Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Just wondering what y'all considered light or heavy when it comes to bass guitars.

IMO anything under 10 lbs, I would consider light.

< 9 lbs is light. 9-10 lbs is medium weight, > 11 lbs is a boat anchor. I'm referring to full scale solidbody basses only.

Playing a 2hrs set with a 10lbs axe can cause quite some back pain .
That's why you rather see the guitarists jumping on stage!
Weight is one of the reasons I prefer the early '70ies 4001.

I had a beautiful Alembic Mark King 5-string years ago that came in right at 14lbs.

Way to heavy.

Y'know, I never really thought about this topic at all until now. I guess I'm just so used to my Rick that all basses to me are either Lighter-Than-Rick, Heavier-Than-Rick or As-Much-As-Rick. I consider Heavier-Than-Rick to be remarkably heavy, but I guess it doesn't really phase me that much. I should pay more attention.

I find that under 8 lbs. is ideal. My Rick Turner only weights around 5 1/2 lbs; that is my anti-gravity bass.

I once had an Ibanez RB840, sounded somewhat similar to a Ric 4001, but was that light, definitely under 8lbs!

I had a 77 4001 with a hipshot brass tailpiece . She felt heavy to me . When Im playing and in the "zone" everything is weightless .

The brass hipshot adds quite some weight to the 4001, so I sold mine again. But I would be keen on an ALU-hipshot. I guess also the resonances and frequency transmisssion of the ALU is more similar to the original "behaviour" of the Ric tailpiece. However the handling and additional sustain of any hipshot replacement tailpiece is absolute convincing!

My '72 4001 is smaller and lighter than my 4003. I never checked how much it weights though...

My Yamaha feels like it weighs close to double what my 4003 weighs, though is more likely about 5 lbs more. Not coincidentally, I've been having back problems since it became my main bass! Rics feel like they're made of balsawood by comparison!

Peter . I just installed a Hipshot alluminum on my V63 and to me.....it sounds exactly like the RIC tail .