BurningSkies said:
I play with a lefty drummer who acts like the house drumset in my studio is the biggest inconvenience in world.
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Charging more for left handed models.
- Thread starter Ian the bassist
- Start date
I play with a lefty drummer who acts like the house drumset in my studio is the biggest inconvenience in world.
BurningSkies
CRAZY BALDHEAD
- Feb 20, 2005
- 27,956
- 20,350
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Dingwall Guitars
Our drummer played with us for two or three weeks as a righty before we knew he was lefty. He was good, but things just a little off in a weird way. We knew he was good, but there was just something that wasn't comfortable.
Then one night, half way through a song, he stopped and 'adjusted' to lefty with our kit. And our jaws dropped as all of a sudden there was this massive solid roots groove that was just monstrous and primal and 'right'.
When we all finished playing and said ***? He said that he'd been playing righty because that's how the kit was set up and he didn't want to be an imposition in moving it.
Anecdotally, there are too many examples of the conventional logic being defied. It may just come down to ability. Some people can't play with either hand...or can they? It's also a question of desire and willpower.
Also, absent from the discussion is the dominant eye. I imagine the fretting hand gets looked after more than the pick hand. Why wouldn't it benefit from the proximity to the dominant eye?
And to sort of be back on topic: Any luthier worth their salt should be able to make a lefty or righty without sweating over it. The extra charge is somewhere between a hostage fee(where else are you gonna go?) and insecurity insurance(that it won't sell as quickly as a righty).
I'm going to stop now, I'm starting to feel like a troll from all this debate.
Also, absent from the discussion is the dominant eye. I imagine the fretting hand gets looked after more than the pick hand. Why wouldn't it benefit from the proximity to the dominant eye?
And to sort of be back on topic: Any luthier worth their salt should be able to make a lefty or righty without sweating over it. The extra charge is somewhere between a hostage fee(where else are you gonna go?) and insecurity insurance(that it won't sell as quickly as a righty).
I'm going to stop now, I'm starting to feel like a troll from all this debate.
It's insane that this entire thread turned into a debate about why people learn left handed. This thread is supposed to be about 1 company and how much of an over charge it has for it's lefty models. 15% is understandable if the bass is in a normal price range. But 15% on an extremely high end expensive bass is insane.
The rest of these arguments are just pointless. I learned lefty because it felt natural. I honestly feel if I had have learnt righty, I would not be NEARLY as good as I am today. All my rhythm comes from my left hand. My right hand is basically a fast moving capo. (with the occasional off beat for some slap). Some lefties are better adapted as they do other things right handed. All lefties are not the same. It's like the fact that I can't do ANYTHING right handed(except maybe the use of a computer mouse) Scissors, can openers, guitars, drums etc. I all use lefty. But my brother who is also left handed can do certain things right handed like the scissors for example. But I can't.
Anyway I feel right handed players have no right to say we are being stupid for learning left handed, as if we told them to try anything that involves precise movements left handed, they would not be able to do it. Just as we are not able to do it right handed. I remember being able to play a right handed bass very well, upside down. And when I handed a righty my bass, they just could not play it, even upside down.
Anyway this thread should just be locked by the mods. It has turned into a troll thread. Which was not my intention. And all of the posts are now off topic
The rest of these arguments are just pointless. I learned lefty because it felt natural. I honestly feel if I had have learnt righty, I would not be NEARLY as good as I am today. All my rhythm comes from my left hand. My right hand is basically a fast moving capo. (with the occasional off beat for some slap). Some lefties are better adapted as they do other things right handed. All lefties are not the same. It's like the fact that I can't do ANYTHING right handed(except maybe the use of a computer mouse) Scissors, can openers, guitars, drums etc. I all use lefty. But my brother who is also left handed can do certain things right handed like the scissors for example. But I can't.
Anyway I feel right handed players have no right to say we are being stupid for learning left handed, as if we told them to try anything that involves precise movements left handed, they would not be able to do it. Just as we are not able to do it right handed. I remember being able to play a right handed bass very well, upside down. And when I handed a righty my bass, they just could not play it, even upside down.
Anyway this thread should just be locked by the mods. It has turned into a troll thread. Which was not my intention. And all of the posts are now off topic
You're not at all, but as for some others . . .
Basic principles at work here:
1. Sellers can charge whatever they want
2. buyers can choose to buy or not
3. There is no accounting for taste
Personally I like being lefty partly because it's unusual and therefore harder to find instruments (although much easier now than it was when I started playing in the 70s). When you find a cool lefty bass it's all the sweeter because it's rare.
This. The very first bass I picked up was a borrowed righty, and I struggled with it for about a month, learning a few tunes and scales. But it felt really strange for my plucking hand, and it didn't get any easier as I practiced. Then, on a whimsical suggestion from a girlfriend ("go buy yourself a bass for your birthday") I went to Guitar Center and scooped up a lefty Jazz. I couldn't believe how much more natural it felt for my left hand. Now, it took considerably longer for my right hand to start feeling comfortable, so I'll agree that fretting could have been just as easy (or hard!) for me with my left hand. But the articulation and timing of the plucking hand only felt comfortable to me on a lefty.
As for the original topic, I just wish certain basses were even *available* in lefty -- Status Stealth or Streamline for instance. I even wrote to Status begging for a lefty; their answer was "Never say never". Hope springs eternal. I may have to learn luthiery.
9 years ago I went to college and I had to learn DB ... right handed when I played EB for 4 years lefty. Strangely I got the bow motion very fast but the fingerboard was a pain. So I did on session like that and switched to EB as my primary instrument ( playing jazz ) and didn't bother anymore with DB as it was so frustrating ... because I knew I could play more complex music and all but couldn't do it right handed.
One year ago I saw a NS Design NXT for sale and I wanted it ( was a lot into classical music on my fretless ). After one week well I bought it. Tried playing it righty for a few months but got very frustrated again ... so I converted it for lefty. Way easier to play, I don,t have a probem playing jazz but I still have a long way to go with bowing.
all that rambling to say that it is way easier to do the rythm, have finess, dynmanics, articulation with your dominant hand and stare and put the effort on your weak hand.
I would be in trouble if EBMM make a lefty Bongo 6 ... in one way it is a good thing, I don't GAS for basses, I had only one bass for a very long time and I played everything with it.
Heh. I've always been tempted to answer the question "How do I cure my GAS?" with "be a lefty."
Most of the basses that I currently love, and wantt desperately, are available in lefty.
Maybe I just haven't heard that many 
But Rickenbacker, Musicman stingray, Warwick and fodera are all available. Ric's and stingray's are a hard find though, and fodera are just a dream really at that price. hahaLike anything else involving buyers and sellers, the best thing you can do is to vote with your dollars. As a very, very left-handed person, companies who treat me as more than a afterthought are the ones who get my cash and my word-of-mouth support. That's really all an individual can realistically do.
I personally consider a 15% upcharge on a $10,000 custom bass for a lefty option to be untenable. But Fodera has every right to do it, and they're certainly not hurting for orders. So, good luck to them, they don't need my business by any means. (I'd apply the same reasoning to any other custom builder who does the same thing, not trying to pick on Fodera.)
Secondly, there seems to be some highly concentrated areas of arrogance+ignorance in this thread. Rather than rant, I'll respond by quoting a post I made a while back in response to another lefty. Take it for what you will.
I personally consider a 15% upcharge on a $10,000 custom bass for a lefty option to be untenable. But Fodera has every right to do it, and they're certainly not hurting for orders. So, good luck to them, they don't need my business by any means. (I'd apply the same reasoning to any other custom builder who does the same thing, not trying to pick on Fodera.)
Secondly, there seems to be some highly concentrated areas of arrogance+ignorance in this thread. Rather than rant, I'll respond by quoting a post I made a while back in response to another lefty. Take it for what you will.
pkstone said:
+1 to this. My church bought a righty Ibanez as the church bass for me to learn on so that our other bassist, who is right handed, could use it as well. I tried every day for two months to learn righty. I flipped it over and within two days was where I was at righty on a left handed bass, and have never looked back.
Also, to get back to the original topic of an upcharge for Lefties, I don't buy it in every case, especially where the company makes Lefties already. For example, I have been begging fender to change
Its lefty American standard options to include colors other than black and sunburst, and to include a maple board. I don't think this will add to their incremental cost at all. They could discontinue a run of black or sunburst and replace
With a white, lake placid blue, or CAR with no real additional cost.
My communications with them have left me little reason to think though
They will do this. I imagine it is because they dont think these would sell
Its lefty American standard options to include colors other than black and sunburst, and to include a maple board. I don't think this will add to their incremental cost at all. They could discontinue a run of black or sunburst and replace
With a white, lake placid blue, or CAR with no real additional cost.
My communications with them have left me little reason to think though
They will do this. I imagine it is because they dont think these would sell
Another refutation to the "get over it" camp occurred to me this morning. Why, if there is no strong inbuilt preference for which hand picks/strums/bows, have we ended up with one essentially universal design for string instruments, set up so that the right hand does the picking/strumming/bowing?
If dominant-hand picking/etc. were not so ingrained, I think we'd see many more "lefty" instruments and players than we do currently. At the very least, by the law of large numbers, there should be quite a few right-handers playing lefty with upside down strings (because they accidentally learned that way).
I think the rhythm and phrasing comes mostly from picking/strumming/bowing, and that's why it feels right to have the dominant hand take care of that task.
I'm not trying to take anything away from leftys who learned to play righty. It's cool that you have a whole world of basses to choose from. But I do think its ignorant to say that leftys are just being "rebels" (???), or worse, lazy for not learning to play right-handed.
So all drummers should only play with their dominant hand, and their other hand can do...
what?
Makes no sense AT ALL.
Unless you have brain damage, this whole discussion is ridiculous.
Or maybe half wits,, let me re-read this thread to see who falls into what camp.
what?
Makes no sense AT ALL.
Unless you have brain damage, this whole discussion is ridiculous.
Or maybe half wits,, let me re-read this thread to see who falls into what camp.
Thanks for your reasoned response.
While you're re-reading the thread, notice the several mentions of handedness among drummers. The dominant hand *drives* the rhythm; it's not the only part of it, and I never said that it was.
Edit: I mean to say it's my hypothesis that the dominant hand is more comfortable driving the rhythm. I hope that's more clear.
He means that your dominant hand keeps the time, while the other hits the offbeats. I thought that was rather obvious.
