My recommendation would be to take your strap to a big box store and play around with some configurations, because I think this is going to be too personal for your strap height and the exact angle and other characteristics of how you hold the bass.
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Upper horn comfort when playing almost vertical
- Thread starter scullionj
- Start date
Yeah, the belly carve on FSO’s becomes a chest poker in that position. Ibanez SR’s can be a bit comfier there. If you could find a Ric 4001/4003 that’d balance body down neck up, they can be comfy enough to your chest in that position, due to being a plain slab with just a wide radius roundover on the edge.
I found slab bodied guitars to be pretty comfy like that, so I assume slab basses like original single coil Precisions, whatever StingRays were slabs, and Danelectros (the chick in Maneskin uses these almost exclusively live) would all also be less pokey-in-the-rib-ey.
I found slab bodied guitars to be pretty comfy like that, so I assume slab basses like original single coil Precisions, whatever StingRays were slabs, and Danelectros (the chick in Maneskin uses these almost exclusively live) would all also be less pokey-in-the-rib-ey.
agreed
I play at that angle but a lower position.
Are you perhaps attempting to achieve "same height sitting as standing"?
That advice gets tossed out here often, I have found that to be impractical.
I gig and practice standing up and position my bass accordingly (see my avatar pic)
Bass on my leg & in my lap is for non serious idle noodling or figuring stuff out imho
Serious practice includes my "gig posture"
I would think it's all about how you attach the strap but you may think about a Steinberger or a Status streamline or a Vox teardrop where there is nothing to bother you.
But then he’ll need to wear a cup lest he poke his balls
The objective of every golfer: to get the ball into the cup.
When I think of "nearly vertical", I think of Bunny Brunel. His basses (made by Gibson, then Carvin, then ESP) feature a LONG upper horn.
Here he is way back in the day before his custom basses:
And here's a more recent image from ESP:
Here he is way back in the day before his custom basses:
And here's a more recent image from ESP:
Listen to your wrist. If it’s awkward it will tell you. When I play in an awkward position I usually experience soreness the following day.
I think the key words there are "short scale"... which a 450B is not. It's long aluminum neck - and an upper horn that falls a couple frets short of the 12th one - make it a neck diver par excellence...
I would love to have a lefty Vanguard like that one, though. I'd even happily put up with the neck diving shenanigans of an XKB 10 Kramer - if it was a lefty...
I see the benefit, in theory you are supposed to keep your wrists straight. Cant say different basses will help/hurt
I too have been chasing this particular unicorn, and the black&white picture of Brunel illustrates an idea I have been flirting with, which is having the lower end of the strap pass over the forearm carve rather than behind or around it. Not so much for upper horn comfort as to press more of the bass into my body so my thorax can help absorb the weight. With the same goal in mind I have considered moving the top strap button to behind the cutaway horn rather than keep it at the end.
But getting straight wrists also is a goal with this approach.
You’ve received recommendations from no horn to short horn to long horn. Ultimately this is a very individualized decision that can only be informed by trying on basses until you find on that works for you. Best of luck and let us know what you decide!
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That was my first thought too. That looks like an awfully long reach to the lower frets. I also think the arm of the plucking hand would be in a more natural and relaxed position if the body of the bass were a little lower position.
You might find it helpful to look into guitar players like John Stowell who play nearly vertically to assist with very wide chord voicings. John's main guitar has a fabric covering, or something similar, on the upper horn area since it comes into contact with his face.
Very awesome responses here, thanks everybody! And yes, Bill Wyman did come to mind right as I hit post, lol. I suppose that is objectively a cooler reference than a dude from Dave Matthews. Right now I'm leaning towards a custom Warmoth tele body with two J pickups. I've only recently emerged from their tonewood rabbit hole, it's very dark down there, I don't recommend it. Although supposedly sometimes it's very "bright" with a "snap". But I'm also going to try lowering the strap a little bit - once I get a new one! (current one doesn't move)
