burner neck dive

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Tim Bishop

Ok, so what would the "K" in SK6 indicate?

Black. K=Black, L=Blue

Both start with 'B' so I did it that way.

[Adrian Bartol]

thanks for the replies!

my burner is a 5 string one, and yes, the end of serial number is DA5

about the neck diving, yes, i've used my forearm to balance the bass, but this is a little bit uncomfortable. ken, is there anything else i can do to deal with this? maybe changing the back strap button to another position?

anyway, if it can't be solved i don't care, i love it so much!

[Tim Bishop]

Originally Posted by Adrian Bartol

....is there anything else i can do to deal with this? maybe changing the back strap button to another position?

Given the body cut, I doubt changing the strap button would solve your balance issue. Also, you could potentially hurt the resell value of your bass by doing such a modification.

Maybe you could strap it like some of the Acoustic Guitar Players by extending or modifying the length of your shoulder strap (ex. by using longer strips of leather or like durable material) and tie-off somewhere behind the nut or peg head?

[Anton Hasias]

Hi Adrian,

Just a little trick.
If you will use an original Smith bass strap which is made such that it really doesn't slip on your shoulder when fixed in the right position, you will have no longer this diving problem.
I tryed with a BT6 and it worked very well.

Best regards

Originally Posted by Adrian Bartol

thanks for the replies!

my burner is a 5 string one, and yes, the end of serial number is DA5

about the neck diving, yes, i've used my forearm to balance the bass, but this is a little bit uncomfortable. ken, is there anything else i can do to deal with this? maybe changing the back strap button to another position?

anyway, if it can't be solved i don't care, i love it so much!

[Adrian Bartol]

thank you very much, i will try for it for sure!

[Brian Hewett]

Hello Adrian, I played a Smith Burner very similar to yours for quite a few years. I think a they are great basses and I like the shorter horns for a number of reasons. In particular I like the way the entire bass hangs bit more left on my body which allows me easier upper fret access whereas with a longer horn I have to kind of switch holding positions if I really need to access that area completely comfortably. Of course though, any bass with a shorter horn will have less leverage to support the neck so the "neck dive" issue can arise.

Anyway, something I did that worked well for me was using two straps. One was a Smith strap with the strap locks and the other was a suede strap. The Smith strap was, and is, very comfortable. The suede strap provided some extra grip. I generally kept them separated a bit around my shoulder which spread the weight over a larger surface area. It took some effort to get both straps adjusted to lengths that worked well for me. It wasn't as simple as making them the exact same length. I had to go through some trial and error to get it just right but once I got them adjusted for the best fit on me then that worked great to help keep the neck from diving.

Also, if you have never played a bass with a shorter horn then you may need to get accustomed to using the technique of resting your right arm on the top back of the body and using a bit of downward pressure to keep the neck where you like it. Of course that technique becomes more difficult if you prefer to wear your bass very low.

Seeing that this post is not exactly new and that a couple of other people suggested using your right arm, I imagine you are already getting used to doing that.

Best wishes

[Adrian Bartol]

thanks for your help! i've finally bought a ken smith bsr-b that fixed the neck dive problem! and it sounds as amazing as the burner!