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lightest travel bass with a slimmer nut

pcake

pcake

Sep 20, 2011
10,169
31,502
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#1
i've owned the traveler ultra-light bass - twice, actually - and it was the only bass i could play standing up. the catch was i didn't care for the 1.75 inch nut and slightly wider neck. does anyone here know of a bass with at least a 30 inch scale that has a slimmer neck and weighs in at 4 pounds or less?
 
#2
pcake said:
i've owned the traveler ultra-light bass - twice, actually - and it was the only bass i could play standing up. the catch was i didn't care for the 1.75 inch nut and slightly wider neck. does anyone here know of a bass with at least a 30 inch scale that has a slimmer neck and weighs in at 4 pounds or less?
Click to expand...
Just the results of a quick googlade -

No idea as to weight of this "Asmuse" headless (probably more than you want, from the looks of it); 30" scale, 4 "mm" nut, says a reviewer (I take it to be "cm"):
61tTM6D73oL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/Asmuse-Headless-Electric-Beginner-Accessories/dp/B0B9SCM28T/

This probably standard-scale "Batking" fella may do the trick, though:
Batking-Travel-Bass-Guitar-Headless-Electric-Bass-4-Strings-in-Black-Color-with-Gigbag_6caa69a6-eb15-48af-b163-bd22130fc4e7.4bd183bc53eea032a3b1fafd7302147e.png

Batking Travel Bass Guitar, Headless Electric Bass 4 Strings in Black Color with Gigbag - Walmart.com
Currently unavailable at Amazon, but there are reviews there
https://www.amazon.com/Electric-travel-headless-black-color/dp/B07VTV4MWZ
https://www.amazon.com/Batking-travel-electric-headless-strings/dp/B0BHVNHQPF
where I suppose you could ask for weight and nut width.
 
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#3
I have one of those Asmuse headless and it's about 6-7 pounds with my luggage scale (hard to hang off the luggage scale with no headstock). I don't really recommend it but the nut width is 40mm. The fret ends are among the sharpest I've ever felt and it needs a total fret leveling that I'm too lazy to do because the pickups are also really quiet.

Maybe this has been addressed before, but have you tried a dual-shoulder strap or other types of straps? For instance, there are "hip belt" style straps if it's a shoulder related limitation. It's not exactly ideal ergonomics that we've spent 60 years slinging hefty chunks of wood over one shoulder.

At this level of specificity, you likely have to gamble on some cheapo unknown deal, or craft something custom/from parts.

Maybe a Bronco with a lot of wood routed out from the backside would meet your weight requirements? I don't think just routing under the pickguard would make enough difference.

A more novel approach would be to invest in a helium tank and balloons. It could be part of your stage persona to have a lot of balloons hooked to your strap that help alleviate the weight.
 
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#6
I've been searching for lighter basses for a long time and finally had to resort to DIY'ing my own. I currently cobbled together a couple using a Glarry 25.5" scale bass neck with a 1.5" nut on offset hollowbodies of my own design using Home Depot sourced plywood for the side frames and laminated underlayment for the top and back. The wood cost me just under $40 for both of them. One weighs 3 lbs 7 oz and the other weighs 3 lbs 4 oz. The difference is in the weight of the pickup I used. They're my "prototyes in the raw" and may not have a pretty finish but they do the job and sound very good.

I guess someday I'll have to get around to finish sanding and putting a finish on them and taking some pictures.
 
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#7
ideally i'd like to find an option without having my husband build me something, which will take time and effort.

J Posega said:
I have one of those Asmuse headless and it's about 6-7 pounds with my luggage scale (hard to hang off the luggage scale with no headstock). I don't really recommend it but the nut width is 40mm. The fret ends are among the sharpest I've ever felt and it needs a total fret leveling that I'm too lazy to do because the pickups are also really quiet.

Maybe this has been addressed before, but have you tried a dual-shoulder strap or other types of straps? For instance, there are "hip belt" style straps if it's a shoulder related limitation. It's not exactly ideal ergonomics that we've spent 60 years slinging hefty chunks of wood over one shoulder.

At this level of specificity, you likely have to gamble on some cheapo unknown deal, or craft something custom/from parts.

Maybe a Bronco with a lot of wood routed out from the backside would meet your weight requirements? I don't think just routing under the pickguard would make enough difference.

A more novel approach would be to invest in a helium tank and balloons. It could be part of your stage persona to have a lot of balloons hooked to your strap that help alleviate the weight.
Click to expand...

thanks for this - i have basses that weigh in at around 6 pounds. i'd have to remove 2 pounds from a bronco, and i'm just not seeing it.

i have tried that strap and several others. i also tried the hip belt and the mbrace.

motoman said:
I have the batking but mine is called a different name. About as small as you can get
Click to expand...

my main issue for playing standing is weight, however. these are interesting, but unless they're under 5 pounds, i won't be able to use it. i emailed the seller - it's the same seller on amazon, ebay and walmart - to ask about the nut width.
 
#10
I know the Ibanez headless ss EHB's were all pretty light, thought they're gone from Sweetwater, so cant get the exact numbers. But maybe something to explore?

Also, there is Kiesel. Not cheap, but they will build you a headless 30" scale, you can reduce weight by speccing light woods like roasted swamp ash, and you can also get it chambered. They even used to let you pay a $50 upcharge to make it as light as possible. Full disclosure: I never did this with a bass, but did go through the process with an 8-string 27" scale guitar, and it came in at 5.5 lbs.

In any case good luck!!
 
#12
pcake said:
ideally i'd like to find an option without having my husband build me something, which will take time and effort.



thanks for this - i have basses that weigh in at around 6 pounds. i'd have to remove 2 pounds from a bronco, and i'm just not seeing it.

i have tried that strap and several others. i also tried the hip belt and the mbrace.



my main issue for playing standing is weight, however. these are interesting, but unless they're under 5 pounds, i won't be able to use it. i emailed the seller - it's the same seller on amazon, ebay and walmart - to ask about the nut width.
Click to expand...

If your husband is capable of building instruments....

If you liked everything except the nut width on the traveler ultra-light and it's the only bass you can play standing up... Could your husband perhaps slim down the width/profile of the neck on a traveler for you? The most time consuming part would probable be the re-fretting afterwards. Any luthier could do this too of course but with the required re-fretting it would probably cost more than the bass...
 
#14
Deleted member 271037 said:
If your husband is capable of building instruments....

If you liked everything except the nut width on the traveler ultra-light and it's the only bass you can play standing up... Could your husband perhaps slim down the width/profile of the neck on a traveler for you? The most time consuming part would probable be the re-fretting afterwards. Any luthier could do this too of course but with the required re-fretting it would probably cost more than the bass...
Click to expand...

we're talking about that. the traveler ultra-light isn't a great bass - the hardware quality is meh, sitting ergonomics are meh, sound is meh, looks are somewhere between a paddle with slots in it and a popsicle stick - pic below is of the one i sold last year. but it stands out as it's a fully playable bass that can weigh in at under 4 pounds for under $400. so far, that's hard or impossible to beat.

IMGP6209.JPG
 
#15
pcake said:
we're talking about that. the traveler ultra-light isn't a great bass - the hardware quality is meh, sitting ergonomics are meh, sound is meh, looks are somewhere between a paddle with slots in it and a popsicle stick - pic below is of the one i sold last year. but it stands out as it's a fully playable bass that can weigh in at under 4 pounds for under $400. so far, that's hard or impossible to beat.

View attachment 5361921
Click to expand...

I understand. It might not be worth it if the hardware/electronics are poor quality (and probably not easily upgraded on this particular instrument).

Is weight the main issue with "normal" basses? If you find a bass that you love everything about except the weight, you could route out quite a bit of wood/weight if it has a pickguard to cover the new cavities. This way you could end up with a lighter, chambered bass. With a chambered body and lightweight hardware you could reduce the weight considerably on many basses.

I'm assuming you want short scale? If you're willing to spend a little more, and do some minor assembly, how about a Warmoth? They offer chambered short scale P and J bodies. With a chambered basswood body and lightweight hardware it could end up VERY light! You could even contact Warmoth and make sure they use a particularly light piece of basswood. Their short scale necks have 38 mm (J-bass) nut widths. I've never played one of these necks but the profile is supposed to be between their "standard" and "slim taper" J-bass necks so it should be reasonably slim. Of course the problem with Warmoth is that you can't try before you buy. It could end up as a rather expensive mistake.

Or are you looking specifically for a headless "traveller"-style bass?
 
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#18
MYLOWFREQ said:
A solid body bass that weighs less than 4 pounds is a bit of stretch IMHO. How about a hollow body one?
Click to expand...

That was my reaction on the weight. Around 6lb is pretty common and doable but sub 4 is tough. Adding up pickups and hardware eats into the weight before you start thinking woods, frets, and strings. Seems like you would need to start subtracting everything you possibly can to shave ounces off. Frets, subbing piezos for magnetic p/ups, no preamp, headless, cut the strings perfectly so there is nothing extra left etc.

Seems like something that would require close coordination with a luthier that could fully spec this out and offer the OP some level of certainty that weight, playability, and quality can be met. Given OPs comments about the so-so nature of the Traveler bass, I don't think this bass is out there without a custom build (unless willing to accept some notable trade offs) and it still may be a stretch but I think its possible.
 
#20
There's a Glarry short scale Bronco "copy" that might get close to your needs. Glarry basses are known to be super light. Might be worth poking around in the club thread for some info from current owners.

Maybe a Hofner type violin bass would hit the mark. Very narrow nut, 30" scale, hollowbody so should be light. Not the most ergonomic design.

A good quality, gig-worthy bass weighing in at 4 pounds is essentially vaporware unless you spend either a lot of time or a lot of money. Time to modify something, or money to buy it.

Sandberg has a super light series and puts out 34" scale basses at 6ish pounds, dunno if they do short scales in that series, but they're also expensive.

I used to chase tone and playability on cheaper instruments and realized everything had a point of diminishing returns. As my needs got more and more specific, I had to adopt the "buy once, cry once" model.
 
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