LeftyBassist.com

I don't know if this has been brought up yet to discuss in a thread, but I find it very sad to see left-handed AVRI guitars, teles as well as strats, but no basses whatsoever. Could we convince Fender to manufacture these or could we have them make a one-off run of lefty AVRI basses if there are enough potential buyers (and if so, how could we organize this on the board)?

That would interest me a lot and - who knows - Fender would be persuaded to have them made on a regular basis!...

Yeah, in my dreams.

I occasionally post on Fender's Facebook page and have written them an email every 4 or 5 months for the last several years to ask them why they won't even make maple fingerboards for lefty basses... I can't even get a straight answer.

It's most certainly based purely on numbers... they already sell WAY less basses than guitars and then lefties only make up 1% of the guitar-buying market, so do the math.

With a major corporation like Fender, they simply can't be bothered to do anything that doesn't generate a significant enough profit to make the shareholders happy.

I doubt it will happen however take advantage of the Fender Japan, I have a couple of their vintage stuff and it is amazing. The prices have dropped back down to $1100, for the quality, it is worth every dollar.

Stale topic.... unfortunately. Fender does not give a rats ass about lefties. The margin is not worth their time. Its all about money and not enough orders.

Fender Japan is supposed to be good or build your own Jazz bass out of parts.

Sucks to be lefty but that's life!

one of these days I'll need to pick up a jazz bass to see what the hype is about.
I mean, I know just about jack shit about basses and bass playing but their guitars were never to my liking.

I posted a link to this thread on their FB page.

Let's look at the positive: This year, Fender added Blue and Red (I want white or vintage white folks!) to the boring Sunburst or Black colors available for the Jazz Bass and P Bass. I remember when the Am STD Jazz Bass was not available to us for over 25 yrs and before coming back on the shelves in 2008, so in a certain way, it is better.
Now, while I understand the economic logic behind those limited choices (less than 1% of bass sales) I have never understood why Fender does not occasionally release some left-handed Fender Special Runs for some of the most coveted Fenders like the '75 or '62 RI or even Maple neck Jazz and PBass.
Like we've seen with the recent Gibson limited run on lefty basses, they went like hot cakes because we all knew it was not going to last.

Interesting thread on TB about Fender doing on line custom orders from their website:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/fender ... s-1022040/

I wonder if they will offer more lefty options as part of this.

I agree, it's a pity they won't offer a little more variation from the standard black and sunburst finishes, rosewood fingerboards and only standard models. Last year they gave us Mystic Blue and Mystic Red finishes on the American Standard Jazz and Precision. Wow Fender, what a kind gesture...



Word! I love my Fender MIJ '75 Jazz reissue and the '57 Precision reissue I had for a while was a fun bass too.

I agree there should be more options, but I must say I found the new mystic red & blue a pleasant surprise once I saw them in person. It's basically candy apple red and lake placid blue, just a tad darker on both counts. I have a 2013 Jazz in red and with a mint green guard on it, it's a stunner. But I'd definitely like to see Fender at least put out Olympic white for christ sakes.

I cringe everytime I get a catalog from GC or MF...what's the use of even looking through the pages, it's all righty stuff. Really though, that's where the pressure has to come from, the retailers have to lean on Fender for at least a few more models or some special order left handed stuff.

My simple suggestion would be for us to email, call or write everytime we notice a nice Fender bass being advertised by a retailer. Simply ask if it's available in lefty. That will generate a lot of retailer calls to Fender and sooner or later they'll take note that there's a way for them to boost their sales by about 5-10% if they'll just get serious about this sector of the market.

The hell of it is, they're really set up for it now. If you look at the Fender product lineup you'll notice almost all of the bits and pieces are in production to make most any lefty bass at just about any price point....except maybe maple finger boards but that's a simple fix, so is the limited color selection, this isn't rocket surgery. They just need to plug in somebody down there that gives a dang.

Glenn

Here's my candidly simple suggestion, based on numerous discussions with several builders who proactively support the expansion of lefty instruments:


Support those builders who are proactively making (financial) investment into the lefty market, and cease chasing after those who openly snub you with apathy and an occasional item or two. Simply put - if the girl down the street is rebuffing your attentions towards her, take a moment to look around and embrace the girl who is chasing after you.

There are many Fender-ish styled instruments available by an ever increasing number of builders who embrace the lefty market. They are making the effort to listen to and accommodate your desire for an increased assortment of lefty instruments at most all price ranges. Their continued investment into the lefty market depends on your willingness to transact with them. If the only result of their investment into the lefty market is to be used as pawns to get Fender to offer something they don't want to offer, what do you think these builders are going to do? Exactly - they will begin to limit their lefty offerings, and this move will only provide Fender with more examples of why NOT to increase their lefty offerings.


Big companies will only change their business model when they see that they are losing out on significant financial gains or are facing significant financial penalties. If you want to bring Fender to a new position on lefty instruments, let them be in the position of having to catch up to what others are doing. Historically, in the post-Leo corporation this is the only way to get their attention.

all the best,

R

Well said Rod and I love your chasing the girl analogy.I think we've all been there,done that.

Amen Rod

Yep, someday I'll have Rod build my vintage white '75 Jazz Bass, rosewood neck, Pearloid block inlays...

My take on this is that, in the grand scheme of things, I think that Fender has done a very decent job in offering lefty instrument. (Don't forget that Fender started offering lefty basses and guitars almost since day one, which is a pretty significant fact.) Fender offers a lefty version of almost every type of instruments they produce - just because they have 1-million variations of the same 10 models, it wouldn't make sense for them to produce lefty versions of all those variations. My biggest beef with Fender is (was) that they stopped producing lefty Jazz basses in 1982, but that was corrected in 2008 (or '07). Sure, I'd love to see a maple-neck lefty Jazz, but personally I don't think it's such a big deal. And my other only beef is that they've never produced a 5-string lefty. But in my case, it doesn't matter because I know their 5-strings tend to have a really beefy neck, and I probably wouldn't own one anyway. Thankfully we have Carvin, EB/MM and G&L for those mid-price American 5-string needs.

And about the American vintage reissue stuff, they sure look good, but technically they are an inferior product than the current American Standard series. Weak truss rods, no graphite rods (which to me help keep those pencil-thin Jazz-bass necks straight for years to come), no shielding, heavy tuning keys. . . I love a well-played, relic'd vintage Fender that is 30+ years old because of the mojo and the dry wood, but I don't see the appeal of getting a brand-new vintage-correct instrument. IMHO. (Some say that graphite rods affect the sound and doesn't result in a vintage-correct sound. . . Really? Only you and your cat cares. . . )

Also, Fender not offering the vintage stuff shouldn't be a concern when you can build yourself a nicer vintage-spec Fender-type bass using licensed parts from Warmoth, US Custom Guitar and others, for maybe even less than what Fender would charge. It just takes a little more work, and you won't have that Fender decal on the headstock, but it's very doable with just a bit of planning and patience.

And of course I also agree with what Rod said: support those companies who go the extra mile to cater to lefties, instead of begging those companies who won't. And that, children, is the moral of this thread.

I've played both a new mystic red and mystic blue basses, and man, they are stunning in person. The mystic blue, especially, it has sort of a purple tinge to it and very sparkly. . . not at all like lake placid, to my eyes, which is more of a real blue. . . I think that nobody seem excited when these came out, and I think they only did one run of lefties last year, so I don't think these are in production anymore . . But definitely a nice offering.

Correct me if I'm mistaken but I think the last time Fender offered lefty's a fairly wide color selection was the late 90's-early 2000's Hot Rod/Hot Rodded series when options were black,white,natural,sunburst and the cool trans orange.

Companies founded by Leo Fender have always offered lefties, some with more selection than others

I find that Fender does make a moderate attempt at catering to leftys but its still disappointing to not be able to order something as simple as a maple board on a Jazz bass. They offer maple or rosewood for both lefty USA Strats and Tele's but not the basses. The limits on colors makes no sense to me. Leftys will sell in less popular colors because they will be so unique. It makes no sense that huge companies like Yamaha and Ibanez offer virtually nothing left handed!

I am a big Ernie Ball fan and 10 years ago, it seemed that they were really catering to lefty players with the Stingray 4's, 5's, Bongo 4's and 5's and the Sterling 4 all available left handed in any color. They even offered the limited edition colors in left (I have a 2007 Blue Dawn LE SR4). But since then, I don't think a single new model has been available left handed. For instance, the Bongo6, Sterling5, Reflex, Big Al, Game Changer or any of the newer limited editions are available left handed. It looks to me like they have simply stopped trying to offer anything new in a lefty version. It takes a lot of the excitement of any new releases away as its almost a given that there will be no lefty option.

I play acoustic guitars a lot and really appreciate both Martin and Taylor for offering virtually EVERYTHING in their product line left handed at no extra cost. Seems like Fender could up their game a bit considering the sheer volume of instruments they sell every year.