Double Bass Left-handed upright bass

[Jazzdogg]

I inherited Pop's double bass when he passed. He was left-handed, and his bass is also left-handed, with the bass bar and sound post installed opposite of a right-handed double bass.

I inquired about having it set up as a right-handed instrument so I could play it, but the cost was prohibitive.

 

[mikeGJ]

Did Paul McCartney rebuild Bill Black's (Elvis) bass, or was it already lefty?

Here's a clip of Maca playing "Heartbreak Hotel" on the "Elvis" bass. Bill Black was right handed, as was the bass.

This clip shows Maca playing it "lefty".

Rebuilt to lefty, for sure, unless they used some mirrors for this video.

 

[turf3]

Looks to me like it's strung standard and he's playing backwards. You know Paul McCartney can do that.

Has anyone seen evidence of McCartney ever seriously playing an upright? Playing a minute of bass line to show off a historic instrument doesn't count. I mean on the gig, or in the studio.

 

[mikeGJ]

Looks to me like it's strung standard and he's playing backwards. You know Paul McCartney can do that.

Has anyone seen evidence of McCartney ever seriously playing an upright? Playing a minute of bass line to show off a historic instrument doesn't count. I mean on the gig, or in the studio.

So, mirrors, after all. I've never seen more than this clip, either.

 

[Jeff Kissell]

As a leftie who plays "right handed" or should I say traditional, I've never understood the intensity of this discussion/argument. As others have stated, the instruments are not inherently "handed." There's nothing special about you or your "handedness" that requires that I agree with your decision to insist on playing an instrument "left handed."
Happy International Left Handers Day everyone!

 

[lermgalieu]

I still fail to see the point.

It's easy to understand right-handed tennis players holding the racket in their right hand, or right-handed carpenters holding a hammer in their right hand. But most musical instruments are two-handed and each hand has challenges. It seems to me that fingering is just as hard as plucking or bowing, so left handers playing a standard bass would have an advantage in fingering, and maybe a slight disadvantage in plucking or bowing. Why not quit thinking of basses as "right handed" or "left handed" and just learn to play a standard bass the standard way? Left handed pianists and saxophonists don't play mirror image instruments.

Why does this have to be a philosophical discussion. He asked a very specific question. Are you left handed?

 

[lermgalieu]

Well, there's an underlying assumption here that I don't buy: that instruments are inherently "right handed" or "left handed". Stringed instruments assign challenging tasks to each hand. Are you really going to tell me that using your dominant hand for fingering (as in left handed person playing a standard instrument) is a bad thing? Seems to me it would be a GOOD thing. if anything we could make an argument that right-handers ought to play reversed string instruments. How did the standard orientation of stringed instruments arise, anyway?

Should pianos, harmonicas, saxophones, trumpets all be reversed? How about French horns where right handers and left handers alike finger with the left hand? Should right handers have reversed French horns? Should manual transmission shift levers be on the left for left-handers?

I can understand using a hammer, or writing, but stringed instruments don't seem to ME to have an inherent dominant hand.

So you should play the other way around then, if it's no big deal. I am sick of this conversation on TalkBass. The point is that it's relatively EASY to switch around the strings on a bass. But you are saying one shouldn't. I don't really know why. Obviously pianos and French Horns are a different story. Have you ever learned a guitar or bass the other way around? Because I have. And I can tell you that although you are correct that my left hand was pretty advanced pretty quick, it took YEARS for my right hand to get up to snuff. There are differences, for sure, and differences that matter. If people want to do it the other way, I say the more power to them. The argument against it just seems silly - it basically amounts to "that's how we do it."

 

[lermgalieu]

As a leftie who plays "right handed" or should I say traditional, I've never understood the intensity of this discussion/argument. As others have stated, the instruments are not inherently "handed." There's nothing special about you or your "handedness" that requires that I agree with your decision to insist on playing an instrument "left handed."
Happy International Left Handers Day everyone!

And your agreement for someone else to play a bass "left handed" is somehow required because....?

If you don't understand the intensity, why not live and let live?

EDIT: For the record, I am also a lefty who plays "traditional" as you say (and as you can only say on DB not electric). My son is also a lefty and plays lefty (he's a guitarist and doesn't play DB, although he can passably play it "traditionally"). While I generally agree that there are advantages to playing DB "traditionally" (and more importantly, in "traditional" situations you HAVE to), I can see from watching my son evolve as a musician that there are definite benefits to imputing handedness to DB, and playing it the other way around. I don't see why it is anyone's business how someone chooses to play an instrument. If I showed up at a bluegrass or jazz gig with my bass strung the other way around and played some killer bass - would anyone give a rat's a$$ what direction I was facing? No. And they shouldn't. So why do people jump in with the philosophical judgment every time someone asks such a simple, mechanical question?

 

[BarfanyShart]

Looks to me like it's strung standard and he's playing backwards. You know Paul McCartney can do that.

Has anyone seen evidence of McCartney ever seriously playing an upright? Playing a minute of bass line to show off a historic instrument doesn't count. I mean on the gig, or in the studio.

If you aren't trying to play in the upper register, I don't see how playing the bass "upside-down" is that big a hindrance. The notes are still in the same place, you're just standing on the other side. But, yeah, playing in thumb position would be significantly more challenging.

 

[Jeff Kissell]

And your agreement for someone else to play a bass "left handed" is somehow required because....?

If you don't understand the intensity, why not live and let live?

EDIT: For the record, I am also a lefty who plays "traditional" as you say (and as you can only say on DB not electric). My son is also a lefty and plays lefty (he's a guitarist and doesn't play DB, although he can passably play it "traditionally"). While I generally agree that there are advantages to playing DB "traditionally" (and more importantly, in "traditional" situations you HAVE to), I can see from watching my son evolve as a musician that there are definite benefits to imputing handedness to DB, and playing it the other way around. I don't see why it is anyone's business how someone chooses to play an instrument. If I showed up at a bluegrass or jazz gig with my bass strung the other way around and played some killer bass - would anyone give a rat's a$$ what direction I was facing? No. And they shouldn't. So why do people jump in with the philosophical judgment every time someone asks such a simple, mechanical question?

In my thinking, it's not a philosophical judgement, it's logistics, especially in a jam type situation. Non traditional instruments make sharing much more difficult.

 

[lermgalieu]

In my thinking, it's not a philosophical judgement, it's logistics, especially in a jam type situation. Non traditional instruments make sharing much more difficult.

Then wouldn't it simply be a matter of saying "sorry we only have a "traditional" upright, so bring your own if needed"? I think those things work themselves out and any additional work is fairly on the player who needs something different than what's provided.

 

[lurk]

I have a good friend who makes his living as a NYC freelance guitarist. He plays left handed guitar, and, like lots of successful free lancers can cut, and owns instruments for every genre of music. He wishes he had started out playing a normal guitar right handed because his choice of instruments is so limited.

 

[lermgalieu]

I have a good friend who makes his living as a NYC freelance guitarist. He plays left handed guitar, and, like lots of successful free lancers can cut, and owns instruments for every genre of music. He wishes he had started out playing a normal guitar right handed because his choice of instruments is so limited.

And yet it sounds like he has a successful career as a musician. I've been sourcing left handed guitars for my son for years now and it's not nearly as difficult as some people are so eager to portray it, and getting easier every year. This all off topic to the OP btw.

 

[VictorW126]

Is it fine if you get a right-handed upright bass and you change the order of the strings, in order to make it for left-handed players? Does it still sound good?

I mean, since the majority of electric basses are not symmetrical, it's more complex, but double basses are symmetrical...

Thanks!

The opinion about the symmetry of the shape is erroneous. The double bass has a lot of asymmetrical elements - a nut, a bridge, some have a fingerboard. You have already been answered about the internal structure (bassbar and soundpost). Converting a BG to the left side is much easier than a DB.

I will support the discussion with the question of why lefties don't use standard tuned bass, playing it the other way around? I know a lot of guitar and BG players do this. My friend is a left-handed guitarist - he plays an ordinary guitar perfectly, turning it over with the neck to the right. The bass strings are at the bottom. He plays chords and solos without any problems. In the case of the double bass, this means problems with playing in position, but I think this is not about the virtuoso performance of Dragonetti. Educators are not taught to play left-handed violins or basses. With a bow in your left hand, you can't get into an orchestra. With a left-handed bass, you will still go your own way. Why not make your life easier by using the right-hand Dbass by standing to the left of it?

 

[turf3]

Well, there have been a significant number of players who took a standard RH instrument, flipped it over, and played it as is. Thing is, that's going to throw all the technique upside down. On guitar, all the chord shapes will be backwards, and you'll have to improvise some when the anatomy of the human hand simply won't allow you to form the chord shape upside down using the standard fingering. Pizzicato playing on the bass will not be as severe problems, but some will occur. For example, the stereotypical "rake" across the strings, going down, becomes a rake across the strings going up. It's going to take very signficant practice to be able to simulate that typical bass pattern going backwards and pushing toward your body rather than pulling away. Bowing is going to be seriously affected.

Sure, Paul McCartney - who can basically play any instrument you hand him at a satisfactory level after about ten minutes to study it and get an idea of it - can take a standard upright and play a simple walking line on it, fingering with his right hand. But I think trying to reach a decent level of playing capability backwards is going to be like pushing a string uphill.

If you play a LH instrument left handed, all the standard fingering patterns and bowing patterns are maintained, just in mirror image.

To my mind, first prize is to just learn how to play a standard-strung bass in standard position, using the left hand to finger and the right hand to bow/pluck; second prize is to play a reversed-construction bass in a reversed position (right hand doing the fingering); and a very distant third prize would be to take a standard-strung instrument and play it backwards with the RH doing the fingering.