NBD: RNR Thunderbird

[Ken]

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!!! 

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.  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?"  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 ...

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.

[Ken]

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.

[Ken]

This is the new control cavity.

[exiledarchangel]

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!!! 

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.  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?"  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 ...

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.

[Basvarken]

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...

[Ken]

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!

[slinkp]

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.

[the mojo hobo]

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.

[Basvarken]

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).

[uwe]

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.

[Ken]

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.

[ilan]

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.

[doombass]

"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.

[ajkula66]

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

[Ken]

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

My friend Greta Brinkman plays the same way.  No great links, but she's played with L7, Moby, and a bunch of other bands.