Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
Welcome to TalkBass! Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Removing Material Under Pickguard To Reduce Weight
- Thread starter HutHutHuda
- Start date
Some people do.
You have to take away LOTS of wood to get noticeable improvement, and possibly compromise balance (as important as weight, for ergonomics IMO).
My advice is to aim for better balance. IE if you have 5-string bass and heavy tuners, install light-weght ones. Center of mass will shift from your left shoulder closer to your body center (spine) and same weight will be MUCH more manageable. Add very wide strap with heavy padding and you have solution. And it's reversible.
Just think, when you carry backpack with weight in the center of your back, you can probably carry much more than typical bass weight. But sling it on one shoulder and it gets tiresome quickly.
Having said that, if bass guitar balance is already very good or it is VERY heavy, just let it go. IME you will not be able to change much. Just get another one that fits you better.
My advice is to aim for better balance. IE if you have 5-string bass and heavy tuners, install light-weght ones. Center of mass will shift from your left shoulder closer to your body center (spine) and same weight will be MUCH more manageable. Add very wide strap with heavy padding and you have solution. And it's reversible.
Just think, when you carry backpack with weight in the center of your back, you can probably carry much more than typical bass weight. But sling it on one shoulder and it gets tiresome quickly.
Having said that, if bass guitar balance is already very good or it is VERY heavy, just let it go. IME you will not be able to change much. Just get another one that fits you better.
Yeah, for me it's not so much the weight as the balance. I'd rather have a heavy, well balanced bsss than a light neck diver. The original Steinberger L2's, for instance were relatively heavy (around 9lb IIRC), but the center pivot and double shoulder strap made them feel light and balance perfectly. The other end of the scale is something like a Hofner, which is a terrible neck diver, but so light you can sort of "clamp" it in place with your forearm. A grippy leather strap more or less kills neck dive on a Hofner too. Any reduction in weight at the headstock end is going to be a lot more effective than body chambering, which is why headless designs make so much sense ergonomically. You have to hog out a lot of wood to get even a 1lb difference. Lots of people on TB have done it though, it's just some work with various sized forstner bits or a router, staying away from the central "spine" of the body.
Like the other respondents say, you have to take out a lot of wood to make a noticeable difference, and it's not necessarily an area that you want to remove wood from. Or at least you have to work there and also work on lightening the head simultaneously in order to maintain good balance on a strap.
JeezyMcNuggles
Inactive
- Feb 23, 2018
- 14,725
- 20,912
- 6,041
- Disclosures
- I suck, but nobody really notices
People do it all the time. The only problem is, the more weight you take off the body, the more your neck dives.
You could just get a 1-inch hole saw and drill a whole bunch of holes in the back and just not turn it over where people can see it.
I solved your problem for you.
You're welcome!
I solved your problem for you.
You're welcome!
I wanted to remove some weight on one of my jazz bass so I ordered a precision body with jazz pickups routings.
I will no longer need a control plate and will also remove the pickguard.
There is also a very large cavity on the back again, to save some weight and I asked Warmoth to use their lightest piece of alder to make it.
Should solve my problem of overweight jazz bass !
I will no longer need a control plate and will also remove the pickguard.
There is also a very large cavity on the back again, to save some weight and I asked Warmoth to use their lightest piece of alder to make it.
Should solve my problem of overweight jazz bass !
I did this but through holes in a cheap very heavy j bass. It made no discernible difference!
Found this on a Gibson fan site, showing how Les Pauls have been routed for weight reduction. These show the body wood -- the holes are hidden by the top wood cap.
There are plenty of builders who make solid body guitars and basses in similar ways (removing wood from the body then covering with a decorative top wood), but the above is a really good illustration of the ways it's done or not done.
(edited to add link, which I should've done to begin with.)
There are plenty of builders who make solid body guitars and basses in similar ways (removing wood from the body then covering with a decorative top wood), but the above is a really good illustration of the ways it's done or not done.
(edited to add link, which I should've done to begin with.)
Last edited:
I once had my tech cut a Marcus Miller-style pickguard for my Jazz Bass. We did this so he could take out as much wood as possible from the body. While it did help a little, it wasn’t a huge difference.
Besides the dive and balance issues brought up by others, I'd worry about taking out so much wood that it lessened the resonance or sustain of the instrument. I'm not a sound engineer, but less material there seems like there'd be less for the string resonance to transfer to. The other thing is if it's completely routed into oblivion and feels light, some people may be of the impression that it feels cheap.
Not a bass, but the Reverend Bob Balch Signature guitar has a routed out chamber under the pick guard that they claim "increases resonance." I think that's probably just hooey, but still...
I guess I could see it as far as there being a chamber of sorts to resonate under it. Ultimately I'm of the same opinion that it's probably hooey. To me, and I know this is sacrilegious for gear heads, the sound is 97% gonna be your strings, amp, and how you play. And yes I am just pulling that stat outta the air. The rest just reminds me of being a cleric in Dungeons and Dragons. Which woo woo religion do you ascribe to?
The religion of tonewoods are the absolute and easily noticeable
The house of fingerboard material makes a noticeable difference on an electric instrument
Her holy lights ability to hear whether a guitar is bolt-on or not by sound alone
The Compassionate Tone Collective of "Poly doesn't Breath"
of course, I used to be more of a Warmth of Analogues Love (shunners of the Digital Usurpers) devotee.
I love Fu Manchu, but I'm pretty sure he could play a hello kitty squier through his rig and it would still sound giant and heavy
Why not? Well the only downside I can see is weakening the overall body structure if you thin things out too much.
Also you would be hard pressed to remove pounds of weight, depending on the pickguard, we're really only talking about ounces lighter.
Also you would be hard pressed to remove pounds of weight, depending on the pickguard, we're really only talking about ounces lighter.
Beware, for that way lies madness, such as whatever the heck happened to this bass:
Story on this was that I bought it from my local shop. It had been in for less than a week on consignment. I put down half the money on one day and came back with the rest a couple days later. In one of those intervening days, I get a call from the shop manager (who also does many of the setups) saying he hadn't gotten a chance yet to inspect the bass, and when he did, he discovered this. He said that he'd had issues with this particular consigner "not mentioning" stuff like this, so I think it was the last time he ever sold that guy's stuff. I got a discount because of this, but I can't remember offhand what it was-- $450 down to $300? Something like that. I still own the bass.
I can't imagine that going nuts with a forstner bit really helped save that much weight though. The current theory is, drugs.
(As in, "the consigner was on drugs", but also "the holes are for storing drugs".)
Last edited: