How heavy is too heavy for a bass?

[logdrum]

My Baritone sax is about 16lbs, so I guess a bass should be lighter. I think my lightest bass is 7 lbs 4 oz. I may have a tenner+ but it has the widest 5 string neck. It follows the vintage P 1.75" neck width but in 5, so I just measured and it 2.14"

 

[PrimitiveMan]

If you love the sound, I would just find a lighter Sire V5 and swap the electronics.

Dual strap could help.

I max out at around 10 lbs personally

 

[Clipped]

‘97 Gibson Les Paul. Too heavy.

 

[Malak the Mad]

If you love the sound, I would just find a lighter Sire V5 and swap the electronics.

I'm glad someone said it first, 'cuz I was gonna second the thought. After all...

I recently got this beatiful sire v5 with upgraded aguilar pickups and a sadowsky VTC pre installed, all for $469. Its the best sounding bass I've owned, I think the onboard pre sounds better than my v7 setup with the offboard sadowsky, the VTC is pretty useful.

...if this has any impact on the sound, then take out the upgrades and put them in another bass, rather than futzing around with marginally lighter tuners or <insert brand> strap that may or may not work in the first place.

To wit, I'm all about "personal health" and "being comfortable in one's own skin", but everything has it's limit and 11lbs. is quite a lot. Hell, I had a nice Squier Standard Jazz bass, once, but at 10lbs.2oz., it wasn't that nice!

 

[bipper]

I recently got this beatiful sire v5 with upgraded aguilar pickups and a sadowsky VTC pre installed, all for $469. Its the best sounding bass I've owned, I think the onboard pre sounds better than my v7 setup with the offboard sadowsky, the VTC is pretty useful.

The one thing is... this thing's insanely heavy. By far the heaviest bass I've owned. I would estimate around 11lbs or more. I was using a guitar strap initially and developed some severe neck pain so I had to stop playing it. I got a 4" padded strap now and it helps mitigate some of the issues.

Will new tuners help that much? It would shed off a half lb at most and help w neck dive, hopefully removing the neck dive would make the weight not be distributed so poorly on my neck.

Is it worth getting a lightweight bridge, does anyone know of a drop-in lightweight sire bridge? At this point I might as well get a different bass.

This thing sounds and plays so well though, it's a hard dilemma.

11 lbs is ridiculous and add in the neck dive, its firewood to me. a different bridge can make it worse. Ultralite tuners can help a little with dive if you really want to put anymore $ in to this bass. I say sell it! It's ruining your relationship. Just bought an Elrick 4 fretless and its 7.25 lbs. Klos 4 with Carbon fiber neck 7.25 as well. Pedulla pentabuzz 5er is 9.8 lbs. Kubicki 9 lbs. Even my Carvin LB^ string is only 9.8 lbs. Funny though, my Squier jazz which is totally modded with heavy hipshot bridge, preamp, brass nut, bartolinis, weighs in at 9.8 lbs! Its the wood, same problem you have except i have no dive and yes, i put ultalite tuners on it.

 

[Watchootognbout]

This seven was 13.5 lbs.
Believe Me.
It had no neck dive!
It had it's own gravity field!
Was sold years ago.

 

[ElectricBass72]

My G&L Tribute Jazz has it's own magnetic field and gravity. 12lbs! Got a Mono Betty strap for it.

Lightest bass is an Ibanez Talman at 7.5 lbs.

 

[ajkula66]

‘97 Gibson Les Paul. Too heavy.

Humour me. How heavy was it ? Long scale or short ?

My '70 Les Paul Bass is 5.5kg (12.1 lbs). Short scale. Sounds like a million bucks but I wouldn't dream of gigging it unseated even if I were 30 years younger.

 

[Parzival]

I don’t know what a single one of my basses weigh. A great strap is magic.

 

[bipper]

My G&L Tribute Jazz has it's own magnetic field and gravity. 12lbs! Got a Mono Betty strap for it.

Lightest bass is an Ibanez Talman at 7.5 lbs.

Maybe in your house. I have an Elrick and a Klos both are 7.25LBS, and no head dive.

 

[ElectricBass72]

Maybe in your house. I have an Elrick and a Klos both are 7.25LBS, and no head dive.

Weight was never a big deal for me. I used to play a whole live set of drop D songs in a cover band with Dean Rhapsody 12-string that weighed 12lbs. Back then I only weighed 160 lbs... so the bass weighed almost as much as I did.

 

[MAJOR METAL]

Personally, over ten LBS.

 

[bipper]

Weight was never a big deal for me. I used to play a whole live set of drop D songs in a cover band with Dean Rhapsody 12-string that weighed 12lbs. Back then I only weighed 160 lbs... so the bass weighed almost as much as I did.

Yes youth is a wonderful thing! I played a 5 string Alembic while also wearing a Chapman Stick. I was 30. Im 69 now. & LB basses and carbon fiber cabs, class D heads. I can go out and play again!!

 

[OldFlats]

Any bass I had that was over 9 pounds I sold. Eight-and-change is all I'm willing to wrestle with for three hours anymore... There are plenty of great sounding light basses--I know because I have a few.

 

[Pilgrim]

9 pounds is the absolute limit. Lighter is better and my shoulder and back tell me so.

 

[Beej]

@slapDoctor if you are so in love with the sound and playability, it is possible to have the body chambered and then refinished to lighten it. It's pretty invasive, the back is planed off, chambers are routed in the body leaving a fairly intact 'neck beam', and a new back plate is installed and blended into the body before a body refinish. This is obviously highly invasive and involved, but I've personally done it and it works well to preserve a fantastic player and improve its playability.

 

[Ellery]

I recommend the OP take some time looking at other basses, finding a light one and swap the electronics. Get the original bass working in the cheapest manner possible and sell it.

 

[sleddogn]

Band type matters I think. I've only been in original rock bands my whole life, we generally have only played 45min-1 hr sets, so weight never mattered to me at all. If you're in a cover type band and doing 3 hr gigs, then yes, weight will matter to some....rarely hear this angle in this discussion

 

[/\/\3phist0]

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!

Amazon.com

I bounce around too much to have my bass on a bungee cord tried the Neotech for a while: just couldn’t cope with the bass bouncing up and down

 

[sgl]

I have a 5 string aluminum neck bass, 5.8 kg (12.8 lbs). Yeah it's heavy, not easy to play a full 2h rehearsal with it. Sounds amazing though.