Saw something weird at a gig tonight...

**Ívar Þórólfsson** · #1 07-24-2002, 07:11 PM

I went to a gig with a band called Thirteen Http://www.thirteen.is . It´s actually a one mans band, but he has session players at gigs.

Anyways... I see the bass player coming up on the stage with a lefty Fender Jazz, Sunburst with red-tortoise pickguard. Obviously the bassplayer is lefthanded, nothing wrong here....

Then I take a closer look at the bass and I think to myself.. "damn that G string sure is big....."

Upon closer inspection I realize that he has his bass strung upside down.....

E for G
A for D
D for A
G for E

I know that Jimi Hendrix did it, but I´ve never seen a lefty bass player, with a lefty bass, playing it strunged upside down........

Life never ceases to amaze me

P.s. Great show, but I´m kinda deaf right now.....

Freakapotamus9 · #2 07-24-2002, 07:23 PM

sounds cool

i once ran into a kid at Mars that played left-handed.. he used righty guitars upsidedown.. pretty good too!

that post might be a little confusing.. oh well..

PollyBass · #3 07-24-2002, 07:50 PM

Greta Brinkman from moby plays her's like that to. I hate her bassplaying, but thats just me. Paul (The beatle) Played a bass upside down, read his interview in bass players book.

FalsehoodBass · #4 07-24-2002, 08:04 PM

my guess is that he learned to play on a normal bass, just played left handed. Then when he could finally afford his own bass, or got serious enough about it, he bought a left handed bass, but found that he was so used to playing it the other way, that he changed the strings around to the way that he had origionally learned.

But that's just my guess.

eli · #5 07-24-2002, 09:39 PM

Jimmy Haslip does indeed string his 4, 5, 6, and 7-string basses like that.

Perhaps it makes it easier for his right-handed friends to sit in...

LiquidMidnight · #6 07-25-2002, 03:40 PM

There's a local guitar player here who is left handed but plays an upside down right handed guitar, still strung the way it should be. I guess he does like a bunch of these wierd upstrokes and such. I heard he's a good guitarist.

If Jeff Healey can play in standard tuning, Blind, and with the guitar on his lap, like a steel, I guess anything's possible.

The Mock Turtle Regulator · #7 07-25-2002, 03:54 PM

the bass player/singer of UK band The Doves (also Sub Sub in the 90's) Jimi Goodwin plays a right-handed P bass upside down.

on Sub Sub's single "ain't no love" there's a bit of slap and pop, which intrigued me with the strings being strung the other way.....

Brad Barker · #8 07-25-2002, 08:20 PM

slap with fingers, pop with thumb...

my friend's dad told me about a bass player of his who did that.

sobie18 · #9 07-25-2002, 11:00 PM

Keith Horne.....Jimmy Haslip....

sweetpea · #10 07-26-2002, 07:48 AM

hmmm, I wonder if it's easier to play that way. You know... for lefties... hmmm.....kinda interesting

**Ívar Þórólfsson** · #11 07-26-2002, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sweetpea
hmmm, I wonder if it's easier to play that way. You know... for lefties... hmmm.....kinda interesting

Might be, he is primarily a pick player so his hand was in a very comfortable position down there...He used mainly the E and A strings.

But I guess slap&pop is a hard thing to do with the bass strung like this.

Fetch Da bass · #12 07-29-2002, 02:28 PM

I think some people call it upside down and backwards!!!!!!! I am a lefty but play righty...I wish I had played lefty from the beginning.

I saw a guy in Portland OR that played the bass like this...He could pop and slap it like a mutherfunker!!!!!

Ryan Berry · #13 07-29-2002, 02:32 PM

I could be wrong, but i think Jimi Hendrix restrungs the strings to be the normal way.