If you're like me, you may have encountered or owned a dream bass that quickly lost it's sheen once you strapped it on and rudely discovered the neck/headstock make as B line straight to the floor. Such coveted basses as the Gibson T-Bird (or suitable copies), BC Rich Mockingbird (and the vast majority of BC Rich's oddball body designs), and even the Warwick Thumb have been notoriously known for being neck heavy, and while there are numerous home remedies out there that work, (Years ago a friend of mine had fishing weights duct taped to the heel of his T-Bird. It looked horrible but somehow fit right in with his "punk" aesthetic, LOL), but some are downright invasive and cause unnecessary drilling or repositioning of strap buttons (and thus effect the value of your bass, especially if it's a collectible).
Enter the Heads Up strap, produced by Joe Naylor of Reverend Guitars, a 2-3/4" nylon strap that features a velcro pocket for adding 8 oz. counterweights to the heel of your guitar. I ordered one and just received it today. At first I was horrified by how heavy it was with an added 24 oz. of weights included, but I gave it a go with a couple of neck heavy culprits (My Epi T-Bird and BC Rich Mockingbird), and couldn't be more pleased. The added weight is virtually imperceptible since it's added to the back of the guitar and not hanging over your shoulders. You can add/remove weights as needed. The Mockingbird only needed one 8 oz. weight to counteract the nose dive, while the T-Bird needed all 3.
At $39.99, it's certainly not cheap comparatively to a general use nylon strap, but it's not gonna break the bank either and I've found it to be a clean, simple solution to some of the options I've tried in the past (wide leather strap = pulls on your shirt; extending screw length of one of the 4 bolt neck screws to accommodate a strap button = works only for bolt ons and not the greatest idea to be putting stress on your neck screw; lighter tuners = more expensive; aforementioned re-drilling for button repositioning, etc). it's one of those simple, "Yeah, I could have come up with that" solutions that had eluded me up until this point.
Caveats? Well the edge of the nylon strap is a bit rough and was scraping up against my neck. A simple shift of my shirt underneath solved that (or you could always wear a clerical collar, LOL). I also found that with the BC Rich I had the strap adjusted to it's absolute shortest length and it just made my usual comfort position (I tend to wear my basses higher these days).
But otherwise, a BIG +1!
http://www.neckheavy.com/index.html
