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How heavy is too heavy for a bass?
- Thread starter slapDoctor
- Start date
My Yamaha TRB6P is 5.5kg. (12.12 lbs)
At 61, it's too heavy for me to play standing up, so I play it sitting down (perched on a high stool).
Notwithstanding the weight, it's a beautiful bass to play and sounds fantastic, so it stays
At 61, it's too heavy for me to play standing up, so I play it sitting down (perched on a high stool).
Notwithstanding the weight, it's a beautiful bass to play and sounds fantastic, so it stays
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I own three Sire five string basses. All are up there, but not quite 11 pounds. (See comparison in the photo)
I ONLY use these Lekato- Asian made clones of The Levy's Neoprene straps. I have 23 basses, all have one of these straps on them.
A wide leather or padded strap, will not do what this does. It works a lot like the back braces I have to wear sometimes. It stretches, as you apply pressure on your shoulder as you play.
Buy one- you will not regret it!
I ONLY use these Lekato- Asian made clones of The Levy's Neoprene straps. I have 23 basses, all have one of these straps on them.
A wide leather or padded strap, will not do what this does. It works a lot like the back braces I have to wear sometimes. It stretches, as you apply pressure on your shoulder as you play.
Buy one- you will not regret it!
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And as a bonus it completely eliminates neck dive … on ANY bass. At least mine does… can’t comment on the Gruvgear one.
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The Gruvgear Duostrap is built differently: it's a regular strap with an additional strap pinned to it, not a harness. It reduces neck dive, but doesn't eliminate it, so the Neotech might be the better option, ergonomically speaking.
How do you attach the guitar to it? Does it have any drawbacks in your opinion?
(One drawback for me is it's only available from Amazon in Europe, and I don't buy from Amazon, for various reasons).
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I can get my homemade jazz basses under 8 lbs, no reason for me to accept something over 8 lbs
My standard response, as well. I just as quickly dismiss "better straps", gym memberships, and aggressively chambered bodies. Granted, the pickins' are slim but they're out there.
Riis
I have a jazz that weighs around that much, I used it for something like fifteen years. I think I could again but would definitely feel it, the stingray I use now is SUPER light as is my L2500.
I think if the instrument Is something special, I can deal with the weight (my jazz is one of these). Or if I ended up with soldering crazy like a vintage ax or a Wal, yeah I’m going to just deal with whatever they weigh. Unless this Sire is special to you, for an instrument in that category and price range I would probably move it along and get something more comfortable.
Mine isn’t a Neotech product as such. It’s simply two separate, standard Neotech straps. One attaches as per normal. The other one attaches to the two additional strap buttons I added: one to the upper horn and one to the lower horn.
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Au contraire, I have accomplished what you cast doubt on.
Bought a Yamaha BB234 base model and proceeded to fully modify it with EMG Geezers and a Hipshot bridge - but primarily to reduce weigth, the tuners were replaced with Hipshot Ultralite USA MiniClovers which shed nearly a pound off the instrument. Tips the scale at 9 lbs. but is easy to handle with no neck dive now and with a Walker + Williams padded leather strap is quite comfortable.
Smooth_bass88
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For me, too heavy is everything above 4.0kg (0.62 stone and 35 dram).
For others, other weights will be the threshold between "that's fine" and "too heavy for me".
This is a very personal choice.
If you love singlecut six string basses and hitting the gym five times a week, you'll consider a bass as lightweight that someone half your weight, who has popped a disc more than once already will rule out as much too heavy.
That said, a bass can be modified to shed some weight here and there. However, it's important to know the goal:
If you modify a bass with lighter hardware and plastic knobs and start drilling into the area below the pick guard, you might get it from 5.2kg to 4,4kg.
That is a massive weight loss, but if your personal limit is 4,0kg, you will have put in a lot of money and work, only to sit on a heavily modified bass that is still too heavy - but is not necessarily worth more when you try to sell it, so your time and money were basically wasted. You still won't bring the bass to gigs, even though you made it better.
For others, other weights will be the threshold between "that's fine" and "too heavy for me".
This is a very personal choice.
If you love singlecut six string basses and hitting the gym five times a week, you'll consider a bass as lightweight that someone half your weight, who has popped a disc more than once already will rule out as much too heavy.
That said, a bass can be modified to shed some weight here and there. However, it's important to know the goal:
If you modify a bass with lighter hardware and plastic knobs and start drilling into the area below the pick guard, you might get it from 5.2kg to 4,4kg.
That is a massive weight loss, but if your personal limit is 4,0kg, you will have put in a lot of money and work, only to sit on a heavily modified bass that is still too heavy - but is not necessarily worth more when you try to sell it, so your time and money were basically wasted. You still won't bring the bass to gigs, even though you made it better.
I can play 3 hours in a row with my 7.5 pounds p bass.
I can play 1 hour in a row only with my 8.5 pound bass.
When sitting though, weight doesn’t matter to me.
And for me, balance is even more important than weight.
I can play 1 hour in a row only with my 8.5 pound bass.
When sitting though, weight doesn’t matter to me.
And for me, balance is even more important than weight.
There are sooooo many great basses available under 9 lbs that I won't even consider one over 8.5, and 2 of my 6 basses are well under 8 lbs. Playing an 11 lb bass makes as much sense to me as wearing 12lb shoes. YMMV.
