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Neck Dive (Poll)

What's your opinion on neck dive?

  • Total voters
    505
#121
There's a difference between neck "dive" and neck "tilt". i.e. A lot of people here think the Tony Franklin bass has bad neck dive, when really it's just a mild tilt, which I can live with. Can't live with heavy dive though.
 
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#126
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#130
The only bass I have ever owned that gave me neck dive was the original Fender Kingman Acoustic bass. I am a Fender junkie so when I saw they released an acousic bass with their iconic headstock I was smitten. However, after I got it, I realized it was an awful design and terribly balanced. The bod was very wide and it hurt my right forearm from the hard edge, it was not very light, and worst of all ,the NECK DIVE. Not just on a strap, but on my lap as well. It was my main complaint for years, while just noodling around was fine, extended playing was so uncomfortable. My left arm would get so sore from trying to hold up the bass that it limited my playing of it.

My electric basses are P basses and a jaguar. They all sit great with no dive. You don't really realize how annoying neck dive is when you've never played an instrument that suffers from it, but once you do, (at least for me) It's just not something that is comfortable. The guitarist of my band is in love with Thunderbirds and BC Rish basses, and I told him I will never touch his bass collection because of one thing specifically, the neck dive lol.

I am VERY happy that a few years ago Fender came out with the Kinman 2.0 which had a smaller body and no neck dive (it being short scale I'm sure helps, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make, the thing is fun as hell to play). I can play that thing for much much longer and it is way more comfortable than the original.
 
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#133
SubHuman said:
The great thing is there's no right or wrong way to play...as Wyman showed us. I think he made a few bucks with the Stones?
I don't play that way either...I guess my attempt at humor was just that...an attempt! Ha!
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I get it, and you're right.

Like I said, I love a lot of things about basses that are not comfortable for me, that clearly work for others.

It's great we have tons of choices for everyone.
 
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#137
ClusterFlux said:
If you want a bass with a standard headstock, that has a stable neck and a light body, you're going to run the risk of neck dive. The risk increases when customers want large tuning machines, relatively large head stocks, more than 4 strings, or refuse to buy headless basses.
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OK, here's a counter-example: 5 strings (the B weighs almost as much as the other 4 strings), a nice wide neck - 1 7/8th" nut, and a very light body. Graphite rods in teh neck (which are heavier than wood) The whole bass weighs 3194 grams (7.05 pounds). You can put it on a strap, take your hands off of it, and jump up and down, and it stays put just fine.

All that hardware is aluminum (which makes the body even lighter), including the neck plate and the knobs. Why it balances? The upper horn is long enough, and the tuners aren't those old clunky steel things.

The old adage that a bass is too light to balance well is a myth - I've had lighter 4's (but I've moved on to 5's) that were 6.6 pounds, standard P bass geometry (including the big headstock), and they also balanced just fine. You can absolutely make light basses that balance very well - you just have to know what you're doing. As we pay manufacturers to (hopefully) know what they're doing, if they make basses that don't balance, it's on them.

Rick.jpg
 
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#138
Same thing - only different...... the key is a #6 x 2" screw so you can maintain good thread engagement. Then either stack up strap buttons or whatever you have that works. Here I did one example with two old style strap buttons stacked and the other is some plastic tubing and washer I had in the garage junk drawer. A 3/4 inch extension will most fix any FSO neck dive issues you have. Yeah.... it hurts my eyes too. But it worked so well. After about a week I stopped noticing them. I've also tried just one extra strap button on a bass that I thought didn't have neck dive. It felt better too. It all keys on getting the strap out past that 12th fret.
 

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#139
FRoss6788 said:
No interest in playing my bass in that position.
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I'm surprised more people *don't* play bass in a semi-upright position.
Most of the stages I play on aren't big enough to have a lot of room to move around on without potentially whacking a cymbal or a musician... I like to keep my plucking hand straighter (so low slung) and hold up my neck so I can still move/groove.
 
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#140
Pyrrho Epoche said:
View attachment 5272339
Thanks, yea I actually just looked at a photo of a plastic one online and made mine out of a thicker cedar cigar box. Sanded, drilled two holes and painted. Only thing that I had to buy was a screw and nut to hold on the strap button.
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Why not steel?
Wood will break.
 

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