left handed?

[chicagodoubler]

Howdy y'all.

I have a student who is dead set on learning on a left handed bass. Other than the sex change (switching bass bar and post,) is anyone aware of anything out there? Someone has to be making a left handed ply, at least...

Thanks!

[Bass]

Engelhardt or Upton.

[Martin Sheridan]

I'm assuming from what you said that he can't play it set up the way it is? I have a friend who plays guitar with the original set up. Inother words he plays upside down (no not on his head!).

I think there is an easier temporary solution and that is to make a new bridge and nut only. That way he can play the bass without having to have the bass rebared and having the soundpost changed to the other side as well as doing bridge and nut. Rebaring a bass is very expensive and I would think he'd want to play for awhile before making that kind of decision that would be very expensive to do and then very expensive to reverse if he decided to sell the bass later.

[ctcruiser]

I have an Englehardt and a Christopher, both lefty.

[Eric Hochberg]

I think Bob G will order a Romanian lefty.

[EADG mx]

Originally Posted by Martin Sheridan

I'm assuming from what you said that he can't play it set up the way it is? I have a friend who plays guitar with the original set up. Inother words he plays upside down (no not on his head!).

I think there is an easier temporary solution and that is to make a new bridge and nut only. That way he can play the bass without having to have the bass rebared and having the soundpost changed to the other side as well as doing bridge and nut. Rebaring a bass is very expensive and I would think he'd want to play for awhile before making that kind of decision that would be very expensive to do and then very expensive to reverse if he decided to sell the bass later.

Question is whether he already plays electric.. playing an electric tuned EADG and a DB tuned GDAE wouldn't make a lot of sense

also playing a stringed instrument upside down is neither easy nor comfortable (speaking from experience with many friend's guitars, basses, DBs, ukuleles, mandos, banjos, you name its). Also good luck finding someone to teach you that way.

Question though - suppose you had a new bridge and nut made but didn't change the posts. How would this affect the instrument besides degradation in sound quality (overtones and resonance I'm assuming?)

[Martin Sheridan]

It's a temporary solution. I suggested it as a way of trying bass without spending a couple of thousand dollars to find out that maybe he's not even interested. Then it would cost the same to switch it back to sell it to someone else. So let's try the temporary solution.

Now, how much would it change the sound? That's a good question. I've had a player tell me once that when he wanted to test a new kind of string, instead of buying the whole set he purchased just one and put it on the bass next to the other one like it. In other words he might then have a combination like G, G, A, E or if he wanted to test a lower string in comparison the set up might be G, D, A, A. He did that in order to test a G against a G or an A against an A. He said it made surpisingly little difference in the sound. That's what I was thinking of. I imagine it would depend a lot on the bass, but If you could set it up 'backwords' and the bass still sounded ok, then you could see if you liked bass without having to spend the big bucks of a new nut, bridge, soundpost and bass bar. You'd only have to spend the loot for the nut and bridge. In fact you could probably regroove the nut without replacing it (though it wouldn't be 'right').
The bridge would have to be replaced. Also, we haven't talked about the fingerboard. If it is a round fingerboard that could remain. If it has the bevel under the E, he would have to also replace the board, or find another bass with a round board.

I was just trying to same the guy some loot and let him try out bass.

[arnoldschnitzer]

Originally Posted by EADG mx

Question though - suppose you had a new bridge and nut made but didn't change the posts. How would this affect the instrument besides degradation in sound quality (overtones and resonance I'm assuming?)

Plucking would sound thin. Try plucking a normal bass in the opposite direction from normal. You'll find that the tone is awful. Bass strings "want" to be pulled toward the bass bar. I discovered this when trying to play a lefty bass right-handed.

[drurb]

Originally Posted by arnoldschnitzer

Plucking would sound thin. Try plucking a normal bass in the opposite direction from normal. You'll find that the tone is awful. Bass strings "want" to be pulled toward the bass bar. I discovered this when trying to play a lefty bass right-handed.

Hmm. As usual, your insight is extremely valuable. Here's a way folks here can see the asymmetry. Grab the E string and pull it downward to a somewhat exaggerated degree as if you were playing (but don't let go). As you do this, sight down the F-hole so that you can see the alignment of its inner and outer "wings." You will likely be able to see the top "flex" slightly as the bridge pivots on the sound post.

[salcott]

I totally agree with Arnold. He demonstrated this phenomenon on a left-handed bass he had in the shop when I was up there a while back. It's curious, though, that the same thing doesn't seem to happen with arco playing.

[dchan]

Originally Posted by arnoldschnitzer

Plucking would sound thin. Try plucking a normal bass in the opposite direction from normal. You'll find that the tone is awful. Bass strings "want" to be pulled toward the bass bar. I discovered this when trying to play a lefty bass right-handed.

That's probably why that bluegrass bass in that other thread was intentionally made with two bassbars.

[Tejano Bass]

Drake - what other thread, please . . . this I gotta see - thnx!

[dchan]

Originally Posted by Tejano Bass

Drake - what other thread, please . . . this I gotta see - thnx!

It was under the Setup and Repair section. Here it is:

Bass luthier Luke Medley?

[Tejano Bass]

Hhhmmmm . . . very interesting - Thanks, Drake!