The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Gibson Basses => Topic started by: Ken on December 28, 2020, 10:57:05 AM
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After way too long at the luthier, my RNR Thunderbird is home. This is a 2013 NR that I had converted to left-handed after flipping a photo of one upside down and thinking how cool it looked. Pickguard isn't ready yet, but I'll update this when it is. Due to space constraints and my having no need for a tone knob, it's just VV now. I had a new truss rod cover made for it with the Gibson logo "right side up," but won't put it on until I'm done adjusting the truss rod to my liking.
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What a cool idea, and well executed!
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Thanks!
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Looks great.
You could perhaps opt for an output jack on the side and use the third hole for the tone pot?
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Thanks. The luthier initially wanted to put the jack on the side, but decided the front was a better option. I forget why. Might have to do with the belly cut getting in the way. Either way, I have no need for a tone knob, so I'm perfectly happy with it as-is. Just looking forward to the pickguard arriving.
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If it works for you it's perfect. :thumbsup:
But, how does mounting the output on the side interfere with the belly cut?
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Good question. I really don't remember.
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Properly-oriented truss rod cover.
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Cool concept. Looks great!
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Thanks! Can't wait for the pickguard to arrive.
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Nicely done. Beats waiting for Gibson to do something.
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For those of us who can't get their head around how this would look as a left-handed NR then flipped for a right-hander, I took the liberty of reversing the image.
To be honest, I like that a lot...I would maybe have gone with a Babicz bridge for aesthetic reasons, but otherwise, hubba-bubba. Also, that sunburst finish is lush and, to be honest, I wouldn't ruin it with a scratchplate. It looks brilliant as is.
I've been thinking about getting another Lull done at some point and this could be a decent start off (it would need to be an oversized body).
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Never minding your personal predicament and how even in this day and age lefties are obviously left to their handicapped fate ;), that mod turned out gorgeous, love the fin too! Makes me want to reverse my bass playing skills!!! 8)
PS: My first year in school was in 1966/67, that was actually also the first year where German schools gave up forcing lefties to be righties based on a new recommendation of the education board that had gone out. But the principal would still make impromptu visits in our class to "check" whether the lefties were really "comfortable" in writing left-handed; not in an intimidating way, but genuinely concerned about what was obviously still deemed as an unfortunate affliction. :mrgreen: One leftie - Ralf - sat right in front of me, I remember the principal bowing down to him and even gently taking his left hand with which Ralf was scribbling/"shoving the pencil" away: "Can you actually write with that?" ;D No worries, Ralf stuck with writing left-handed - as did all the other lefties in class (I think we had three, two boys, one girl, roughly 10%). I still crack jokes about it. For some reason, attorneys seem to be quite often lefties and whenever I "detect" one at the office I comment: "OMG, you're a lefty, how did that slip through with our HR people?! " Invariably, they crack back: "As creative and smart people tend to be!" These days, they even celebrate it ... :rolleyes: :mrgreen:
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Nicely done. Beats waiting for Gibson to do something.
Thanks, Dave. Absolutely. I started this project well before any rumors came about for new Thunderbird-related objects. I probably still would've gone through with this because I don't expect any left-handed options in the pipeline, other than maybe another model year for a "regular" Thunderbird.
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For those of us who can't get their head around how this would look as a left-handed NR then flipped for a right-hander, I took the liberty of reversing the image.
To be honest, I like that a lot...I would maybe have gone with a Babicz bridge for aesthetic reasons, but otherwise, hubba-bubba. Also, that sunburst finish is lush and, to be honest, I wouldn't ruin it with a scratchplate. It looks brilliant as is.
I've been thinking about getting another Lull done at some point and this could be a decent start off (it would need to be an oversized body).
Thank you! The finish is actually stock. The luthier just thickened the black borders a little to help cover the closed-up control holes on top. I think he did a great job overall. Unless you looked really closely in the light, you would never know it used to be a right-handed bass. Unless, of course, you know what a NR Thunderbird is. :) Funny thing about Lulls, as great as they are, this still ended up being cheaper than one, all said and done. Also cheaper than what Gibson is currently charging for Thunderbirds.
The bridge is a personal preference thing. I think the Hipshot looks better than the Babicz. Only thing I would change in the Hipshot is to cut it straight across the front, instead of bowing out to cover the third bolt hole. I'm sure I'd be in a minority in that case. Plus Hipshot saddles allow for string spacing changes, which I take full advantage of. Babicz do not.
I do like very much how this looks as-is, but I think it will look even better with the pickguard. To be continued....
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Never minding your personal predicament and how even in this day and age lefties are obviously left to their handicapped fate ;), that mod turned out gorgeous, love the fin too! Makes me want to reverse my bass playing skills!!! 8)
PS: My first year in school was in 1966/67, that was actually also the first year where German schools gave up forcing lefties to be righties based on a new recommendation of the education board that had gone out. But the principal would still make impromptu visits in our class to "check" whether the lefties were really "comfortable" in writing left-handed; not in an intimidating way, but genuinely concerned about what was obviously still deemed as an unfortunate affliction. :mrgreen: One leftie - Ralf - sat right in front of me, I remember the principal bowing down to him and even gently taking his left hand with which Ralf was scribbling/"shoving the pencil" away: "Can you actually write with that?" ;D No worries, Ralf stuck with writing left-handed - as did all the other lefties in class (I think we had three, two boys, one girl, roughly 10%). I still crack jokes about it. For some reason, attorneys seem to be quite often lefties and whenever I "detect" one at the office I comment: "OMG, you're a lefty, how did that slip through with our HR people?! " Invariably, they crack back: "As creative and smart people tend to be!" These days, they even celebrate it ... :rolleyes: :mrgreen:
We always welcome more into the club! Just have to keep that number at about 10%, lest the universe implodes. It's really too bad that the options are still so limited for lefties. Even Fender, who always seems to have offered left-handed versions, only seems to offer the very basic P and J. No Jaguar, which is the only Fender I like. They do in Japan, though.
Thanks for the perspective from Germany from that time. I'm not sure how the US compared in that respect, but I'm a little younger than you clearly remembering the separate rack of left-handed scissors in school with the green handles, though I always used scissors in my right hand. Most things I seem to do right-handed, but according to a leftyfretz survey, I'm 61% left-handed. Only thing I can think of that I can do equally as well in either hand is use chopsticks.
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Incidentally, now that I've really got the RNR dialed in to my tastes, with the same hardware and electronics, the R and RNR sound too similar to really tell apart. The RNR even hangs very comfortably, just like my R. Only significant different I can tell when playing is the RNR's thicker neck.
Both basses are exactly 8 lbs.
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This is the new control cavity.
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Never minding your personal predicament and how even in this day and age lefties are obviously left to their handicapped fate ;), that mod turned out gorgeous, love the fin too! Makes me want to reverse my bass playing skills!!! 8)
PS: My first year in school was in 1966/67, that was actually also the first year where German schools gave up forcing lefties to be righties based on a new recommendation of the education board that had gone out. But the principal would still make impromptu visits in our class to "check" whether the lefties were really "comfortable" in writing left-handed; not in an intimidating way, but genuinely concerned about what was obviously still deemed as an unfortunate affliction. :mrgreen: One leftie - Ralf - sat right in front of me, I remember the principal bowing down to him and even gently taking his left hand with which Ralf was scribbling/"shoving the pencil" away: "Can you actually write with that?" ;D No worries, Ralf stuck with writing left-handed - as did all the other lefties in class (I think we had three, two boys, one girl, roughly 10%). I still crack jokes about it. For some reason, attorneys seem to be quite often lefties and whenever I "detect" one at the office I comment: "OMG, you're a lefty, how did that slip through with our HR people?! " Invariably, they crack back: "As creative and smart people tend to be!" These days, they even celebrate it ... :rolleyes: :mrgreen:
Nice story Uwe, same in Greece, but even worse. Untill late 70s/early 80s I think if you were a leftie you were doomed. Even now when some old people spot a leftie, they give him the "wtf is wrong with you kid, your right hand had an accident or what" look. Personally I was "advised" to go right, but that obviously didn't work for me. But even if I do most of things better with my left, I play right-handed, a genuine southpaw traitor.
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My mother is left handed. She had to learn to write right handed.
To this day she can write with both her left hand and right hand equally as beautiful!
I'm right handed myself. But when I got my first guitar lessons I couldn't understand why my "weak" hand had to do all the complicated work on the fretboard.
Still don't understand why it isn't the other way around... :)
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My mother is left handed. She had to learn to write right handed.
To this day she can write with both her left hand and right hand equally as beautiful!
I'm right handed myself. But when I got my first guitar lessons I couldn't understand why my "weak" hand had to do all the complicated work on the fretboard.
Still don't understand why it isn't the other way around... :)
It definitely does seem counterintuitive. But either way, we have room in our club!
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I have wondered if it is somehow transferred over from bowed instruments, where the bow requires strength, finesse, endurance.
Not very confident of this idea though.
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I have wondered if it is somehow transferred over from bowed instruments, where the bow requires strength, finesse, endurance.
Not very confident of this idea though.
I think you are on to something there. With guitar the right hand just does the strumming and the left hand does all the intricacies of creating chords.
BTW, I am left-handed. In about 1964 or so some of my school mates wanted to start a band and asked me to take up the bass. I started playing lefty, but when I tried to buy a bass the options were play an upside down bass or pay bunches for a left-handed bass. I chose to learn to play right-handed.
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I think you are on to something there. With guitar the right hand just does the strumming and the left hand does all the intricacies of creating chords.
Not entirely true of course.
When I learned to play (classical) guitar the hand on the fingerboard initially got the most attention. But once I had the basics down pat, the attention shifted to the right hand where I had to practice all kinds of patterns using my thumb, index, middle finger and ring finger (PIMA, PAIM, PMIA, PAMI et cetera).
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There are quite a few "lefties forced righty": Joe Perry, Mark Knopfler, Gary Moore, Billy Corgan, Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Noel Gallagher.
Hendrix was of course a lefty, but learned guitar righty, then switched to lefty for stage, yet interestingly retained righty for composing even after he long only played lefty on stage.
The only "righty who stumbled into lefty" I can think of is the late Ed Gagliardi of Foreigner (first two albums and later on with The Spys), who as a righty played a lefty Ric 4001 in lefty position because he had accidentally learned bass on a derelict lefty bass. Mick Jones fired him for being "too busy" on bass and got Rick Wills instead.
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There are quite a few "lefties forced righty": Joe Perry, Mark Knopfler, Gary Moore, Billy Corgan, Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Noel Gallagher.
Hendrix was of course a lefty, but learned guitar righty, then switched to lefty for stage, yet interestingly retained righty for composing even after he long only played lefty on stage.
The only "righty who stumbled into lefty" I can think of is the late Ed Gagliardi of Foreigner (first two albums and later on with The Spys), who as a righty played a lefty Ric 4001 in lefty position because he had accidentally learned bass on a derelict lefty bass. Mick Jones fired him for being "too busy" on bass and got Rick Wills instead.
David Bowie was another lefty who played righty, though he's not really known for his guitar playing I guess. Neither is Iggy Pop, but he actually plays guitar lefty.
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In the violin/viol family there's no such thing as a flipped over instrument. A pro viola player once told me that he found being left handed an advantage.
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"My mother is left handed. She had to learn to write right handed.
To this day she can write with both her left hand and right hand equally as beautiful!
I'm right handed myself. But when I got my first guitar lessons I couldn't understand why my "weak" hand had to do all the complicated work on the fretboard.
Still don't understand why it isn't the other way around... :)"
I always assumed it has to do with being precise hitting notes on the beat. BTW, both my sons are left-handed.
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Hendrix was of course a lefty, but learned guitar righty, then switched to lefty for stage, yet interestingly retained righty for composing even after he long only played lefty on stage.
And then you had late Rusty Burns who was a leftie playing a leftie guitar strung upside-down. Great player, may he RIP.
Point Blank is mostly forgotten nowadays, but their first two albums sport some seriously powerful Southern shredding
https://youtu.be/kVNUqbTHH1E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98_IL3HDo1E
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And then you had late Rusty Burns who was a leftie playing a leftie guitar strung upside-down. Great player, may he RIP.
Point Blank is mostly forgotten nowadays, but their first two albums sport some seriously powerful Southern shredding
https://youtu.be/kVNUqbTHH1E
My friend Greta Brinkman plays the same way. No great links, but she's played with L7, Moby, and a bunch of other bands.
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My friend Greta Brinkman plays the same way. No great links, but she's played with L7, Moby, and a bunch of other bands.
I forgot to say...nice project on your end... :toast:
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BTW, both my sons are left-handed.
What a lovely coincidence, Doomy, isn't your best friend too?
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I forgot to say...nice project on your end... :toast:
Thanks! I was just playing with a friend tonight at his place, just bass and guitar. The RNR felt great.
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I saw Bowie play guitar with Tin Machine, he was no slouch. The whole Diamond Dogs album is just him and with all due respect to the many great players he's had (Mick Ronson, Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick, Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Nile Rodgers, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Peter Frampton, Reeves Gabrels), it's the album whose guitar playing I like the best. Its stripped down, almost punkish guitar went well with the dystopian theme of DD.
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I saw Bowie play guitar with Tin Machine, he was no slouch. The whole Diamond Dogs album is just him and with all due respect to the many great players he's had (Mick Ronson, Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick, Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Nile Rodgers, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Peter Frampton, Reeves Gabrels), it's the album whose guitar playing I like the best. Its stripped down, almost punkish guitar went well with the dystopian theme of DD.
Thanks for that. I didn't know Diamond Dogs was just Bowie. I'll be all over this while working tomorrow. I do love that album.
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. Its stripped down, almost punkish guitar went well with the dystopian theme of DD.
An excellent album indeed. Raw and energetic. I never realized that Bowie did all the guitar work, though. Thanks for the education... :)
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Add Steve Morse to the lefties playing righty list.
As far as lefty-playing-lefty-tuned-righty, you've got Jimmy Haslip and Lee Pomeroy.
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Bowie always joked that most accomplished guitar players have a hard time playing Rebel Rebel "because it was written by someone who can't really play guitar". And it's true, I've never heard it sound live (when other people play it) like it did on the record where he played.
Diamond Dogs was the first Bowie music I ever heard. I was completely mesmerized by it. It remains a favourite to this day - together with Station to Station (which I first disliked because it sounded nothing at all like my beloved DD, but it turned out to be a slow burner).
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Bowie always joked that most accomplished guitar players have a hard time playing Rebel Rebel "because it was written by someone who can't really play guitar". And it's true, I've never heard it sound live (when other people play it) like it did on the record where he played.
Diamond Dogs was the first Bowie music I ever heard. I was completely mesmerized by it. It remains a favourite to this day - together with Station to Station (which I first disliked because it sounded nothing at all like my beloved DD, but it turned out to be a slow burner).
The slow burners I find are the ones that end up staying with you forever.
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Add Steve Morse to the lefties playing righty list.
That explains a lot. I always wondered about the unusual position of his strumming hand - no arm movement, very angled elbow near the bridge, all pick movement from his wrist, it looked neither comfortable nor natural - und as it turned out, it did give him issues eventually and he had to relearn a traditional strumming position in more recent years. He said it was a real effort for him.
He's lost some of his former trademark speed in the process, but for DP that is actually a good thing - in a rock band context, little Steve at "only" 4/5 of his usual warp speed is just right! :mrgreen:
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What a lovely coincidence, Doomy, isn't your best friend too?
Nope, but our drummer is multi-handed though. ???
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I wouldn't dare draw rushed conclusions from that. Good rhythm sections share a lot.
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That explains a lot. I always wondered about the unusual position of his strumming hand - no arm movement, very angled elbow near the bridge, all pick movement from his wrist, it looked neither comfortable nor natural - und as it turned out, it did give him issues eventually and he had to relearn a traditional strumming position in more recent years. He said it was a real effort for him.
I remember him talking about the way he rotates his wrist in an unusual way compared to righties. It's too bad it caused damage eventually, but he still seems to play OK. ;D