pre eb. music man cutlass I lefty flip

[kyledood93]

hey bassists, hows it going today.
so hears the story, about 17 years ago my uncle was given a musicman cutlass I, and he played it and whatnot and loved the heck out of it. well in recent years hes cut back on his bass playing to raise a family and traded me this bass for an xbox.
heres the question though;

have any of you had any experience flipping one of these heavier than heck musicman's to left handed?

i mean im a poor college student and i have this amazing bass sitting right in front of me that i cant play. and help would be greatly apriciated. i belive i put this in the right spot, let me know if i didnt

the picture is just a google of my bass. but pretty exact

 

[scottbass]

My son is a lefty. I've converted a few electric guitars for him. All you really need to do is just reverse the nut and the strings, and move the strap button to the other horn.

However...

The knobs and jack will be on the top edge of the bass and will probably interfere with your left forearm.

The bass will be unbalanced and will probably have significant neck dive because the strap button is now on the shorter horn. You might get by with a very wide strap with an agressive texture that really digs into the fabric of whatever shirt you are wearing.

I suppose you COULD rout out a control cavity on the other side of the bass, move the stuff over there, figure out something for a reversed cover plate, and also figure out something to fill or cover the now-empty original holes, but that would be quite a bit of work and would seriously affect the resale value.

You will probably be better off selling that bass and using the proceeds to buy a real lefty bass. But of course that would be painful in its own way since pre-eb's are definitely special, and a lefty Ibanez or MIM Fender just isn't the same kind of special. However, if you can put up with the knobs and jacks on the top edge and the neck dive, the only non-reversible thing you will be doing is drilling one hole in the short horn for the strap button. This hole can be easily filled and finished so you can switch it back should you decide to sell it.

 

[drTSTingray]

It's also a very rare bass which a collector or Musicman fan would probably buy off you, and would be worth quite a lot. You could sell it and buy a regular lefty Musicman Stingray, if that's the sound you want.

Or you could try turning it over and playing it 'upside down'. My son is a lefty and has a Stingray, but sometimes borrows one of my basses and plays it up the other way.

 

[betavision]

I'm not sure you want to do anything to such a rare bass. (If it's all original that is)

There aren't many of these around in the world.

 

[kyledood93]

thanks for the help guys! its kind of worn in due to its constant usage the last 30 years. but i mean i think i just want to flip this one, especially since it has the neck is pre-music man licensing.

 

[handofseven]

NICE BASS! Whatever you do, don't mod it. It's a rare bass, and modding it will devalue it. Your best bet it to sell it and buy something more appropriately left handed. You will have no problem finding a buyer, I'm sure. Even in this market, I'm sure you'd be able to get enough money to buy a decent lefty AND a nice rig to go with it. Your uncle is a very generous dude!

Fret dressing shouldn't affect the value, but if it needs a refret, that could be a problem. From what I gather, refretting a graphite/phenolic neck is really difficult.

 

[winterburn69]

You traded an Xbox for a Cutlass? What a deal!! Don't mod it, these are quite rare, sell it and get a lefty bass.