Weight?!?!

[Killing Floor]

All Simonon cared about was how hard a bass could be swung. The other two guys are dead.

Smash basses, live longer?

 

[wattsman]

Weight to me personally is the top spec. That is the main reason why I wouldn’t buy an instrument online in GC and why i would in Sweetwater. And for those that dont care about weight now, at some point intheir life they will .

 

[Stranger Danger]

Some thoughts I have on our classified's most common question...

Now I'm a small feller that plays 4 and 5 string basses for sometimes up to 3 hours, and I have a bunch of different basses that all weigh different amounts. Besides sometimes vocalizing once in a while to the bass I'm holding, "Geez gal you are a little hefty." I don't really notice how the instruments weigh me down. I'm usually having a lot of fun playing, and I also purchased wide straps that are proper for the instrument. Basses are big, and I love that about them. Even the little ones like Mustangs, sound big and are at least heavier than a Strat. I think if a Mustang bass is too heavy, one should seek something in the skinny headless category. Lucky for you seems like there are a number of options there. However, I do see countless children and smaller ladies ripping full scale basses on YouTube, albeit sometimes in a chair, but I saw George Porter Jr. at Tipitinas last year playing in a chair and no one seemed to care about that. Me thinks the obsession with the weight of a bass is short sighted and a bit silly. If basses are too heavy, play keys, guitar, sax, whatever. You can tell your tale on a thousand different canvases and still plug in.

Also, is it just me or is "Weight?" the "Is it available?" for our marketplace? I can't count the amount of times I have had to weigh a bass for someone, respond with that weight, and then it's crickets on their end. So to those buyers, I say if you are too lazy to respond with your thoughts about the requested weight, you might be too lazy to play the low bottom beast known as bass.

To those of you that ask, "Weight?" and then respond, good on you. Maybe you can lead a new charge by asking, "how heavy is that hunk of wood?", or "what kind of over the shoulder boulder holder do you use to slap the B string on that sucker while dancing?"

Good thing what you think about it isn’t relevant what many other people think

Here’s a pro tip: buy a $12 scale on amazon and weigh the bass before you post it for sale. Problem solved

 

[Stranger Danger]

Why is giving the buyer more info some kind of debate?

People buy basses with hundreds of different preferences and weight is one of them. Just because they don’t reply doesn’t mean them (and many many other people) didn’t want to know what it weighed.

People want to know nowadays because it matters. If you don’t get a response, you’re still saving your time and that of your buyers because guess what? They care…

It’s usually the guys who don’t gig much that don’t seem to care about weight, but then they care about neck finish, nut width, or something not verifiable by a picture on the internet. You can find posts where they ask questions like that and don’t say much of anything after. So what?

weird post…

People like the OP are just lazy and trying to justify their laziness by insisting that what people are asking isn’t relevant to them so why should it be relevant to anyone else (because obviously their perspective is the only one!!).

 

[Stranger Danger]

Toured for many years. Have played thousands of times worked for a conglomerate instrument manufacturer for 7-ish years. Have never weighed a bass or guitar. Even when I was doing QC for guitars and basses the only time one went across a scale was when we put the UPS sticker on it.

Weighing basses is relatively a new phenomenon spurred by forums.

Admit it. If you didn’t subscribe to TB you wouldn’t have considered buying a fish scale to weigh your basses. You’d just play it or not play it.

“Play it or weigh it”. Jaco Pastorius

“There’s more to rock’n’roll than old dudes griping about how much their gear weighs”. Paul Simonon

“Your kid’s Sousaphone weighs 45 pounds”. Jack Bruce

And yet the world keeps on turning

 

[JES]

Me thinks the obsession with the weight of a bass is short sighted and a bit silly.

methinks the obsession with people having different wants from you is short sighted and silly.

 

[Sid Fang]

…As a cute and exceptionally well behaved l’il baby bass player I bought and sold many instruments in local want ads. Mostly in Atlanta’s Creative Loafing.
Reason I mention that is none of those ads ever mentioned weight, ever. I believe that’s because weight as a determining factor of the value of an instrument correlates to chat forums. It was no more or less difficult or spiteful or whatever back when private sellers used print. It simply wasn’t a thing.

But back in THOSE days, IIRC we had to pay by the word for those ads, which were local, and purchases were made in person, so you could actually strap the bass on an get a feel for it before buying.

 

[jerry]

Weight didn't even occur or bother to me in basses or even amps until I hit my fifties.

 

[spade2you]

Weight didn't even occur or bother to me in basses or even amps until I hit my fifties.

I take it you never owned or lugged a Peavey bass amp. Crazy heavy and not even designed to be carried by 2 people.

 

[Sid Fang]

There may be an actual minor sociological phenomenon of TB members having a distinctive strong tendency to ask about weight in particular before not buying. We can speculate and reason about why that might be. And we can speculate and reason about what diffrrence it makes. Are the annoyed sellers really asking people to just ignore their ads and not buy from them if they think weight matters? It’s a free-ish market, but I don’t see that as a win for anyone. Statistically, the same demographic that cares most about weight also has more disposable income than the one that cares least.

 

[bmusic]

People have different ways of conversing electronically. In work situations, I was never one to send “thank you” emails for that thing I asked for that was sent. Why clutter people’s inboxes? (And don’t get me started on reply-all thank you emails. Why do I need to be aware that you thanked our mutual colleague for something?) Now I’ve capitulated—to a degree—to the changing norms I’ve noticed.

So yeah, I may ask a question about a bass and not respond when you respond.

I do care about weight, but I know that the perception of weight-based discomfort varies beyond empirical factors. I bought a StingRay Classic 5 off Reverb that was advertised at “about 10 pounds.” Weirdly (as an admission, of sorts, of an obsessive preoccupation), the first thing I did when I got it out of the case was to weigh it—and it was 10lbs 14.4oz. Way closer to “about 11 pounds.”

But I kept it. It didn’t feel outrageously heavy—and I know it’s not, for a Classic 5.

But as someone pointed out, if you’re trying without buying, you need to get all the facts you can, from which to make a blind assessment.

 

[jerry]

I take it you never owned or lugged a Peavey bass amp. Crazy heavy and not even designed to be carried by 2 people.

I've had Peavey along with Acoustic, Ampeg, Kustom, Plush, Earth, Fender etc.
And that was all before I left the east coast 45 years ago.

 

[john_g]

In my threads, asking the weight constitutes a legal oral agreement to purchase what Im selling. True story.

 

[Jack Butler]

Agree, but balance is much harder to quantify online. Weight is a very objective measure.

Weight is important, but I believe that balance is more important.
Balance can usually be determined by looking at the design. Weight cannot be determined in the same way.
I, like many others, will want to know the weight of an instrument before I decide to purchase.
I do not think that this is just some sort of trend and feel that the weight of an instrument should be stated in for sale ads by the seller to begin with.

 

[gln1955]

No, I don't want anyone's 10 pound boat anchor. I'm not suffereing any particular injury or malady. I just don't find doing a 4-hour gig with a heavy bass comfortable. So be it.

If a seller, who is taking the time to take photos and write a description is too damned lazy to weigh the bass, I can't feel bad about them getting asked about it. Getting miffed when someone doesn't follow up takes a special kind of jerk, IMO.

 

[antfarm]

Weight is one of the few things that you can not fix after the purchase, so the question is absolutely justified.

 

[Pocket Dave]

Yeah, this is on you, the seller, not me, the buyer.

Why not just publish the weight?

IMO if a seller doesn't publish the weight, it's not my job to ask. I just assume it's probably over my acceptable limit and move on.

My friend Dave who owns Killer Vintage Specialty Guitars in Dallas and St Louis always publishes the weight. It's important enough to many, and he doesn't want to waste time responding to otherwise unnecessary inquiries.

 

[FunkHead]

Great thread! especially all the insults and name calling. Way to go!

 

[nostatic]

If you've owned/gigged enough different basses, you can have a pretty good idea about the ergonomics. As others have noted, weight cannot be "fixed" unless you want to do some Homer Simpson "speed holes". Neck dive often can be fixed, either by going to lighter tuners and/or extending the upper horn strap button. But dead weight is dead weight. I don't quick get the dick-swinging about playing heavy basses. Well, actually I do get it - this is the internet. But after multiple motorcycle and bicycle crashes, decades of various sports injuries, and just generally living just beyond where I should be, instrument weight matters *to me*. As do the other ergonomic factors - scale length, string spacing, neck shape, etc. At some point if you want to keep playing (particularly gigging), you need to sort out what and how you play, from the gear to your technique. Otherwise eventually you won't be able to do it. That day is coming for everyone, I'm just trying to delay it as long as possible...

 

[gregbackstrom]

Some thoughts I have on our classified's most common question...

Now I'm a small feller that plays 4 and 5 string basses for sometimes up to 3 hours, and I have a bunch of different basses that all weigh different amounts. Besides sometimes vocalizing once in a while to the bass I'm holding, "Geez gal you are a little hefty." I don't really notice how the instruments weigh me down. I'm usually having a lot of fun playing, and I also purchased wide straps that are proper for the instrument. Basses are big, and I love that about them. Even the little ones like Mustangs, sound big and are at least heavier than a Strat. I think if a Mustang bass is too heavy, one should seek something in the skinny headless category. Lucky for you seems like there are a number of options there. However, I do see countless children and smaller ladies ripping full scale basses on YouTube, albeit sometimes in a chair, but I saw George Porter Jr. at Tipitinas last year playing in a chair and no one seemed to care about that. Me thinks the obsession with the weight of a bass is short sighted and a bit silly. If basses are too heavy, play keys, guitar, sax, whatever. You can tell your tale on a thousand different canvases and still plug in.

Also, is it just me or is "Weight?" the "Is it available?" for our marketplace? I can't count the amount of times I have had to weigh a bass for someone, respond with that weight, and then it's crickets on their end. So to those buyers, I say if you are too lazy to respond with your thoughts about the requested weight, you might be too lazy to play the low bottom beast known as bass.

To those of you that ask, "Weight?" and then respond, good on you. Maybe you can lead a new charge by asking, "how heavy is that hunk of wood?", or "what kind of over the shoulder boulder holder do you use to slap the B string on that sucker while dancing?"

Since lots of potential customers ask for the weight, you might consider "leading the charge" by including it with the rest of the info in your bass ads. Personally, I have no interest in basses that weigh more than 8 lbs. Since my two main players are significantly below 8 lbs, I know light weight basses are out there. For my part, I usually thank the poster in a PM for letting me know the weight, and then politely wish him/her "good luck with your sale." I don't post back to the original ad because I don't want to derail it with unwanted "weight-debate."

After 56 years of playing bass, I have neck issues that I have to contend with when playing. Two things that help me: 1) Stretching per my PT's instructions, and 2) playing lighter instruments. I do sit sometimes, but only for church or a jazz gig. Never for shows, rock/pop gigs, etc. (I'll save that for when I get older ).