Help with making my bass light

[Spectre Gunner]

Remove the tone knob, capacitor, volume knobs, and associated wiring. Then simply wire directly from the output jack to the pickups. It will still play but you won't have any volume or tone controls which you don't really need anyway. Just use the tone and volume controls on your amp.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

Here's how to play a steini without neck dive.

View attachment 2962813

There's no way I'm teaching myself to play left-handed, just to get rid of a bit of neck dive.

Besides, it's still got 3 too many strings...

 

[Spectre Gunner]

On TB the lighter the bass, the more valuable it is.

 

[Ric5]

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.

Swap the body out for a basswood one

 

[MattZilla]

Sorry I haven't been able to respond today. I was a bit busy at work today, so I have made no additional progress. All good advice here.

Another consideration I had. When you pluck the strings, energy is imparted to the bass and its mass increases for as long as the strings vibrate by Einstein's general relativity. The knowledge that if you play your bass it will weigh more than it does if you do not makes me sad.

good thing you're measuring its weight instead of its mass though, yeah?

 

[BruceWane]

Help with making my bass light

If you're just not really into the DIY thing, you could just buy a bass light.........

 

[the yeti]

did you try leds?

 

[Johnny21]

Just forget it. Don't play bass at all. Too heavy.

 

[IamGroot]

Aluminum. Yeah, thats the ticket.

Aluminum Neck Guitars & Basses

 

[steve_rolfeca]

Remove the frets, and the strings.

Strings and frets are made of metal, and metal is heavy.

 

[trailer]

Omg...you'd be satisfied at 3 lbs? I wouldn't play anything that weighed more than 2. Just sayin...for a friend.

 

[jnuts1]

in all seriousness... you should get a 90 degree drill and take out as much of the body as you can from inside the body route so you can hide it. if you are careful you could make a serious run for 2lb 7oz if you ask me

 

[ScrewDevil]

I'm assuming there's a point to making a bass that light..?

 

[Captain Chaos]

Remove the truss rod?

 

[ScrewDevil]

Hehe, he said "rod"! Hehe

 

[Stumbo]

Uranus doesn't have gravity. It repels things.

Careful of eclipses.

 

[Giffro]

Actually, if you get rid of the strings, the tuners, the bridge, the electronics, the pickups, the pick guard, the hardware, the neck and the body, you should get it down to around 0 pounds.

And play drums instead.

 

[Stumbo]

And play drums instead.

Then the bass player can fire you.

 

[Giffro]

Lightest Bass I've Ever Seen

 

[Marley's Ghost]

How do you tell if a bass is light enough? Throw it in the water and see if it floats.