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Strap Balance

Stu Rose

Stu Rose

Nov 1, 2005
275
19
In Pennsylvania now
#1
Greetings,

I never really understood why so bass manufactuers or custom builders never figured out how to design their basses with proper balance.

Its seems many come up with a Cool Looking Body Shape and that takes priority over practicality.

I left out names of who I think have weak designs because in the short time I've been a member I noticed there's a lot of political correctness going on so I don't want to be called a basher by anyone.

What do you all think about this?
 
#3
Fretless5verfan said:
I've never come across a higher-end bass that didn't balance well. My roscoe has a little neck dive at times, but it's a 6-string and honestly i'd rather have the neck dive than have the overall weight increased for balance.

Side note: Where you at in philly man? We might live near each other.
Click to expand...

Greetings,

I owned a Roscoe 5 and it was made well, sounded great, bad, bad, balance.

1. Small Body to start
2. Short upper horn it needs to be at least to the 12th fret not the 14th or 15th
3. long neck 24 fret

Any 24 fret bass needs to have a longer upper horn. F bass, Ken Lawrence, Smith is close, the fender clones work with a 20, 21 fret neck after that they have to re-shape the body.

I'm from Philly now transplanted to Jersey.
 
#5
Stu Rose said:
Greetings,

I owned a Roscoe 5 and it was made well, sounded great, bad, bad, balance.

1. Small Body to start
2. Short upper horn it needs to be at least to the 12th fret not the 14th or 15th
3. long neck 24 fret

Any 24 fret bass needs to have a longer upper horn. F bass, Ken Lawrence, Smith is close, the fender clones work with a 20, 21 fret neck after that they have to re-shape the body.

I'm from Philly now transplanted to Jersey.
Click to expand...


I also dislike the short horn and tiny body on my roscoe, but i'm used to crapy balance from playing six strings. It balances great on my leg thankfully.

Why on earth would you go to jersey from living in philly!?!? :eek: :p
 
#9
I think most (if not all) manufacturers have figured out how to design basses with proper balance. Some,like Warwick, have just decided to ignore the issue on some models (Thumb Bass), but not on others (Streamer Bolt-On). In some cases, if you love the sound, you'll put up with bad balance. And, to a certain segment of the bass buying public, aesthetics come first. Why else would Traben put big chrome flames on their basses? Some people (not me) think it looks cool.

That being said, I'm glad that some manufacturers throw balance to the wind, and just build a bass that looks good. I may not want to buy it, but I'm glad it exists. If all the builders (and players) decided "Balance is King", there'd be even more similiar looking basses than there are now.

I'm glad that bass makers (especially the independents), keep coming up with new designs, rather than being stuck in the late 50's like g***** players.

Sorry if this was a little rambley. I just wanted to say...Damn! I forgot! :D
 
#10
Groundloop said:
I think most (if not all) manufacturers have figured out how to design basses with proper balance. Some,like Warwick, have just decided to ignore the issue on some models (Thumb Bass), but not on others (Streamer Bolt-On). In some cases, if you love the sound, you'll put up with bad balance. And, to a certain segment of the bass buying public, aesthetics come first. Why else would Traben put big chrome flames on their basses? Some people (not me) think it looks cool.

That being said, I'm glad that some manufacturers throw balance to the wind, and just build a bass that looks good. I may not want to buy it, but I'm glad it exists. If all the builders (and players) decided "Balance is King", there'd be even more similiar looking basses than there are now.

I'm glad that bass makers (especially the independents), keep coming up with new designs, rather than being stuck in the late 50's like g***** players.

Sorry if this was a little rambley. I just wanted to say...Damn! I forgot! :D
Click to expand...

Greetings,

I guess you got a good point, people don't care that much if it looks good.
 

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