Neck Heavy Basses

[Spoonman]

Hi,

So I recently bought a Gibson Grabber Bass (from a certain Mr Wooleydick, who was of great service by the way), and I really love the bass, sounds massive and plays great.
The only thing is the neck is always weighing down on me when I'm playing stood up. I've tried to correct the problem by bringing the strap button at the bridge end, round towards the top, if that makes sense, so to try and counter-weight the neck a bit more. It helped a little bit, but it's still not perfect.

I wanted to ask if anyone else has had a similar problem with a neck heavy bass and how they corrected it, if they did? I'm now thinking perhaps put on some lighter machine heads, but I'm not sure how much difference it will make.

Any ideas would be much appreciated, cos I really wanna get along with my bass stood up!

Thanks,

Phil

[Buzz]

Is the grabber a bolt on? If it is, drill a small hole and move the strap lock from the upper horn to the edge of the neck pocket.

If not, you'll have to put the strap lock somewhere else OR you could attach some weight to the bridge end of the bass, either on the strap button or on the edge of the strap.

[misrule]

People usually suggest getting a strap with something non-slip like suede on the inside.

I play a Thunderbird, which has a similar problem to yours. I actually use quite a slippery strap -- and just live with the problem.

Cheers

Mark

[bass_ferret]

Ultralights will definitely help because of the weight being at the end of the headstock, but not sure that would be enough. Grippy straps help.

[JimBobTTD]

I have just finished returning a Burny Mockingbird copy to playability. Mockingbirds are tremendously neck-heavy. I am going to move the neck strap button towards the neck itself, making it lower. Repositioning the neck strap button there is a common fix for SGs. The other thing is to get a strap with a good grip on it, and let that do the work for you. It is not ideal, though.

Other than that, you could add some weight to the body, by using a wireless system (the body pack often helps) or simply putting weights in the empty spaces in the body cavity, or hanging weights on the strap there. As these things add weight rather than reposition it, I'd go with moving the neck strap button if I were you.

Good luck!

[Mr. Foxen]

My mockingbird shows signs of various button placement experiments, currently its on the end of the neck pocket end:


Balances fine, got a suedy sticky strap though, although to be honest, when I'm actually playing it is mostly being waved about in front of my cabs and feeding back.

Edited October 5, 2008 by Mr. Foxen

[Kiwi]

my spector 6 is also neck heavy but I have a huge leathergraft 4"wide strap that helps. I'm thinking about hipshot ultralights but they're a low priority at the moment. Some additional weight in the body might help but the instrument isn't exactly lightweight as it is.

[OutToPlayJazz]

I've never suffered neckdive, but that's possibly due to the fact that I always use wide leather straps with the suede backing. Never any slippage at all.

Rich.

[budget bassist]

would positioning the strap button on the underside of the top horn help do you think?

[Gamble]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='299990' date='Oct 5 2008, 05:17 PM']My mockingbird shows signs of various button placement experiments, currently its on the end of the neck pocket end:

Balances fine, got a suedy sticky strap though, although to be honest, [b]when I'm actually playing it is mostly being waved about in front of my cabs and feeding back.[/b][/quote]

Good man.

[neepheid]

+1 for wide, grippy straps.

+1 for more weight bridge side - my Epi EB-3 used to neck dive quite severely, even with a grippy strap, and the strap button is already located on the neck heel. However, I changed the 3 point bridge for a much more substantial Hipshot Supertone and it no longer makes a nose dive for the floor, it gracefully descends and then rests about parallel with the ground.

[6stringbassist]

I played an Alembic Stanley Clarke once, that was really badly unbalanced, I spent the whole of the time holding the neck up.

[ahpook]

[quote name='neepheid' post='300305' date='Oct 6 2008, 09:54 AM']+1 for wide, grippy straps.[/quote]

plus the another one

[Lfalex v1.1]

IIRC some old Fenders had a strap button on the back of headstock.
If that won't cure neck dive, I don't know what will!
(Provided you can find a strap l-o-n-g enough!)

[ARGH]

Go Headless

[martthebass]

I had a Thumb bass for about a year.
Don't know if the neck dive was serious, but the bass always wanted to hang to the horizontal, not good with a neck that 'long'.
Tried big straps, comfort Strapps etc but nothing seemed to stop the damn thing - in a 2 hour gig I sempt to be liting the neck back to 45 degress about a 100 times. Loved the bass but in the end I had to sell it.

[Geek99]

My CIJ jazz is quite neck heavy, but thats maybe because the body is surprisingly light - the whole thing weighs less than my Vintage Stingray clone.

[Geek99]

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' post='300371' date='Oct 6 2008, 11:38 AM']IIRC some old Fenders had a strap button on the back of headstock.
If that won't cure neck dive, I don't know what will!
(Provided you can find a strap l-o-n-g enough!)[/quote]
My (62 Ri) Jazz has a hole on the back of the headstock - I was wondering why it was there. thanks

[Herr Fixxxer]

Suede strap!

Also, you can try to play with the bass strapped a bit higher and play with your right forearm pushing on the body a bit. I used to do that (along with suede strap) on my Ibanez 6stringer and it was just fine.

[Spoonman]

Cheers for your help guys!

Some kind of combination of all this stuff seems a decent idea, though my student loan only stretches so far...

That was an interesting idea about adding a heavier bridge too, I hadn't actually thought of that one.

Much thanks for all your input anyways.

[Kev]

i think just getting a strap that doesnt slide around would do just fine

my hudson 6 string i owned had quite heavy neck dive, the body was very small and light and it had a 6 string neck...go figure, but i had a nice wide non slip strap and it never bothered me, didnt move i hate slippy straps anyways, just annoying neck dive or no neck dive

[GremlinAndy]

Attatch a scaffold pole of an appropriate length to the headstock, and fit a flightcase castor to the other end to help you manouver around the stage.

[KevB]

Large helium balloon attached to a tuning peg? No need for a stand then either, though bringing it down from the rafters at the end of the night might get troublesome in some venues...^_^