Fender left handed basses

[Gonzalo Sanchez]

I'm tired of wanting a bass just to find out it's not offered in left handed models. It's just BS.

Let's say I want a Duff McKagan model. What is stopping fender from offering one? They make left handed p bodies. They make left handed jazz necks. Left handed Hipshot tuners are available. All they have to do is assemble it.....

Even with the meteora bass which is another bass i would consider. Is it really that hard to mirror the template and have a left handed version? They did it for the guitar, why not the bass??

It's BS. And not just Fender. They just prob have the volume to warrant it and have the basses i want. I'm sure all companies do the same :/

 

[Baker69]

Us lefties have and always will suffer as a minority, there is definitely a market for left handed instruments, Fender should take a leaf out of Sire’s book for lefty availability, most models I believe are available left handed and for NO additional cost! I remember my first Fender P Bass, I had to pay 10% extra for the privilege of buying a left handed version.

Also with Fender they tend to only offer us lefties with basses in Black, White or Sunburst finish? I think very lately a couple of additional colours have been thrown in to the mix.

Then there is the subject of left handed necks on Fender basses, we are often restricted on maple options.

 

[Gonzalo Sanchez]

I'm not against paying a 10% tax to be honest as long as we have access to 100% of the catalog. Even if they add a delivery delay, so they build on demand.

I didn't realize about necks, but I see that could be annoying. I generally prefer maple necks in general.

 

[Baker69]

I'm not against paying a 10% tax to be honest as long as we have access to 100% of the catalog. Even if they add a delivery delay, so they build on demand.

I didn't realize about necks, but I see that could be annoying. I generally prefer maple necks in general.

Yes, on right handed Fender models you can generally have any model & colour with either a rosewood or maple fingerboard. On left hand models it is one or the other depending on the body colour.

As an example, you can have a right handed player p bass in white with a maple neck/fingerboard, the same bass in left hand is available with a Pau Ferro fingerboard only.

 

[wolfkeller]

Tell ya what, I gave up a LOONG time ago. I usually look for a platform for what I actually want and do it myself. I did this with many squier basses because I absolutely have to have a PJ. I wanted a newer Duff model, did it myself. Still have to paint the neck. Also, this other one was a kramer.

 

[Baker69]

I like maple fingerboards, I have a very nice Crafted In Japan Fender P Bass in tobacco sunburst with a maple board, Fender USA lefty P Basses only come with rosewood (or Pau Ferro) boards.

So, why can Fender Japan offer more lefty options and not USA?

 

[Baker69]

Tell ya what, I gave up a LOONG time ago. I usually look for a platform for what I actually want and do it myself. I did this with many squier basses because I absolutely have to have a PJ. I wanted a newer Duff model, did it myself. Still have to paint the neck. Also, this other one was a kramer. View attachment 5041377 View attachment 5041378

If you like PJ basses why not try a Sire?

 

[wolfkeller]

Haven't seen one that caught my eye

 

[lefty1979]

I've talked to a few different builders and manufacturers about this. For a manufacturer that's set up for large volume runs (like Fender) it's actually more expensive/more difficult to offer production lefties. They have to essentially stop production, retool for lefty production, make the bodies, necks, etc., stop production again, reconfigure for their "normal" right handed production, and resume operations. All that stopping and starting costs money. And you better hope the instrument you want doesn't need a special part like a bridge or something made in left handed orientation. The R&D and tooling costs to make one could run into the hundreds of thousands. That's the reason Parker guitars never made a lefty Fly. They needed to make a lefty bridge, and they couldn't get enough committed orders to recoup the costs involved.

As far as options, Lefties have a bad habit of asking for everything under the sun and then not buying it once its available, so manufacturers offer limited options that will (hopefully) appeal to the vast majority of buyers. Paul Reed Smith stopped making lefties for years because after finally listening to their potential lefty customers and making more guitars available, all they got in exchange was a bunch of complaints about how they didn't make the right options available. The relatively small possible sales bump wasn't worth the headache for them.

Sterling Ball once told me that Music Man actually lost money on every lefty sold. At first I thought he was full of it, but after talking to more builders and seeing the economics involved, I get it.

 

[FRoss6788]

Where can I find a left handed piano?

 

[lug]

Where can I find a left handed piano?

 

[Gonzalo Sanchez]

I've talked to a few different builders and manufacturers about this. For a manufacturer that's set up for large volume runs (like Fender) it's actually more expensive/more difficult to offer production lefties. They have to essentially stop production, retool for lefty production, make the bodies, necks, etc., stop production again, reconfigure for their "normal" right handed production, and resume operations. All that stopping and starting costs money. And you better hope the instrument you want doesn't need a special part like a bridge or something made in left handed orientation. The R&D and tooling costs to make one could run into the hundreds of thousands. That's the reason Parker guitars never made a lefty Fly. They needed to make a lefty bridge, and they couldn't get enough committed orders to recoup the costs involved.

As far as options, Lefties have a bad habit of asking for everything under the sun and then not buying it once its available, so manufacturers offer limited options that will (hopefully) appeal to the vast majority of buyers. Paul Reed Smith stopped making lefties for years because after finally listening to their potential lefty customers and making more guitars available, all they got in exchange was a bunch of complaints about how they didn't make the right options available. The relatively small possible sales bump wasn't worth the headache for them.

Sterling Ball once told me that Music Man actually lost money on every lefty sold. At first I thought he was full of it, but after talking to more builders and seeing the economics involved, I get it.

If we are talking of tooling, at least for fender bases, they already make these bodies and necks in lefties. They don't have to retool for lefties. If they make an American standard pj bass for lefties, then making something like a Duff McKagan bass should not be that hard. It's just a matter of getting a white p bass body, match it with a jazz neck and put the duff electronics to it. I can't see how that is any excuse. That's fine, at the end of the day it's capitalism at its finest, and they know if I want a fender p bass I'll buy whatever is available in the end. It just amazes me that these companies have difficulties capitalizing on the lefty market. It's not that uncommon to be lefty. Is it 1 of 5 or so are lefties?

 

[FRoss6788]

A lot of players who are left handed play instruments that are right handed.

 

[Beej]

If we are talking of tooling, at least for fender bases, they already make these bodies and necks in lefties. They don't have to retool for lefties. If they make an American standard pj bass for lefties, then making something like a Duff McKagan bass should not be that hard. It's just a matter of getting a white p bass body, match it with a jazz neck and put the duff electronics to it. I can't see how that is any excuse. That's fine, at the end of the day it's capitalism at its finest, and they know if I want a fender p bass I'll buy whatever is available in the end. It just amazes me that these companies have difficulties capitalizing on the lefty market. It's not that uncommon to be lefty. Is it 1 of 5 or so are lefties?

About 9.6% of adults report left hand dominance, so it's not a huge number of people. Basses account for a much smaller market share compared to guitars. In the past, the idea of creating a great product and marketing that product to a large number of people was the goal.

In the last 40 years, it has moved to "marketing a product to a large number of people" and the "creating a great product" has become much less relevant. Just the basic math demonstrates that it's not good big-business practice to take on extra costs to market to a small consumer niche. The companies/people that do it are catering to them specifically, and you're not likely to see the really big 'profit before all else' business models take that on. It doesn't make business sense.

In my case, I'm a very small builder producing a couple of dozen instruments per year. It's literally no difference to my workflow to make it right or left handed, as everything is hand built using templates, and it's easy enough to flip the template over to make a lefty. Not the case with a large manufacturer, especially when the consumer wants variety.

A tiny footnote - to date I've built around 350 instruments total. In the last 20 years, I have never, not once, been asked to build a lefty. I have built a few for the experience and to put a few out there, but they have all taken forever to sell, and ended up selling for much less than my righties. I'm also a regularly playing musician and have been for many years and I also run across very few lefty players. Of those who play left, I can also estimate that about half of those have been playing right handed instruments strung right handed, but played upside down. This is just one person's observations.

 

[mikeswals]

If we are talking of tooling, at least for fender bases, they already make these bodies and necks in lefties. They don't have to retool for lefties. If they make an American standard pj bass for lefties, then making something like a Duff McKagan bass should not be that hard.

The Duff isn't even made in the same country as the Am Std. So that means retooling would have to stop at another factory to re-set. That factory is there to pump out zerox copies.
Then, they'd have to train the crew to build and actually set up both ways...they barely have any QC as it is, let alone these non-musician assembly line workers would need to be conscious about how this difference really even works.