why do some players play their basses upside down?

[Mosstone]

Stop the Hendrix and McCartney misinformation!
Paul and Jimi both normally played with the strings strung correctly for a lefty.

I don't think anybody said otherwise.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

And in some ways it makes sense to play backwards. My non-dominant left hand does all the fretting. Maybe it's somehow advantageous for a lefty to do all his fretting with his dominant hand.

I've been saying this for a while. It's just natural to me, a lefty.

 

[Billybass02]

And then there's MonoNeon.

He is disleckic?????

 

[megafiddle]

I knew a left handed guitar player who played right handed guitars right handed. His reasoning was that fretting chords and notes required more dexterity. So he used his left (dominant) hand for the neck.

Makes sense, I guess. However, there are other instruments that require equal dexterity with both hands - piano, drums, brass. I would be surprised if all the players of those instruments were ambidextrous.

Handedness and dexterity is an odd thing. For mechanical tasks or playing an instument, it seems to have more to do with cooperation between the hands, not so much dominance.

Something interesting, if you want to remember what it was like the first time you tried to play a bass or guitar, try playing it reverse handed.

-

 

[two fingers]

Good point... I've often wondered if it wouldn't make more sense to use our dominant hands for fretting. It certainly seems more finesse-demanding than picking/plucking.

This is what I do and it feels natural. I write and throw with left handed. But I swing and use scissors right handed. I play bass right handed. And, yes, it feels more natural fretting with my more- coordinated hand.

 

[rufus.K]

Apparently, McCartney was remarkably adept at it. I don't know if I could ever get used to playing chords wrongside-up. Too much muscle memory to undo. I can't imagine being fluid enough to switch back and forth and good enough to record playing a guitar upside down! Keep in mind, if he's playing rhythm, his strumming will have to be upside down too.

Lots of us lefties can do that

 

[LowDownHawkeye]

A few posts danced around this point, but I didn't see any that stated it plainly - how much of it is that, by learning to play a right-handed instrument (regardless of technique), the left-hander will have more choice in the marketplace?

 

[hjschwartz]

Lefties play upside down? poopie, and all these years I thought it was everyone else that was doing it backwards.
What I really don't get is right handed players who go to the trouble of playing a lefty upside down because they incorrectly think it makes them look cool.

 

[billgwx]

I started playing a righty guitar upside down but still strung righty right at the start, because there no lefty instruments to be had at the time, and I was borrowing guitars from friends. Found guitar too hard that way, switched to bass after a year, kept on playing that way for 8 more years, and got pretty good until I started getting more into slap. Hit a brick wall there since my fingers were totally out of position for thumping the low ones and plucking the thin ones. Only solution there was to play a true lefty instrument. Saw a lefty MIJ Fender bass on the rack at a local music store, bought it right away, and made the switch very quickly, inside of 2 weeks. Eventually returned to guitar as well. Wish I'd done things correctly from the start!! My musical life, while pretty good right now, could have been much different.

 

[morgansterne]

I believe it was Doug Lubahn who played bass for the doors on many album tracks who went through the same process.

most brass incidentally doesn't require equal dexterity of both hands as someone suggested earlier -- trumpet, tuba, trombone, baritone, are pretty much right hand only while the left hand just holds the instrument. perhaps the poster was lumping in woodwinds into that category.

Tho I did see a blind trumpet player once playing with her left hand -- because she needed her right hand to read the sheet music in some form of braille. BADASS!

 

[MEKer]

Well, lefties do not want to be left out, right?

I know a band who exclusively wanted a lefty and actually had several lefties audition. I hope they got the right one.

I guess I should have left this subject alone. Don't feel right about it.




...sooo lame...

 

[Braden Persch]

And in some ways it makes sense to play backwards. My non-dominant left hand does all the fretting. Maybe it's somehow advantageous for a lefty to do all his fretting with his dominant hand.

I can vouch for this. I'm left handed but naturally play normal/right handed.

 

[capnsandwich]

why do some players play their basses upside down?

Because they're in Australia?

 

[Big Hoss]

No, that's swirling the other way...

 

[chungweishan]

By the way, the hardest part about playing bass upside is having to position the amp upside down. If not, then only treble notes will come out of it.

 

[TitaniumRx]

This bass player have the bass upside down and not only plays finger style but he slap upside down .



How he pop and slap with opposite fingers?????
The position of the belt is another strange think.

 

[Logic_11]

Maybe we are the ones playing it upside down

 

[Frenchy-Lefty]

I'm at a bit of a loss here. I get that some people merely learned this way, not having access to a bass that is appropriate for their dominate hands, but u see lots of guys with VERY expensive basses who could easily have had their instruments built left handed for them, but instead play righty instruments upside down, sometimes with the strings arranged upside down as well!

What gives?

1. Please do not post things about left-bass stuff if you are not left-handed yourself. It sucks.

2. Had you thought about this for a second you would have found the answer which is quite simple: Due to the scarcity of left handed basses for so many years - and it is still quite challenging today - those players had no choice than starting with right handed basses. They started that way, they still play that way today.

3. Why do you care?

 

[rufus.K]

+1 to Frenchy

 

[Doctor J]

The original line-up of the fantastic band Atheist had two lefty guitarists. Kelly Shaeffer played regular lefty and Rand Burkey played a left-handed guitar but string with the treble strings on top and the bass strings at the bottom, like a right-handed guitar flipped over. You just go with the way you learned to play. There is no correct way, you go with what works for you.

The video here is worth it alone for footage of Roger Patterson's bass playing, now there was a guy who could play.