Charging more for left handed models.

[carl h.]

This hased to be one of the most ignorant posts ive read in a while. You do realise a left handed person feels "natural" fretting with there right hand, as a right handed person feels "natural" fretting with there left hand. It has nothing to do with placebo like you claim, but how people are just wired.

no

 

[XC077]

This hased to be one of the most ignorant posts ive read in a while. You do realise a left handed person feels "natural" fretting with there right hand, as a right handed person feels "natural" fretting with there left hand. It has nothing to do with placebo like you claim, but how people are just wired.

Did you mean to say that most 'righties' are actually playing left, cause that's what it sounds like.

People adapt. The luxury to do 'what feels right' instrument-wise is hardly ever offered. People make do often because that's all there is and often simply out of reverence for the instrument(it's right-handed and that's how it was meant to be played.) I make my own instruments and have come to learn how many musicians are mystified by theirs own tools. The thought of stringing an instrument upside down may never enter the picture.

As I mentioned, I played right-handed for 2 years before I got a left-handed instrument. I did many things righted hand because of the constraint of what was available.

When I switched to left-handed it wasn't like 'Ah, now all is as it should be.' It was just as weird and disorienting as it was the first time around.

My 2 cents on the cost of left handed instruments being more is just the leverage they have to do it. It doesn't take more material. Unless some weird asymmetry is going on in the design, it just isn't that big a deal, less so if a CNC is used. It's mainly the headstock and the body's orientation(which is neutral until you make the first route.) Not a big deal.

 

[TheOnlyJuan]

You just did what i suggested to my friend...didn't you? It's not as though the fine motor skills required to play guitar are built in from the start. Guitar feels awkward for a while, whichever way you play it. Honestly, righties are the one's doing it wrong IMHO lefties should be grateful they use their dominant hand for fretting. I truly believe the only reason someone would start playing lefty is because that's what the guitar is claimed to be: a guitar for lefties. In reality, i don't believe that's the case.

I echo those words. I would rather fret with my left any day of the week and I believe said the very words you've posted with learning to play the bass/guitar being uncomfortable when you first start. Starting position is alone enough to make anyone fidgety. I think that lefties who play righty have the advantage here...and I don't think I am wrong.

 

[paste]

no

yes

 

[paste]

Did you mean to say that most 'righties' are actually playing left, cause that's what it sounds like.

People adapt. The luxury to do 'what feels right' instrument-wise is hardly ever offered. People make do often because that's all there is and often simply out of reverence for the instrument(it's right-handed and that's how it was meant to be played.) I make my own instruments and have come to learn how many musicians are mystified by theirs own tools. The thought of stringing an instrument upside down may never enter the picture.

As I mentioned, I played right-handed for 2 years before I got a left-handed instrument. I did many things righted hand because of the constraint of what was available.

When I switched to left-handed it wasn't like 'Ah, now all is as it should be.' It was just as weird and disorienting as it was the first time around.

My 2 cents on the cost of left handed instruments being more is just the leverage they have to do it. It doesn't take more material. Unless some weird asymmetry is going on in the design, it just isn't that big a deal, less so if a CNC is used. It's mainly the headstock and the body's orientation(which is neutral until you make the first route.) Not a big deal.

No. What I said was it feels "natural" for righties to fret with there left hand so about 99% of righties fret with left hand. As the same goes for lefties, but like many have mentioned, have been coerced into playing what's unnatural to them.

 

[carl h.]

yes

My daughter is left handed and decided to play guitar. She has picked it up the standard way on her own. She has had lessons for 3 months now and is near the end of book 2 (she is 8). She is ripping it up and doing weekly jam sessions. I see playing a standard guitar as no hindrance to her natural ability.


no

 

[paste]

My daughter is left handed and decided to play guitar. She has picked it up the standard way on her own. She has had lessons for 3 months now and is near the end of book 2 (she is 8). She is ripping it up and doing weekly jam sessions. I see playing a standard guitar as no hindrance to her natural ability.


no

Good for her. Mabe she's an ambidextrous? Also you mentioned that she is currently getting lesson's meaning someone is teaching her. Mabe she was coerced to playing that way from the teacher, like many other dominant lefties out there.

 

[carl h.]

I gave her a cheap guitar from a hardware store a couple years back and let her go at it on her own. The thing was unplayable, but I bought it as a toy, not a real guitar. She picked it up on her own and decided that she would hold it that way. NO coercion involved.

Her teacher is very proud of her.

 

[Immigrant]

I saw an armless guy playing a guitar with his feet on TV once.

"What's wrong with you!?!"- Dr. Phil

 

[paste]

I saw an armless guy playing a guitar with his feet on TV once.

"What's wrong with you!?!"- Dr. Phil

lol this guys better than me, and ive got all my limbs

 

[Just Thumpin']

Well I am glad that you laid that to rest. I will let all the guys in our shop that do find it more difficult and time consuming to work on left-handed instruments (including Vinny and Vadym who have both been carving for over 40 years each) that it's a figment of their imaginations.

J

About the 15% overcharge for a lefty, when you use tuners like the ones in Fodera, they are not left or right tuner, so they cost the same. And if you are using CNC for the woodwork, no extra cost in mirroring the tool path. If you do it by hand like me, there is no difficulty in mirroring a template. I think in the case of boutique basses, the lefty overcharge must have other causes, it has nothing to do with production issues.

 

[Big B.]

Well I am glad that you laid that to rest. I will let all the guys in our shop that do find it more difficult and time consuming to work on left-handed instruments (including Vinny and Vadym who have both been carving for over 40 years each) that it's a figment of their imaginations.

J

Nice post. I'm curious that tuners would be brought into the discission. Anybody who has seen a Fodera bass knows that you guys use bass and treble side tuners regularly so that is a moot point. I dont know if you guys use a cnc or not but I have seen and played enough of your instruments to see that the neck profiles can be drastically different, obviously suited individually to the buyer, and it seems you offer some leeway in the carving of your bodies as well. Those custom profiles are obviously carved by hand and are time consuming. I noticed you mentioned earlier that your bridges are designed to be right handed and found that interesting as most bridges could be used both ways. Is it a spacing issue? If you are doing edge to edge spacing as opposed to center to center spacing that would make sense. To say a jig is automatically reversible is simply not true. Some are and some arent. Some of mine could be flipped but some would require making a new left handed version and then using up space to store it. All that being said out of the 5 or 6 Foderas I've played, some I loved and some I didnt, the craftsmanship on each one was as close to perfection as one could hope to attain and that kind of work is where the price of your instruments is validated.

I looked at that poster's website and he actually makes some fine looking basses that clearly require some hand carving so I am surprised that he doesnt understand the nature of a custom instrument. I have to wonder if it's simply an attempt to take a stab at your company.

 

[Just Thumpin']

Thanks for your post. About the bridge...the folks that make them for us set them up for a "normal," righty instrument. When we use one on a lefty instrument we need to take all of the saddles and intonation screws out and reverse them. Certainly NOT a huge deal...but not as simple as building a righty instrument either.

Regards,

J

Nice post. I'm curious that tuners would be brought into the discission. Anybody who has seen a Fodera bass knows that you guys use bass and treble side tuners regularly so that is a moot point. I dont know if you guys use a cnc or not but I have seen and played enough of your instruments to see that the neck profiles can be drastically different, obviously suited individually to the buyer, and it seems you offer some leeway in the carving of your bodies as well. Those custom profiles are obviously carved by hand and are time consuming. I noticed you mentioned earlier that your bridges are designed to be right handed and found that interesting as most bridges could be used both ways. Is it a spacing issue? If you are doing edge to edge spacing as opposed to center to center spacing that would make sense. To say a jig is automatically reversible is simply not true. Some are and some arent. Some of mine could be flipped but some would require making a new left handed version and then using up space to store it. All that being said out of the 5 or 6 Foderas I've played, some I loved and some I didnt, the craftsmanship on each one was as close to perfection as one could hope to attain and that kind of work is where the price of your instruments is validated.

I looked at that poster's website and he actually makes some fine looking basses that clearly require some hand carving so I am surprised that he doesnt understand the nature of a custom instrument. I have to wonder if it's simply an attempt to take a stab at your company.

 

[coyote1]

It's conversations like this that make me glad my parents and older brother forced me to play right handed when I naturally gravitated toward left handed Well, all you can do is look for someone who won't charge extra for a lefty bass. But even small shops can't just flip their stuff over and make you a lefty. I'm sure they have to have two sets of custom jigs and stuff to do it, and the market just plain isn't there to make it pay for itself like the righty models do. So it affects all builders, not just factories.

That's correct. Stringed instruments in general don't seem to draw too many lefties... or more precisely, most lefties see no problem using their primary hand as their fingerboard hand. I'm lefty, and I was kinda surprised that righties would use their weak hand to do most of the work on a guitar or viol! For me, it was entirely natural to play righty.

Now drummers, they tend to not be so flexible. And there are many lefties. So there's an entire parallel industry, making lefty drumsets and lefty drumsticks, lefty cymbals.... baseball has the same thing going on, and beside the gloves has to order up masses of lefty bats.

 

[Big B.]

That's correct. Stringed instruments in general don't seem to draw too many lefties... or more precisely, most lefties see no problem using their primary hand as their fingerboard hand. I'm lefty, and I was kinda surprised that righties would use their weak hand to do most of the work on a guitar or viol! For me, it was entirely natural to play righty.

Now drummers, they tend to not be so flexible. And there are many lefties. So there's an entire parallel industry, making lefty drumsets and lefty drumsticks, lefty cymbals.... baseball has the same thing going on, and beside the gloves has to order up masses of lefty bats.

In regards to bowed instruments being right handed there is a good reason. The technique and delicate inflection that is required to have orchestral level bow chops is far more demanding than the fingerboard hand. I would say 60 - 75% of my orchestral practicing is spent working on the bow and not the left hand. Also on electric bass, which I learned to play first, my left hand (as a right handed player) has always been solid and required less work than my right hand. For me good articulation makes the left hand's job much easier. Of course good fretting technique makes articulation more clear as well but for me personally I have found that my articulating hand requires more practice. I've also noticed my articulating hand suffers far more from lack of playing/practicing time than my fretting hand does.

 

[Chasarms]

In regards to bowed instruments being right handed there is a good reason. The technique and delicate inflection that is required to have orchestral level bow chops is far more demanding than the fingerboard hand. I would say 60 - 75% of my orchestral practicing is spent working on the bow and not the left hand. Also on electric bass, which I learned to play first, my left hand (as a right handed player) has always been solid and required less work than my right hand. For me good articulation makes the left hand's job much easier. Of course good fretting technique makes articulation more clear as well but for me personally I have found that my articulating hand requires more practice. I've also noticed my articulating hand suffers far more from lack of playing/practicing time than my fretting hand does.

As a left-handed, right-handed playing bassist who plays DB, I would agree with this absolutely. The bow is quite a challenge for me.

As for the up-charge thing that the OP posted, it is almost certainly as simple as this.

You are correct that the materials are not significantly higher, but even Roger Sadowsky has stated that he would have to buy more left-handed pots than he would ever use. So, he just uses righties, and they twist "backwards."

But, the truth is, many people who are busy and have a good business like routine. To some degree, it is at least a hassle to build a left-handed bass. If you don't really need the business, charge extra for the hassle. If the buyer doesn't want to pay it, it's fine because the builder would rather move on to the next rightie on the list anyway.

It happens all the time in all sorts of service industries. If it is something you don't really want to do, quote a high price. If they say "yes" anyway, it suddenly becomes worth it.

Of course if you need the business, things are different.

 

[XC077]

What basis is there for a 'natural' hand of either fretting/chording or plucking/strumming. All very different acts.

There is nothing natural about musical instruments. The dimensions, number of strings etc, string power, air , bowing, hammering...it's all arbitrary.

All just a method of making sound.

Both hands are are required a high level of proficiency.

The inclination to play one way or the other may be linked to what you did before you first picked up the instrument. Something may have inadvertently groomed your hands to their tasks.

Handedness starts to mean less and less to me as this discussion continues.

 

[johnk_10]

Now drummers, they tend to not be so flexible. And there are many lefties. So there's an entire parallel industry, making lefty drumsets and lefty drumsticks, lefty cymbals.... baseball has the same thing going on, and beside the gloves has to order up masses of lefty bats.

am i missing something? how are lefty drumsticks, cymbals and baseball bats any different than right handed ones?

the only thing that i can see different on a lefty drumset is if it has a bass drum mounted tom-tom. IME, everything else is the same just set up mirror imaged.

 

[BurningSkies]

am i missing something? how are lefty drumsticks, cymbals and baseball bats any different than right handed ones?

the only thing that i can see different on a lefty drumset is if it has a bass drum mounted tom-tom. IME, everything else is the same just set up mirror imaged.

Don't tell our lefty drummer there's lefty drum hardware. He's blissfully happy using drum stuff for righties, set up in reverse.

 

[amimbari]

this thread has gone hog-wild off topic battling back and forth about the lefty-righty thing. It started out fine with different price points of building a lefty, what is involved, and totally turned into a lefty-righty battle AGAIN.

time to change yet another thread title to:
"lefty's have too many disadvantages/become a righty and all your troubles go away" thread.