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why do some players play their basses upside down?

I'd never try to force a left handed kid to write right handed. I don't think instrument choice is the same thing though. We don't make left handed pianos. I view handedness of EITHER bent as a handicap, so I have no problem with instruction and training either hand to do anything.

As for limited choice - hogwash. It's a fact. Yes, you can find plenty of examples, but any time you go looking for something very specific - you can about forget it.

I found (after ordering the right handed) that Rondo does actually make a left handed Uke bass (I bought mine through Amazon as I had a gift card. But Amazon doesn't sell the left handed version. Fender's Squier mini guitar doesn't come in a lefty version. I have yet to find a lefty short scale solidbody guitar. But right now his handedness isn't completely known.
 
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They are playing bass guitars manufactured in Australia or South America, but they are in the northern hemisphere. If they happened to be performing in the southern hemisphere, the basses would appear to be right-side-up.

It's very important that if you purchase one of these upside-down basses, you also get strings manufactured in the southern hemisphere, so the ball is on the correct end.
 
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I dunno, I started playing in the mid-90s and back then it seemed as if every major manufacturer made at least a couple lefties and when they introduced a new line, they always made sure there was at least one left-handed model among them.

This seems to have changed in recent years, especially when it comes to manufacturers such as Yamaha and Ibanez that I always had a soft spot for, and even Fender who love neglecting lefties when they decide to release a new series of instruments that's somewhat off the beaten path. In short, these days I get the feeling that whenever anyone comes out with a new model that I really like, it's never available left-handed.
 
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They are playing bass guitars manufactured in Australia or South America, but they are in the northern hemisphere. If they happened to be performing in the southern hemisphere, the basses would appear to be right-side-up.

It's very important that if you purchase one of these upside-down basses, you also get strings manufactured in the southern hemisphere, so the ball is on the correct end.
well and the winds have to go clocktercountwise, too. :chicken:
 
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I'd never try to force a left handed kid to write right handed. I don't think instrument choice is the same thing though. We don't make left handed pianos...
Not to add to any pile or be overly disagreeable, but pianos are neither right or left-handed. The mechanisms a person conventionally uses to play piano are symmetrical. A person's handedness doesn't matter nearly as much. Invalid Link Removed

Guitar playing, with its typical asymmetrical mechanisms, clearly are dictated by their handedness. It is very much like writing. It requires the appropriate dexterity to operate and accomplish the task, or in the guitarist's case, the music as the player intends.

And I have to say, mcarp555, I do agree there are more choices available to us lefties now than before, but in most cases, you have to pay through the nose for them (as in custom shop), or you get something that's pretty much at the bottom of the pile, with limited options. Or you make your own (which, unless you're a luthier, is at best a hit-or-miss thing).
 
Keith Ferguson, y'all.

KeithFerguson.jpg
 
my leftys except for the ones I don't normally play are inverted strung. I can play a correctly strung lefty, but only if another lefty is at a gig and allows me to use his bass. Beyond that, it is only a matter of "ya I can but why" If you look close you can see some one way and the other.
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All my rightys are just flipped over and played...makes a better quick sale if someone wants one, I don't have to change the nut and change the strings back :p The lefty bass forum is full of inverted players.
 
It's far more subtle, but the piano absolutely does have a handedness to it. Can you play Vince Guaraldi's Linus and Lucy with the bass figure on your right hand and the melody on the left?


No, but then, I can't play it the regular way 'round either! :p