If that don't do it...

 

[Bander]

This is easy. Remove the tone pot and knob, go with one volume pot - no knob. Put lightening holes in the pickguard (swiss cheese). Remove wood in the "wings" - this is the areas of the body that are not in line with the neck (the wings aren't structural and aren't in the load path of the string tension). Put lightening holes in the tailpiece. Remove the neck pickup. Remove the highest frets. Use light gauge strings. That should get you down to 2.5 lb. Next problem?

 

[interp]

Inject helium into the routs.

 

[cnltb]

Exercise more!

 

[ahc]

Termites???

 

[Pug the Pig]

Make a stand for it, like a tripod with a sturdy base, and clamp!
I did this once for a guitar, so I could walk up to it play a few chords, and walk away again, if you see what I mean..

 

[cnltb]

 

[Flippy]

try a shorter scale neck

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Make it look like this

 

[ScrewDevil]

This would lighten it up...

 

[MIMike]

Sometimes I don't know what to believe in TB threads Pics or it didn't happen

He’s a week early on this April Fools thread.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Cut one octave off the neck, and use an active pedal.

 

[MattZilla]

Carbon Fiber and titanium. You will have the fastest bass on TB.

 

[unbrokenchain]

I'm thinking, embed the body with rare-earth magnets and get a big electromagnet that sits on the floor whose polarity is just right to keep the bass levitating at all times. You might need to switch to a piezo pickup for it to sound right though...

 

[Pug the Pig]

I'm thinking, embed the body with rare-earth magnets and get a big electromagnet that sits on the floor whose polarity is just right to keep the bass levitating at all times. You might need to switch to a piezo pickup for it to sound right though...

Nah....You'll be assassinated by the Aliens if you do that......

 

[Iridescentone]

I wanted to get help making my bass lighter. I'm at 3.2 lbs, but wanted to see if I could shave off 4 more ounces to get it below 3 lbs.

I started with an old '76 Fender Jazz I almost never play and swapped out the tuners and bridge for ultra light, but it was still too heavy. So I took off the pickguard and did a big route...basically everything that the pickguard and bridge could cover. I also sanded all the finish off and made a belly cut. I left a thin piece on the back, almost like a thick acoustic. It still seemed heavy so I took the pickguard to a plane sander and got it paper thin. I restrung it with the lightest gauge strings I could find.

It had some neck dive so I sanded the neck and filed down the frets until it felt balanced. Now I'm at 3.2 lbs.

I was thinking of removing some of the extra wire since there is some slack. I don't think that will get me under 3 lbs, though. I really would like to keep both pickups, and don't know if anyone can suggest something lighter than the stock pickups, or if anyone thinks I could get there by removing some of the winds from the coil to get there. I would like to keep the headstock so people know it is a Fender, but that is the only other place I can think to remove weight.

You're doing great so far! But if you're really serious about this, maybe take it to the next level?

Don't forget, when your arm is resting on the bass body, you're adding weight.

Have a plastic surgeon remove any excess skin and fat from your arm. At the very least, shave off any arm hair.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

The humor of this thread isn't lost on me, but I have been wondering how to cut some weight on my main player