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Lefty or Right

#5
I would agree with @porkynuggets and try right-handed first. I was talking to my daughter about this the other day. She is an orchestral bass player, and encountered her first left-handed player just two weeks ago. The problems are significant, mainly around avoiding bow collisions in the section. But it occurred to us that although we 'never' see left-handed string instruments, it is implausible that left handed folks that play strings don't exist, since they make up about 10% of the population. So they must all learn right-handed. Of course making a left-handed string bass is much more tricky than a left-handed bass guitar - since the internal structure is different they would have to be made to order, which would be prohibitively expensive for most people. YMMV.
 
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#6
Quap said:
My son is left-handed and naturally picks up my basses and guitars upside down.
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Isn’t it obvious?? Worked in a music store for 10 years and have seen this happen hundreds of times. Kid naturally chooses left…. parents (cluelessly) exert their own (limited) ideas on them. Kid quits, struggles to adapt, or they come back and buy them the lefty I recommended originally.

Quap said:
He's just now showing real interest in playing.

Do I buy him a left-handed bass or teach him on a right-handed one?

The left is strong with this one, and he doesn't do much at all with his right hand. I don't want to make learning any more difficult than it is.
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You aleady have rights. Buy a cheap but decent lefty bass for him. Let HIM decide what suits him better.

… but it’s pretty obvious to me since he already swaps your righty basses to left.
 
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#7
Quap said:
My son is left-handed and naturally picks up my basses and guitars upside down. He's just now showing real interest in playing.

Do I buy him a left-handed bass or teach him on a right-handed one?

The left is strong with this one, and he doesn't do much at all with his right hand. I don't want to make learning any more difficult than it is.
Click to expand...
Speaking as a lefty who was naturally inclined to play righty(a trickle down from the way I held a baseball bat while batting lefty), I say, let him decide. There is nothing crueler and more frustrating for a person than forcing a direction going against what feels natural.

While I am somewhat ambidextrous, I couldn’t begin to write right handed, I’ve tried, and at the same time, playing lefty feels just so alien. I’ve had lefty friends in the past, who went to different schools and had to endure senseless “correction” that created problems for them. If it’s a matter of what’s available for him, model-wise, perhaps flipping a righty to lefty without restringing might work, but that brings other logistical problems like controls and strap location. Discuss the options.

Achieving skills on the instrument will provide enough to deal with, without adding extraneous hindrances.
 
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#8
Michedelic said:
Speaking as a lefty who was naturally inclined to play righty(a trickle down from the way I held a baseball bat while batting lefty), I say, let him decide. There is nothing crueler and more frustrating for a person than forcing a direction going against what feels natural.
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I was forced into right handedness as a child, I'm grateful, just my perspective
 
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#13
Get whatever is most comfortable for him. I’m a lefty who plays right but that’s because it feels more right for me. If he’s comfortable playing he’ll progress better. As someone said earlier in the thread, bass is a 2-handed instrument, it’ll work fine either way, no point in pushing toward something that doesn’t feel right.
 
#14
Michedelic said:
Speaking as a lefty who was naturally inclined to play righty(a trickle down from the way I held a baseball bat while batting lefty), I say, let him decide. There is nothing crueler and more frustrating for a person than forcing a direction going against what feels natural.

While I am somewhat ambidextrous, I couldn’t begin to write right handed, I’ve tried, and at the same time, playing lefty feels just so alien. I’ve had lefty friends in the past, who went to different schools and had to endure senseless “correction” that created problems for them. If it’s a matter of what’s available for him, model-wise, perhaps flipping a righty to lefty without restringing might work, but that brings other logistical problems like controls and strap location. Discuss the options.

Achieving skills on the instrument will provide enough to deal with, without adding extraneous hindrances.
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This!
 
#18
Let him play left-handed. It’s not nearly as hard to find left-handed instruments as it used to be. When I started learning in the early 70’s, pretty much the only way to get a left handed bass or guitar was to custom order one from Fender. Now, you can walk into almost any decent size shop and find at least 2 or 3 lefties on the wall.

One point about Jimmy Haslip and Keith Horne mentioned above, both of them learned by playing right-handed instruments held upside down without being restrung. There’s a significant sub-set of lefties that played or play like this, but I imagine it’s more work to learn.
 
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#19
The first time I picked up a bass, right handed felt weird, because I was playing tunes on monophonic synthesizer with mostly my right hand.
And on strings it had to be done with a left hand. But I learned to play bass right handed, because that how most players did it.

I also wonder if I've ever seen a violin or a cello being played left handed.
Or a piano.

My grandfather who played bugle in a brass band was left-handed, but played the bugle right handed.
He also wrote right handed, because that how it was thought in his youth.
And had a beautiful handwriting. (The same goes for my mother, who was also left-handed)

But let your son decide for himself.
 
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