LeftyBassist.com

Hey all,
Im new to these forums, im from Australia, I just wanted to know if its easy enough to get a left handed bass and string it upside down?
I play a right handed bass left handed, if u know what i mean
I would love to have the controls at the bottom of the bass rather than under my arm pit.
Anione got any suggestions?

Hi, have a look at the Precision bass at the top of this forum, it's strung the way you play.

I know of a couple players who play that way. Our resident guy to use that stringing is Austinleftybass, if you have any questions about technique with that stringing you should talk to him.

A few things to note when stringing a bass upside down:

1. You may need to either file the nut or replace the nut to accomodate the backwards stringing so that the E or A strings will fit in the nut slots better. Likewise, your pre-existing nut slots for the E and A may be too wide/deep for the G and D strings and may not keep the strings sitting off your fretboard high enough, in which case either replace the nut or fill the slots. I used to just stick folded paper in the slots when I played upside down basses. Not the best solution, but it worked.

2. You may need to drill a new strap peg to the (formerly) bottom horn so that your strap/bass will balance flipped over. If you don't want to drill your bass, then you can use the kind of strap made for acoustic guitars that ties to the headstock.

3. Note that on a P style bass when flipping the strings your P pickup will be oriented differently now, with pole pieces for the G and D strings closer to the neck and E and A pole pieces closer to the bridge. This results in a slightly different sound than a standard P. (though personally, I prefer this orientation to a regular P as I think the P tones sound more balanced overall). You could opt for a J bass instead where the pole pieces of the PUP are positioned in the same spot regardless of how you string the bass.

thanks for the response fellas

If you want to see someone who uses that stringing, try looking up Jimmy Haslip on youtube. Very talented jazz/fusion player who does the righty stringing on a lefty bass.

That's how I play. It's very easy to restring a lefty Fender-style bass as the main problem is the nut, but usually if the nut is the kind that fit into a slot in the fingerboard(as opposed to the type that fit against the end of the board) you can just swap it around, then its usually just a matter of redoing the bridge saddle intonation.
I mentioned it in another post but, when I remove a Fender nut I heat it with a blow dryer which loosens the glue holding it in place, and it comes out quite easily.
As far as the other style nut, I use 45-105 guage strings and they are usually large enuff that the G string in the original E string nut slot is not a problem, you just need to get some decent files to widen the other slots.

thanks

Hey All-
Same playing style here too -lefty strung righty....and Im right handed - go figure.
Dont forget that when you flip the strings you will have to re-intonate the bass, i.e., reposition the bridge saddles so that when playing a harmonic at the 12th fret, the fingered note at the 12th fret is identical in pitch. It is probably best to do this with a tuner handy as these two notes get really close and 1 or 2 cents off can make all the difference. If you don't re-intonate the bridge, any double/triple stops that you play will be way out of tune, not to mention the fundamental.
Good luck out there - thanx for representing the true bastard children of the lefty bunch!
peace, rob

http://www.robswansonmusic.com