Virtually no bass player that I know who has spent any significant amount of time on their feet favours a heavy bass – but that doesn’t stop us from making them! Unfortunately, some wood combinations and construction techniques make it unavoidable, resulting in heavier basses than our weary backs would consider ideal. However, weight is not the sole factor leading to player fatigue and injury: balance also plays a considerable role in how the weight of an instrument affects us as players.
Poor balance can increase the physical stress imposed on a player, as the actual weight of a bass may be compounded by physical compensations that increase the burden upon the supporting shoulder. The obvious solution to alleviating the strain of a heavy instrument ought to be to simply find a lighter bass, but bantamweight instruments sometimes fail to deliver the same punch of their