Put the offending strap button in the right place and you are good to go. ALL instruments are fixed just that quickly.
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IMO, neck dive on expensive guitars is absolutely inexcusable
- Thread starter InternetAlias
- Start date
Many or even most of us here in the USA don't have a chance to do so. It's all online, outside of stores featuring P & J basses.
Being an ex EB0 owner I got a good laugh out of that. Dang cool looking basses tho.
Where do you people find EB-0 pieces that suffer from neck dive ? I've owned quite a few over the past 35 years and have never encountered that problem...
Unless, of course, we are discussing the "L" version which most certainly neck dives like a Stuka...
Yup. Just ran over and checked my SR706. Horn is at the 12th fret, small head, thin neck, I can move it to any position my strap allows it to go and it stays right there. Didn't know that is one of the reasons I love my bass till now. Love these forums.
I had a 90's German made thumb with this exact same problem (first and only bass I've encountered with this issue). Bought it cause I was into Mudvayne at the time and Ryan uses one. Awesome looking and sounding bass but the neck was a baseball bat. Personally if the neck is heavier than the body I don't think strap placement would help. In the end got rid of it because I hated having to adjust my bass every few seconds. I've heard there are some thumbs which don't have this problem, would love to try one of them!.
Neck dive gives me more fatigue and is an added distraction that I don’t need. I have a good friend that owned a BCR Mockingbird and he let me gig with it. ONCE! Pointed to China every time my left hand came off the neck! I adjusted it for 2 sets then put it away. Hated it and my left shoulder was pretty sore after from it. I can play my 76 Musicman all night with no problems. Never weighed it but she’s a chunk!
A builder can design and build whatever he wants and it’s the buyers choice whether he wants to buy it. IMHO
A builder can design and build whatever he wants and it’s the buyers choice whether he wants to buy it. IMHO
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That is kinda difficult if the upper horn ends short of the twelfth fret.
Unless you rig up some kind of extension.
And don't care about it being unsightly.
(Some have used long bullet shell casings and box wrenches)
I feel like someone should be able to make a pretty good guess about whether or not a bass is going to neck dive by just looking at it.
A good solution for curing neck dive is tying a bunch of helium filled balloons to your headstock.
A good solution for curing neck dive is tying a bunch of helium filled balloons to your headstock.
A light body with a heavy neck cannot determined with a look.
True. A basswood body with a solid jatoba neck is probably gonna have issues.
But, are you telling me you can't look at these and make an educated guess about how they might balance?
Those are quite obvious.
Yes a upper horn that extends to the twelfth fret will balance better than one that ends at the fifteenth.
But there are basses that have wider necks with heavy tuners that out weigh bodies that are not made of basswood.
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I asked on Luthiers Corner if it was possible to determine the center of balance of a bass design, some of the replies included math, and the word “centroid”.... which resulted in me building a plywood mock-up to see what it would do. An inexact analog at best, but it worked after some trial and error. The horn extending to 12th fret will get you in the ballpark, anyway. Any bass that won’t balance on my knee for seated play is a diver by my definition.
Then theres ovation acoustics that slide off your lap and try to face up
This is my "bone of contention"
We all know that a horn extending to the 12th fret will get you in the "ballpark"
But the majority of builders still seem to bypass this basic fact in many basses.
Why is any ones guess.
When trying out basses in a store,I always bring a strap to test hang.
Concerning sitting: Dive while seated can always be remedied by playing with the bass between your legs.
And/or using a strap while sitting.
I get what you mean but, I wouldn't stand up with a bass between my knees, so I am not likely to sit down with one in that position either
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It's not between my knees.I get what you mean but, I wouldn't stand up with a bass between my knees, so I am not likely to sit down with one in that position either
It's in my lap.
When I stand after sitting,my bass ends up here.
Exactly where I play it.
It works for you, wouldn't work for me, I keep the bass more horizontal. Some basses were clearly designed to look cool, and ergonomics a distant consideration, the Thunberbird a classic case in point. I hear a lot of TB owners says theirs will balance, but I've never picked up a stock one that did. For that matter, most Jazz basses I've played over the years are at least slight neck divers, the Aerodyne a notable exception. I've always loved the SG/EB-O body shape, but they dive like a submarine - instant disqualification! The best I've ever seen was a Steinberger L2 with the original "boomerang" pivot plate, hung perfectly. It's eventual failure as a commercial instrument had nothing to do with the ergonomics, and everything to do with the whims of intrument fashion.
