Left handed, right handed bass?

Infernal Affair · #1 02-14-2003, 09:20 PM

I'm probably more of a minority here than the left handed players. Though I'm lefthanded, since I've started about a year ago I've been learning with a right handed bass. And I don't find it difficult or weird at all. In fact it was a little easier starting out to work the frets with my slightly stronger left hand, while finger plucking with my right. Pick style would be awkward (if I ever use a pick) since my right arm isn't as controllable with my left, but I'm sure if I worked at it I'd get used to it, too.

I mostly wanted to learn this way because I'd be more versatile and be able to mess with friends' basses, not requiring to always have a special version of bass in order to play. A couple weeks ago I decided for fun to try out some left handed basses, and it just feels weird. Gotten too used to the right.

Leftys are known to be a little ambidextrous, so a lefty converting to right handed tasks is easier than the other way around. I do most of my hand oriented tasks with my left hand: throwing, writing, etc. However, I do quite a few things right handed too, and they tend to be tasks requiring both hands by needing a dominant hand: driving stick shift, playing video games, using a computer mouse, etc. Almost all leftys have to compensate in some way and just do things right handed, so I surely can't be the only lefty that plays right handed. Or am I?

Jason Carota · #2 02-14-2003, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Infernal Affair
I surely can't be the only lefty that plays right handed. Or am I?

Nope. I'm lefty and play righty. There is a poll/thread about this topic here.

edit: Welcome to TB, by the way.

Infernal Affair · #3 02-15-2003, 03:19 AM

Thanks much. I guess I'll do a search for that poll then. Glad to be on this board.

Donne Demarest · #4 02-15-2003, 09:39 AM

I've found that most Southpaws play right-handed.

Ever heard of a left-handed piano?

Jason Carota · #5 02-15-2003, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Infernal Affair
I guess I'll do a search for that poll then.

Cool. The search is pretty powerful here. I use it a lot. If you want, though, just click the word "here" in my earlier post. It will bring you right to the poll.

gweimer · #6 02-17-2003, 10:25 AM

Same here. I actually thought I'd play lefty when I first picked up a bass, but found after a couple lessons that I was much more comfortable as a righty. If you think about it, depending on your style, it's really your left hand doing most of the work on the fretboard. We simply label things for convenience.

c_suders · #7 02-21-2003, 09:58 AM

i'm a lefty who plays lefty, and i wish i didn't.

when i started playing i just went out and bought a left handed bass. i learned and stuff. then about a year after i started playing i we were sitting at lunch talking and one of my friends said someting about being a lefty. i have been at his house and done the whole, try to play the righty up-side-down before and i was like what the heck. so he told me that he is lefty but someone told him when he started that he should just learn to play right handed because it wouldn't feel ackward to him anyway since he had never played. now in hindsight i wish that i had done the same, but i'm not going to go back and try to re-learn it now. it just feels too weird. i guess i will just have to pay a little extra for all my my basses forever.

Bobmouse · #8 02-24-2003, 03:58 PM

I hear you loud and clear on that one, I have been playing for nearly ten years and I wish I could play right-handed. The only up side to being a lefty is that it makes you stand out a bit, and broke.

grinnik · #9 03-07-2003, 06:51 AM

I'm a lefty too and started playing bass about one month ago.

I asked around what to do, get a lefty (expensive and harder to get) or buy a regular bass and learn to play that way.

I've never played guitar before and took the advice I got to borrow a right hand bass and practice. I did that and it worked well for me. I used it for two weeks and by then I figured out I wanted my own!

So three weeks ago I got my own bass and amp. I chose a right hand bass also because most basses are right and I want to be able to pick up a bass of someone else and jam a bit.

I got a Dean edge 4 and Ibanez SW65 amp.
I really like the matte black look on the bass!

ps. Been around TB for a couple of weeks and starting to get a hang of this! This is my first post and I think there are more to come!

Ben Mishler · #10 03-07-2003, 08:56 PM

I am not left handed, but when ever my drummer, who is left handed, gets on guitar or bass (

I won't get into that) he plays it like a right handed person would. Like you, he says that it is actually easier, and he does the fretwork with his main hand.

I think all that really matters is what you are used to doing. Since my drummers moches other instruments, and we (the guitarist and I)are both right handed, he got just used to it.

FLOYDtheBARBER · #11 03-07-2003, 09:34 PM

my lefty-friend used to just play his dad's old 70's kramer bass (aluminum neck...sweet) upside-down, with the strings reversed. it worked well enough for him. too bad, though; such a good right-handed bass being wasted on a lefty freak...(

)

Infernal Affair · #12 03-08-2003, 03:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by grinnik
I'm a lefty too and started playing bass about one month ago.

...

ps. Been around TB for a couple of weeks and starting to get a hang of this! This is my first post and I think there are more to come!

Welcome to the board, fellow lefty playing righty.