andrew wrote:
Carmine, where did you find those spec sheet listings?
I called Gibson and was told that all their authorized dealers can order you left handed instruments. This is not a Southpaw Guitars exclusive.
I suggest calling Gibson with any questions. The call is toll free and I think the more inquiries about the lefty basses they get the more they'll be encouraged to have accurate information on hand and get the idea there's definitely interest about these basses out there.
Andrew, I got those specs from a buddy who copied them from Southpaw's Facebook page. He said he didn't see any specs posted there on the Tbirds, other than that Southpaw had ordered some sunburst ones.
Your points about calling Gibson are EXCELLENT ones. I will be doing so-- and speaking as a Marketing executive for a large corporation, I personally encourage everyone on this board to please
make that call (and ask any other lefties
you know to do same) even if you're not willing or able to make the purchase right now. Trust me when I say that whoever at Gibson convinced the "suits" and "bean counters" that this was a good idea likely has someone in Marketing compiling and presenting any favorable data points and stats that support this decision. They will need ALL the help we can give them.
I don't want to digress in this thread, but your comments about Gibson brought back to mind a recent "why bother with lefties" thread, where some folks went after Mcarp555 pretty hard regarding what some saw as his overstated comparisons on lefty discrimination. But by focusing on that aspect of disagreement, I think a larger point went somewhat overlooked: Changes that are perceived to solely benefit a minority almost always take more effort to achieve, and in most cases eventually occur because there are enough extremely passionate (some might even say overzealous) individuals committed enough to maintaining the noise level and sustaining the energy and effort it takes to refuse to accept the status quo. Even when the more "silent" members of the minority are generally in agreement with/and would benefit from the change, they frequently aren't willing to fight as hard for it- but will happily reap the benefits when the change happens. So in that spirit I express my gratitude to Mcarp555, as well as everyone else who's remained passionate enough over the years to keep making the calls, writing the letters, and using any other means necessary to keep making their voices heard in the face of decades of apparent indifference. As lefties we're all on the same team, and while there are no doubt other additional contributing factors in play at Gibson, I'm confident that we've all had some influence and impact- and there are a whole lot of less zealous lefties out there who are about to be a lot happier as a result!