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Who prefers heavier basses?

#23
Spectre Gunner said:
The trend In the previous years have been to lighten gear for obvious reasons. It's much easier to haul small light weight equipment from gig to gig than bulkier heavier gear. There is nothing to debate about that and I totally get it. So do many manufactures who have invested heavily in weight savings on just about everything especially amps, cabinets and basses, giving up something in regards to tone?

However, when it comes to sound and tone is there really a difference between lightweight chambered basses and old school solid heavy wood and chunky neck basses? Have we lost anything in regards to tone with lightweight gear? I'm guilty, I've picked up a bass off the rack at my local store any put it right back without even playing it just because it was heavy.

I know there are some pro bass players that prefer the old school style of heavy bass bodies and even some who like solid chunky necks. I know of at least two pros who mentioned in interviews that they prefer a solid chunky bass for the quality of their deep punchy tone. Of course the pros usually have a hired hand to haul their gear but the two I mention below spend most of their time in the studio these days anyways.

FYI; Billy Sheehan - Bassist for the David Lee Roth Band, Winery Dogs, Mr Big, many recordings, Etc and Bobby Vega - Bass replacement for Tower of Power (Replaced "Rocco Prestia") was voted Bass Player Magazine’s Top 100 Bassists of all time in 2017 and of course on many recordings. These two guys stated in interviews that they prefer heavier basses and chunky necks for their solid deep percussive tone. I'm sure there are more players that may prefer this type of bass as well.

Naturally, light feels better on your shoulder but light and chambered may or may not have the bass tone you're searching for. Especially, in a studio where the tone from a bass is more critical. Are we sacrificing tone for lightness these days?

Modern lightweight amps is another topic for another thread so it would be distraction to go there in this particular thread. This thread is intended to focus on the heavy vs light bass and it's effect on tone. So what are your thoughts or experiences?
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I wouldn’t say I’m sacrificing. I prefer basses to be around 9lbs though. Which isn’t super picky. Heavier than that and it can be a drag to play them standing up
For long periods of time, but for me there is such thing as too light. I can’t stand when a bass flops around if I’m slapping and pop the d or g string for example. To me that’s just as bad of an issue as bad neck dive because it makes you do extra work to try to hold the bass in a decent playing positions
 
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#28
I don't have a straight answer to this, but I do think when the bass is too light it's not ideal. I used to own a Ovation Magnum that was quite heavy, but I only ever played it sitting so I didn't much care. I have two Squier short-scale Jags and they both have very different weights. The heavier one is more balanced and feels more solid.
 
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#29
I don't mind heavy basses, as long as they have great tone and a comfy neck. Sure, when I was playing 3-4 hour gigs regularly, I may have been a little more opinionated on the matter.
That said, I would assume that if you take two basses of the same dimensions and construction materials, the heavier one has denser wood. I'm sure that would affect resonance and timbre in one way or another, but whether or not that makes for consistent audible differences is debatable and I'd need to see some pretty convincing results from in-depth testing to subscribe to it.
 
#32
heavy speakers can often provide an "oomph" in the low end that can't be had elsewhere - though some lightweight cabs really can kill these days.

i'm past pretending there is a difference on the bass itself. thick necks definitely provide a certain "thing" thing i like, but thats a feel/stability thing.
 
#33
Leo Thunder said:
Weight barely affects tone and tone barely matters. Bach wrote his greatest works without even specifying for which instruments they were.

No one cares about bass tone.
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are you referring to the art of fugue?

written in 4 staves of SATB voicing is interesting. I tend to believe the theory that he intended it to be a keyboard/harpsichord piece. Or perhaps he really did just write it as a 4 part experiment.

regardless, if it's played by a string quarter, brass quarter, one keyboard player, or other, the tone is still really important. A quality tone is part of being musical. So, in a piece like that where the instrumentation is genuinely ambiguous, a performance would still be flawed if one of the instruments was of a poor tone quality.

BUT I definitely agree with your point that it may not matter the way some of these threads would lead you to think. ideas from "all in the fingers" to "which fingerboard wood for this type of tone?" is a bit of a mess.

back to weight, i've seen no concrete evidence that it can make as noticeable of a change as something else like pickup placement along the string.
 
#34
groooooove said:
are you referring to the art of fugue?

written in 4 staves of SATB voicing is interesting. I tend to believe the theory that he intended it to be a keyboard/harpsichord piece.
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BUT I definitely agree with your point that it may not matter the way some of these threads would lead you to think. ideas from "all in the fingers" to "which fingerboard wood for this type of tone?" is a bit of a mess.
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That, parts of the Musical Offering and then he kept transcribing stuff as if tone didn't matter. This is how we get violin concertos transcribed for the harpsichord, or violin pieces played on the lute. Tone is mostly of marginal value. Yes, it should be "nice" but it barely ever contributes anything important. People discuss tone like opera buffs worship the sound of a voice without even caring for what it sings. People who value tone over the rest have no understanding of music.

Oh, and in all the Mozart letters I read, which were quite a few, I remember him speaking of expression quite often. I don't remember him mentioning tone, not even about singers.
 
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#36
Neck Thru USA Spectors rule..
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#39
Me! My main bass is a stingray (not a special), and with the ash body it's fairly heavy beast. Got a 5 string Sire that's lighter than it but I much prefer the weight of the stingray. I like baseball bat necks too as they fit my hands better than something like a jazz as I have really big palms.
 

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