LeftyBassist.com

I'm so tired of these ignorant threads appearing again and again. i wish people would get themselves some education :

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=635947

why must you torture yourself by reading this kind of drivel?

I responded appropriately. God, I don't understand the douche nozzles that start these shit threads on TB.

Didn't mean to, it was just there as I was browsing. The sad truth is there are a lot of people who think this way, and I suspect this line of thinking can even be traced to many of the instrument makers who refuse to make lefties. Retooling aggravations, fewer than 5% orders, and any of the other of the commonly used excuses aside, I really think some companies just "don't get it."

+1 to "just don't get it".

That being said, if there were big enough bucks to be made from us, they'd get it in a hurry

This is just typical of someone in a majority group ignorantly assuming that there's no good reason that the people in the minority shouldn't be like them. Like someone who tells a racist joke and doesn't understand why somebody might be offended, he was totally clueless that the basic premise of his question-- written as if there's only "right" handed and "wrong" handed instruments-- was biased against, and offensive to left handed players-- cuz quess what-- he plays a right handed one--so sure, what need does he have for a left handed bass? As lefties could you ever see any of us posting this:

Quote:

Right handed guitars and basses I seem to not get the point?
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Simply put why is there a need for right handed instruments?

See how ridiculously stupid that sounds in reverse? if the dominant hand 'reasoning' of the thread was the point this idiot was trying to make, then why single out left handed instruments as the issue? As Dano pointed out, if the dominant hand logic was valid then all right handers should be playing a lefty bass?! Doesn't it make you wish for just one day right handed people could wake up in a left hand dominated world and see how discriminated so many things are? But while we're ripping on this poor fool, I hope it's also a reminder to us by virtue of our left handedness to be a little more sensitive to / tolerant of the minorities or opinions we encounter, whatever they may be that are different from ourselves. Because it's so easy to be equally as ignorant or screwed up about something else as this guy is about lefties....

Staggers the imagination that people still actually think this way.

Those of you who know me will know that I tend to get pretty militant on this subject, but I took the meds and I'm much calmer now..... and in any case the thread was closed by the time I found it.

I'd like to think it gives me an edge

On a more serious note, what I read from the thread about starting out as a newbie, picking up a bass and instinctively - I think that's key - and flipping it lefty makes most sense if I think back at the day I went out for my first bass...

Might have also been cuz I write lefthanded and therefor assumed I play bass lefthanded...

Also it guarantees for more fun on stage! If you play along with your (obviously) right handed guitarplayer, the fretboards line up nice when standing in front of eachother!

I went offline and composed a "mature" response but when I came back to post the thread had been locked Oh well I saved it for the next time..........there will be a next time unfortunately.

This stupid topic is right up(down) there with pick vs fingers. WHO CARES? Play whatever/however you want.
The thread is locked.

Wow, reading your responses, I guess I'm in the minority...

I want to take offense to that post because I'm a lefty, and, as a lefty, I'm conditioned to taking offense to ignorant statements from people who don't "get it."

But...

I'm also one of those lefties who wishes I would have listened to the person who told me that I would always regret it if I played lefty.

Because I do... I wish I would've listened.

When it comes to batting, pitching, throwing lefty in pro sports, etc, there's an obvious tactical advantage... it can actually benefit you if a team is looking for a lefty pitcher, since you can be drafted with LESS skills than a right-handed pitcher because you're a commodity in the industry.

Same goes with boxing or MMA... if you fight south-paw, you're usually considered to be a greater challenge because most fighters are right-handed and spar with other right-handed fighters.

Atheletes who learn to fight/bat/pitch/throw/etc BOTH ways, are at an even greater advantage than other athletes, e.g., switch-hitters and fighters who switch their stance in the middle of a round.

Some people theorize that we'll somehow be screwed up later in the game if we force ourselves to learn right-handed, but this doesn't seem to be true with violinists or pretty much any other string players in any orchestra around the world. In fact, with pretty much any other instrument there is NO other option. Piano, sax, flute, trumpet, tuba, violin... and both lefties and righties seem to be able to do just fine on those instruments.

Why should guitar be any different?

There is simply no advantage that I can think of that I have over a right-handed player... I pay more AND I have less to choose from. And I can't imagine that I would have had to work THAT much harder to be at the level I am today, had I forced myself to get over the initial resistance I had to learning to play right-handed to begin with.

Truth be told, I thought I HAD to play left-handed because I'm a lefty... at first, it felt "right" (for lack of a better term), but I honestly feel like I would have been able to get over it... just like I did with everything else that didn't feel right at first.

I dunno... I don't mean to ruffle any feathers or upset anyone, and I certainly don't want to argue with any of you guys, but... just thought I'd add an opposing view to the discussion.

You make some good points too Addison.

I also wish I'd learned righty simply because I lust for so many basses only available righty, but in the greater scheme of things playing lefty felt natural to me immediately, while holding an instrument righty always felt wrong.

I think with this there are no correct answers for everyone. I believe there are lefty people in the world who could learn to play right handed and do great with it, I also think there are lefty guys who learned righty that are good but could've been better had they learned lefty handed, and I also believe there are lefty guys who would never master the bass trying to play it right handed.
Of course these categories apply to all instruments. Who is to say that there aren't some very accomplished violinists out there who might've been that much better had they been able to play left handed when they started as their instinct to do so told them to.
This is just my theory, I have no science to back it up.

I started playing the way it felt right and despite the hardships getting stock instruments it is worth it.

And that's the bottom line, as far as I'm concerned. You don't "choose" to be lefty, you either are or you're not. Yes, you can choose to ignore the side you favor and learn to play right handed, but the implication that you have to or that you shouldn't be treated with the same respect or understanding is ludicrous. THAT was the implication I derived from that idiot's post, and I'm glad we raised enough of a stink to shut him down.

As for the sports argument, I respectfully disagree. While, on the surface, a sport like baseball can appear to be a lefty-friendly where lefties do pose a certain advantage, at least in a hitting lineup, the fact is there are only 3 out of 9 field positions that lefties are "allowed" to play. Sounds more like exploitation than mutual respect, IMO. I know because when I was a kid I was dying to play catcher. When I was in 7th grade I got a custom ordered lefty catcher's mitt from Rawlings for my birthday. I was stoked to use it on my school's team. Long story short, they wouldn't let me. Typical baseball ignorance steeped in the lasting tradition that a lefty can't play catcher because he'd have to throw cross body to try to pick off someone at 1st and/or a righty batter would get in the way (Yeah, that's never a problem for a righty when a lefty's up, right?). Never mind that a catcher would have better snap and velocity on a ball throwing cross body from a crouching position than a righty, or that the majority of stolen bases take place at 2nd or 3rd, or that I was 10 times better than the guy they gave the catcher job to, the answer was no. So I ended playing first while the other guy let batter after batter turn every walk and single into an automatic triple.

Andrew, as always you are level headed about these things, which I appreciate- but I can't agree with you or Addison as far as wishing I'd learned righty. I've NEVER EVER wished that! I absolutely DO NOT believe I would be anywhere near as good a player today if I'd tried to fight against myself to play right-handed, anymore than I would be as good a right-handed thrower or writer or anything else that hand dominance plays a role in. Having played other instruments throughout my youth with very little success, the first time I ever had that "I can do this!" feeling immediately was when I picked up a right handed bass and flipped it over. Playing lefty felt completely natural and instantly comfortable, and as a result my playing progressed very quickly. Hell, otherwise I might have just decided it was too hard and quit (like most people who try to learn to play guitar, regardless of which-handed they are).

And although owning a variety of basses brings me great joy, in the beginning I only had one bass, and it was about the pure joy of being able to play and learning to play as well as I could. Given a choice I'd rather be limited by choice of instruments than suck as a player and be able to buy anything I liked. The reality is that you can only play ONE at a time- and the one that brings me the most joy is that one I'm playing, because I can play it well.

Having said that, I did make a consession to the right hand world by learning to play strung "backward" (E on the bottom, G on top). This has always been a BIG advantage to me, since I could always flip and play any right-handed bass-- but didn't require me to change my hand dominance. It just means I play some different patterns and fingerings than most folks do, but it doesn't limit my playing at all- in fact it may even help to differentiate my playing a little bit since I might be making slightly different choices at times, but for the most part I sound like any other (really good : ) bass player...

Not to sound shallow, and I realize this is totally subjective, but I think lefty bassists (or guitarists) look better in a band! We add a symmetry and a quirk to a group at the same time.

Maybe so, but I can't begin to count the number of times people in the audience were completely unaware that I am playing left-handed.

And this is true for many musicians out there as well. ... "Oh yeah, man, you're a lefty! I never noticed!"
i think there were too many steroids in the Chicken McNuggets they ate when they were kids. It must have affected their eyesight.

That's totally valid Carmine, because that's the point; it's about the individual being allowed to make the choice that's right for them.

To clarify, I don't wish I'd forced myself to learn right handed so much as I wish it didn't naturally feel so right for me to play lefty. I believe I am meant to play lefty, but it woulda been a treat to the collector in me to be able to play righty so I could get a few of those choice basses I love but will never own (cough, cough, Gibson Thunderbird, cough, cough).

OK, agreed Andrew... and that leads me to digress in a slightly different direction for a moment and ask you guys something...

For several years when I started out, I played righties because that's all I could find. I think you guys know that as a collector, I 've bought and sold quite a few rare and/or collectable righties too and still have several (including just about every model of Gibson bass- Rippers, Grabbers, SGs and EBs) as investments- and frankly, I'll play the damn things too if they're fairly well balanced. Of course this is less problematic for me because I don't have to re-string 'em. But the thing is, it's allowed me to play alot of the basses I lusted after regardless of being left handed. For example Andrew, I have 2 righty Gibson non-reverse Tbirds. I play them out now and then, and as AzWhoFan mentioned, not only do people not notice I'm left handed, they don't notice I'm playing a right handed bass upside down either. I played an upside down EB3 for years, and nobody ever said a word. Good grief, you've even got dusty Hill from ZZ Top having his Tele basses custom made upside down....

So I guess my question is: how adverse are you guys to playing a (reasonably balanced)righty upside down, if it's something you really wanted to play and it's not available as a lefty?

I'll only do it is the body/headstock are symmetrical and I can pull the electronics out so there's no knobs under my arm. I've only ever done this with a couple cheap hollowbody basses for this reason.