Lefty Jr DC in the European Demo Shop

[ilan]

$880

https://reverb.com/item/63044300

[morrow]

I love those little things. Highly recommend one.

[uwe]

It's commendable that instruments for these highly challenged people are built too. Charity in action, no less.

[Alanko]

It's commendable that instruments for these highly challenged people are built too. Charity in action, no less.

Ha! I'm left handed but play righty. I started on violin, and there is no tradition of left handed violin playing except in folk music.

Without being too harsh to my fellow sinistrati, I don't think there is any reason to play bass and guitar left handed. As a lefty playing righty my dominant hand does all the fiddly fretting work. The right hand just has to provide the power. If you are self taught then fair enough, but my brain has never wanted to play bass the other way round.

Left handed guys playing Les Pauls looks especially wrong.

[lowend1]

Left handed guys playing Les Pauls looks especially wrong.

And lets not get into handwriting positioning and ergonomics...

[uwe]

OMG, please don't take any of my far-right ramblings serious!    It's a running joke with me. All power to the immaculate left. I wish stores were flooded with lefty basses and guitars.

Since I'm contrarian by nature, all southpaws have my heartfelt sympathies and admiration. And in the legal world, lefties are actually relatively prevalent, I tend to notice.

When I was a kid I always thought: "Wouldn't it be much cooler if I was a leftie?" (No worries, I'm really crap doing things leftie.) I'm sure there must be some leftie remnant DNA in me!   My son at least is approaching ambidexterity. It showed in little things like him using his left leg first when stepping forward as a kid (he still does). And while his left hand was never as good as his right hand [he's very nimble, but has issues to this day (= grown man) reading a clock with hands, which likely goes - no pun intended - hand in hand with his ambidexterity I understand], he was never awful with it, just under-rehearsed. We never consciously influenced him either way (but of course he grew up in a rightie world and was therefore subconsciously guided to act rightie from day one). Anyway, he has become a fashion designer in L.A. (I would have had doubts about a watchmaker career unless he would have specialized on those with digital numerical faces, even though he's not really good with number sequences either! ), so it's all good. And, yes, he never wears a watch. 

"Left handed guys playing Les Pauls looks especially wrong."

I never thought about that, Alan, but you're right, it's an unaccustomed sight. We're creatures of habit.

[Ken]

Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney are morons!

[uwe]

Right, and didn't/don't they look crap with Les Pauls too? 

[Ken]

Yup, idiots.  And don't get me started on Blake Schwarzenbach.

[Ken]

Ha! I'm left handed but play righty. I started on violin, and there is no tradition of left handed violin playing except in folk music.

Without being too harsh to my fellow sinistrati, I don't think there is any reason to play bass and guitar left handed. As a lefty playing righty my dominant hand does all the fiddly fretting work. The right hand just has to provide the power. If you are self taught then fair enough, but my brain has never wanted to play bass the other way round.

Left handed guys playing Les Pauls looks especially wrong.

By that logic, all righties should be playing lefty.

[uwe]

I'm so with you, this minority protection thing is getting out of right hand!



I mean s'tahw  txen, od ew lla etirw dednah-tfel?!



Seriously: I found this very enlightening. And I really like Rick Beato, he kind of sums up everything that is adorable about North Americans, no joke. From what you can see and hear on youtube, he's a lovely man.

And I've often thought about buying a left-handed bass and relearning left-handed, just to see what it is like. Would I sound much different? Would issues I have with my right and left hand coordination suddenly disappear or crop up again, but in unexpected places/situations? Do we have anyone here that can play guitar/bass right- and left-handed? Does it sound different?

[uwe]

By that logic, all righties should be playing lefty.

Touché! 

[Ken]

And I've often thought about buying a left-handed bass and relearning left-handed, just to see what it is like. Would I sound much different? Would issues I have with my right and left hand coordination suddenly disappear or crop up again, but in unexpected places? Do we have anyone here that can play guitar/bass right- and left-handed? Does it sound different?

I have a 2018 left-handed Gibson Thunderbird I could be talked into parting with. 

[uwe]

You don't like it?

[Ken]

I like it fine, but my 2013 is my #1 and gets 98% of my playing time.  The 2018 is the one that had some weird construction.  It plays fine, but the center block was cut off-center, so there's a little more wood to the right of the pickups than the left.  But the bridge, pickups, and neck are all in-line with each other.  It's black, so I would never have noticed it until I took the bridge off, intending to change all the hardware to nickel (for a change - I love black hardware).  Gibson had me send it in and offered to replace it, but since they had no long scale left-handed basses around, I took it back.  They said if and when something is available down the road we can swap it.  But I'd be happy at this point to just pass it on.

By the way, how are you getting images posted in-line?  I can only seem to attach them as thumbnails.