Any leftys playing upside down righties?
 

Anybody playing Hendrix style? I've having a hard time finding a simple/cheap/dependable P bass copy, and was thinking of just getting a right handed one. If I were to do this, would the balance be pretty bad? Anybody have experience with that?

You mean like Keith Horne and Jimmy Haslip, for two examples?

How about rightys who play upsidedown leftys? I have not done it yet, but love the look of a long horn on the bottom. Also, the knobs and switched will be on top, usually where your hand/fore arm lays against the body.

Short horn on top will throw the whole thing forward on you, which is less that optimum, but there are worse basses out there with no horn at all (i.e.Thunderbird, Iceman)...

I know a lefty bro that uses one of the Schecter models, which has the same horn length top and bottom. He truely plays upsidedown. If that is what you are intending, great. Otherwise if you are looking to flip the strings too, then you are looking at flipping the nut and possibly flipping the bridge saddles

My dad is a lefty guitar player with an old lefty acoustic guitar. Before i got my bass, i used to play that, so when i got a righty bass, it was a bit weird, but now I'm used to the bass. and i was showing my dad the bass, but he was playing like a lefty.

:rolleyes:

I know someone who does, upside down, anyway! :bassist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aSpUMZp3Ow

BTW, here is a photo of Mark's bass, that he modded and painted, himself.

Photo © Jeffrey P. Scott 2007 All rights reserved

Funny you should mention "Hendrix style!"

Fender (CBS) offered Jimi a left handed Strat, and after trying it, he preferred the "upside-down" guitar... His particular preferences were increased tension on the "fat" E string, and decreased tension on the "high" E string...

So, a lefty body with righty neck would have been Jimi Hendrix's preferred experience! Haha!!

I do know a lefty bassist that can play any righty bass better than most righties.

That is a very interesting vid. I cant figure out that bass though. Right hand neck on a left hand body, from a traditionally neck-thru build.....I'm still trying to figure that out....

However, my story of how I became a Rickenbacker fan (we are talking 30 years ago), is that I was first an Iceman fan, but noticed that a Rick looked like an upsidown Iceman.....so back then, when Rick's were $475 new, the deal was done....

Wow...upsidown Rick.....the ultimate...

I have a thunderbird that I play upside-down. It's strung lefty but I had to have a bone nut made to replace the righty one. I find the thunderbird balances great flipped over. No neck dive issues for me. I'd get another one but I have to have the ebony fingerboard. It looks like they make them all with rosewood these days. I could be wrong on that though. I love T-birds with the exception of the headstock issues they all seem to have. Recommended if you find one for a good price.

That was standard practice on Ricks up to fairly recently, actually. The neck blanks were the same as righty basses but with the body wings reversed. Check out Macca's, for another, more famous example.

I still play my rightys flipped over live every now and then just for a novelty to make people say WT*, I can play normal strings or inverted like Haslip+Schmidt either way.

It gets the musicians in the audience to come afterwards and say the typical "how can you do that" I tell them the logical answer.... the strings and frets are in the same place, it is your brain that puts your finger on each to produce a note.

I always felt that if I needed a righty in a pinch, it would be no problem, just pick it up and play it, and when I go and sell a righty I don't have to change anything, just box it up and ship it.

Like this?



I flipped over this and my fretless Warwick, and both play great. My other basses are true lefties though. It doesn't make much of a difference to me.

I play most of my basses that way, the balance can be a challenge.

Depends on the bass. My first was a righty P-bass that I played upside down, but the balance was horrendous and I would not recommend it. One of my current basses is a righty Gibson Flying V, which works great because the body is exactly symmetrical.

I do, however, find that I often need to move or remove knobs because they get in the way.

That's why Macca bought a Höfner 500/1.

Dude, no need to play upside down n back 2 front, there r plenty of cheap, reliable P copies in true lefty shape & stringing, it's as basic as a bass copy can be. Squiers can b had used 4 $100-150, MIM Fenders 4 around double that & SX, Aria, Fernandes n about a gazillion others r on eBay.Just google lefty P bass copy n ur prayers r answered!

I have the best bass for this, a Killer Simmony.





I'm now also putting together a righty parts Precision for myself.

my guitarist does it hes lefty but just takes a standard right handed guitar moves the strap pegs so he can play it upside-down and plays. We tune to drop d so that makes it easier too.