"On my bathroom scale"

[vvvmmm]

I always take "can" as crapper, but "cans" as headphones.

I mean, very few speak of more than one bathroom, and I ain't hang out with no DJ's.

 

[Herrick]

Olympic competition plates are probably accurate to the ounce, but typical dumbbells, kettlebells and gym rat plates are "close". They could get them dead on, but nobody would want to pay for the extra labor involved.

I'm going to try the gallon of water method you mentioned earlier in the thread.

 

[SLPimp]

I've returned multiple basses for being heavier than advertised. Once they tell you the weight, they're pretty much stuck.

 

[Syd Rayne]

I'm going to try the gallon of water method you mentioned earlier in the thread.

Guys who play in a jug band swear by this method.

 

[jzucker]

my biggest pet peeves are when folks don't know or list the specs of the bass they are selling. For god's sake, if you are selling basses regularly, invest in an accurate scale. And not knowing or listing the scale length, woods, pickups, preamp, etc., is also annoying. It's like listing a car but not saying whether it's a 4, 6, 8 or electric/hybrid...

 

[marchone]

I must be dense (in a thread about weight) because I'm having a hard time understanding what exactly the problem is here... If you're shipping a bass, the weight needs to be accurate regardless to pay the proper rate. If you're not shipping it... do you need to know its exact weight to the ounce? Why nitpick the type of scale? I know sometimes people are concerned about weight for gigging etc but this just seems particularly... particular

Which shipper weighs an item before it’s packed?

 

[Bikeguy57]

"Don't have a camera, but it's somewhere between kinda beat up and fairly nice. Also, it's kinda reddish"

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I'm going to try the gallon of water method you mentioned earlier in the thread.

But the catch is that the accuracy of the weight is dependent on the accuracy of the volume measured. Technically, altitude, temperature and purity of the water also matter, but that's getting into lab territory.

 

[Moon Fetus]

Which shipper weighs an item before it’s packed?

Crikey, this is quite a particular thread. I was implying the package as a whole... but you could weigh it before and after if you'd like, I won't judge.

 

[Thumpin6string]

Depends on what you're selling.

I'm out in the middle of nowhere, but if it was a lot of dough, maybe.

 

[Syd Rayne]

Weight is usually a personal preference...

Maybe I've been out of touch for a while... but I don't ever remember weight being a factor in buying a bass until a few years ago. Definitely post-internet. When we bought basses or guitars back in the 70's and 80's through the Recycler (or other local print media) it was just a matter of appearance, tone/sound, and if it played well. I sold some instruments back then, and weight was never a factor to the buyer. Well, it was never brought up. I think we were more concerned that it had the proper hardshell case! Nobody said "Yikes, this is a bit heavy, I'll pass".

For me - neck dive was more of a buying deterrent. So, the heavier the body sat, the less the headstock wanted to dip down. Not great logic, but it worked for me.

Same with "smoke-free home". I've never been a smoker, but I've bought gear that smelled like an ashtray back in the 80's and 90's, and never twitched a nostril. Both parents smoked a lot - so perhaps I was used to it. "Case candy" is another perk that wasn't a thing back then (as far as I know). But then, I never had any to declare when listing an instrument for sale.

 

[blacktocomm]

Only on talkbass would weighing a bass on a bathroom scale be considered a conspiracy.

 

[SgtHulka]

Sarge, Sarge, Sarge- we need you clear-headed to see these facetious-traps before we stumble into them.

LOL - I know the written word comes across as serious in the online world, but I was hoping people would see the humor. Anyway, I'm going to take that awful joke I made and throw it in the "can", bwahahaha.

 

[selowitch]

A weight figure alone is not quite as useful to a potential buyer as the weight plus the methodology for gauging that weight. It’s also a hedge that the figure may not be super-accurate.

If I were more inclined to buy a 8.5-lbs. bass and less inclined to buy a 9.0-lbs. bass, I would find that bit of information useful.

 

[phillipkregg]

The last bass I bought was listed at 8.6 pounds.

Turns out the seller wasn’t reading the scale correctly. It was actually 8 pounds and 6 ounces.

Those are the nice kind of surprises.

I bought a fishing scale simply to weigh my basses. It’s not very expensive and you can get them at Walmart or Target.

 

[LBS-bass]

Only on talkbass would weighing a bass on a bathroom scale be considered a conspiracy.

This is part of why I won't sell online anymore. Nefarious intent is layered on at every corner, when really, it's just that I don't fish, I don't sell basses more than once every few years, and I know there's someone who will come by, play it, buy it, and be happy with it even if I only gave them my best ballpark weight. In all my years of selling instruments in a music store, it wasn't until I showed up here that I ever heard anyone ask about weight. Holding it in your hands is a better way to judge if it's going to balance well for you and be within your physical tolerance.

Packing and shipping is also a PITA, shipping is getting really expensive, and there's no way I'm making a special trip somewhere just to weigh something, so local sales are the way forward.

 

[selowitch]

The last bass I bought was listed at 8.6 pounds.

Turns out the seller wasn’t reading the scale correctly. It was actually 8 pounds and 6 ounces.

Those are the nice kind of surprises.

Exactly. In that case, the bass was actually 8.375 lbs., more than two ounces lighter than expected. You did indeed get lucky!

 

[Durham52]

It's not just bass players on Talkbass who are concerned about weight, many guitarists are a bit fussy about the weight of Strat and Tele bodies and most 6 stringers are way lighter than your average bass.

I've always had a set of accurate scales on hand as I build solid body instruments, my current workshop digital scale cost me twenty dollars a few years ago and it's very accurate. I check it regularly by repeatedly weighing an old set of scale weights. These days a reliable set of digital scales that will weigh up to 5 kilos can be bought for ten bucks.

Rich is right, no one would be happy about buying a bass and finding that the color was wrongly described, or the pickups weren't what was claimed, or it had way more dents and scrapes that described, so why should dodgy weight claims be OK?

If it's a bass costing several hundred dollars, or several thousand, take it somewhere like a post office (maybe your local deli, they have scales that are checked regularly) and get it weighed, I'd even take a photo of the bass on the scale with the weight showing.

 

[SgtHulka]

My answer is funnier. Do you know how many hits were sung in the bathroom?

I'm a terrible singer, but of all the songs I CAN sing, I must admit that when I sing the National Anthem in the shower, it sounds glorious.

 

[selowitch]

This is why I no longer automatically list the weight of the guitars/basses I sell, so that I don't get into disputes about a discrepancy between the weight I list and the weight the customer takes as a reason to return the item later. If someone inquires, I am likely to tell them “It’s approximately x.”