Honestly, guitar felt so wrong in either direction that it made more sense to do it what was more available and convenient. In theory, I could have seen it working out either way.
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Lefties why didn't you start playing a righty?
- Thread starter KenToby
- Start date
Honestly, guitar felt so wrong in either direction that it made more sense to do it what was more available and convenient. In theory, I could have seen it working out either way.
My youngest son also uses the Dvorak -- and, of course, he has programmed a QWERTY keyboard for the purpose. I'm guilty of something similar: I keep a pedal steel set up in my studio, just so I can watch g**tar gods try to decipher it.
Back to the subject, and the "circular reasoning" of saying that most people are right-handed, so the layout of the typical axe is designed to be comfortable for most people, because right-handed people play, well, right-handed....
It's not circular reasoning so much as it an attempt to glean some conclusions from meager data. Let's face it: no one is going to run a double-blind experiment teaching lefties to play righty or vice-versa, so speculation and experience are the only guides we have. If more rigorous methods were available, someone would already have written them up for a graduate degree.
My real point is that handedness, while present to a greater or lesser extent in different individuals, determines the ease or difficulty of playing an asymmetrical instrument; the conventional layout of left hand fretting/right hand plucking is not handedness neutral. That's all.
Back to the subject, and the "circular reasoning" of saying that most people are right-handed, so the layout of the typical axe is designed to be comfortable for most people, because right-handed people play, well, right-handed....
It's not circular reasoning so much as it an attempt to glean some conclusions from meager data. Let's face it: no one is going to run a double-blind experiment teaching lefties to play righty or vice-versa, so speculation and experience are the only guides we have. If more rigorous methods were available, someone would already have written them up for a graduate degree.
My real point is that handedness, while present to a greater or lesser extent in different individuals, determines the ease or difficulty of playing an asymmetrical instrument; the conventional layout of left hand fretting/right hand plucking is not handedness neutral. That's all.
That's what I would say. Whether you've picked up a bass or not, you certainly know if your right or left handed.
As evidenced by the growing numbers of lefty instruments, the demand is there, and is being accommodated. Inevitably, instruments at all price points will be produced in lefty, whether it's by the current makers, or others who will recognize the opportunity and capitalize on it.
This is not to say it isn't being done now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Benavente-SCB-6-String-Left-Handed-Bass-Custom-Made_W0QQitemZ250124719909QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4713QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://www.adirondackguitar.com/zon/lh_sonos.htm
http://www.adirondackguitar.com/lefty/warwick/thumb_bolt_on_5.htm
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Those makers who get on board will benefit, those who don't will not. If some makers considers it too expensive an undertaking, that is their choice. Others will emerge to supply the market.
BTW, whatever the point is you've been trying to make about the tooling of left-handed parts being too expensive, I'm not buying it. As you've mentioned in a previous post, >parts< can be >mirrored< in the CAD phase, and a cutter path or whatever other >process< you need to make it developed from that. The CNC machine will make whatever it's programmed to make, there's no difference if it's left or right handed. Same with molds. As long as I've been working with OEMs and suppliers, I haven't yet run into a prohibitive cost for a left hand vs. a right hand part.
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Some food for thought; When my daughter was about seven, she and her friend (they're both right handed) picked up a couple of my guitars to fool around with. They both were holding the neck with their right hands.
So, does this mean that's the natural tendency and we're all doing it wrong?
So, does this mean that's the natural tendency and we're all doing it wrong?
After jogging the question through my mind 8 million times like such:
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
(The above x400,000)
Another question arises:
Why left handed people?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
Why left handed basses?
(The above x400,000)
Another question arises:
Why left handed people?
So you have some handy dandy software. NOW comes the costs of paying someone to get this done. So if you're so confident in this, tell me how much it would cost to machine a lefty Trans Trem. Better yet, give me a price quote on a solid LH Dingwall bridge. I don't wanna get into an argument with some armchair engineer......but consult a REAL engineer, which I can do since I live with one.
As stated before, these mentioned BASSES mostly feature parts that can be used in the left or right handed configuration. Machining steel parts that aren't reversible is where you run into problems.
Feel free to look stuff up on the internet, but as stated before, machining these unavailable parts is not cost effective to mass produce without significant demand. Again, when was the AR15 invented? 1950's. It took dang near 50 years to start seeing a mass produced model.
Call me a troll...or someone well educated (PhD level), but the bottom line is that it is simply too expensive and risky to design everything lefty. I would love a lefty Baretta, but not gonna happen.
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The topic of this thread is basses, not guns and not every manufactured product in the world. The fact is, from the lowest priced beaters to Ritters, there are more lefty basses available than ever before, and somehow all the makers involved in it have found it possible to get their tooling made, their components built and assembled, and their products sold. And if they weren't showing a profit in doing so, they wouldn't bother with it at all.
All we need now is for bass teachers to let their students choose their own instruments based on what naturally feels right to them, and many more lefty basses will be made and sold.
I've asked this before - why assume that the dominant hand has more dexterity?
Why assume that the dominant hand is stronger?
If it wasn't stronger and more dexteritous then it never would have been called a dominant hand in the first place!
john turner
You don't want to do that. Trust me.
pressing on predetermined frets, usually, requiring . still doesn't take the kind of precise finger control that controling dynamics and rhythm does. even on fretless it's still not as strenuous nor as precise an activity as the plucking hand engages in. all the muscles of the subordinate arm are engaged in the proper fretting techinique and position control, from the shoulder down to the fingertips, also requiring much less from the fretting -hand- itself as far as strength and control. except for slapping, the plucking hand is on its own, with very little "muscular support" from any muscles past the wrist.
as far as circular reasoning about the design of the instrument, i take issue with that comment. sure, the instrument -evolved- and wasn't invented out of thin air, but it evolved along specific lines built in part around the limitations and abilities of the individuals playing it. the instrument (be it lute, guitar or whatever) wasn't created in a vacuum. there's a reason why there are very few -left hand plucked- classical guitars, namely because there were very few left handed players.
to say, as the original poster did, that the hands "don't know any better" is to forget the fact that "the hands" were responsible in the first place for the configuration of the instrument, and the lions share of those hands were right-dominant.
Sorry but that's not cost of material and tools, that's someone writing a program for it, which isn't all that hard. Especially if there's a right handed version and they just have to mirror it. A days worth of work perhaps, and once it's a proven program it's there to use whenever you want, especially if all the tools are in the machine for the original job you wouldn't even have to do a setup. $2100 US is some company making a lot of money off a program haha.
