LeftyBassist.com

Jerry of jerrysleftyguitars posted this on another forum. And I quote ....

"I thought this was pretty interesting. Helps me realize why they don't want to stop and make leftys. All production stops for a couple of days to reset machinery before leftys are made, then again to retool for rightys. They are backordered 2 years for rightys."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=NEuqgZzKxC4

Maybe I'm just being whiny but....

2 days to "re-tool"?!? I can see it being more of a hassle for the hollow bodys - 330, 360, etc - but with CNC machines they should be able to do a switch on solid body instruments like basses and 620's fairly quickly. I mean, back in the day, they didn't even make a different neck for basses. Us southpaws got - essentially - a right handed neck/fretboard/headstock with lefty body wings and an upside down name plate. I'd be happy to have an upside down headstock and fret markers if it meant I could get a new 4003. How much "re-tooling" would it take to make some lefty body wings and put them in the glue press?

Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge Ric fan. Love them. I think this video is amazing and I'm very impressed with their build process. I just don't buy that it would be a 2 + 2 day down time to build some lefty 4003 basses and/or any other solid body. Maybe Rod from Regenerate can tell me what I'm missing here since he knows CNC and guitar building better than most of us.

Yes, it's early here in Toronto and I haven't finished my first cup of coffee. Sorry for the rant.

"Charles" from Premier Guitar must have been cramming for an exam the night before.

That's a fantastic video. Makes me want to go out and buy a new Rick, lefthandedness notwithstanding. I've said it before and I'll say it again, their finishing is second to none, IMO. My '79 looks like it was made yesterday. I'd love to hear Rod weigh in on Rick's manufacturing procedures. Some revelations to my eyes, at least. I had no idea the F hole "binding" was simply hand scalloped to appear like binding. But yeah, I still don't see a legitimate excuse for not at least taking 1 week out of the year to manufacture lefties. The $250 per instrument additional markup doesn't make up for the additional effort or whatever 1 week's time away from righty manufacture would yield in sales? (Not to mention alienating an entire community of lefties?). Short sightedness, plain and simple.