LeftyBassist.com

I brought my girls to see "Frozen on Ice" in Minneapolis this past weekend, so I decided to set up an appointment to stop by Planet Bass and check out his stock of lefties.

First of all, Tony is a cool dude... he carries super high quality shit. I didn't see ANYTHING lame in his store AT ALL. It was wall-to-wall Aguilar, Epifani, Elrick, MTD, ZON, Modulus, Peterson, Mono... everything in the store was bad ass.

As far as lefties go, he admits he has never been known for being a lefty friendly shop, but he has three right now... and, although I'm not in the market for a bass at this moment, they were all pretty decent basses.

1.) Modulus GVJ4 - http://planetbass.com/shop/modulus-gvj4-lefty/

This bass is built like a tank. Super solid and quality construction. A bit on the heavy side at a hair under 10 lbs, but it played and sounded great. I honestly wasn't a fan of the 2-band Bartolini preamp... volume/blend with no passive tone seemed weird to me on a Jazz bass... but that could be easily fixed with a drop-in Sadowsky pre.

2.) Used Tobias Basic 6 (Pre Gibson) - http://planetbass.com/shop/tobias-basic ... re-gibson/

If anyone is in the market for a six string and wants a light bass with narrow spacing, this would be a great buy. The website says it was 9lbs 6oz, but I honestly think it might have been lighter than that. When I grabbed it, I was blown away by how light it was. It is used, so it has some wear and some minor dings on it and the hardware is worn... but it is a pre-Gibson bass, so it has a lot of miles on it. It sounded really good, but the electronics were a bit fugged up... Tony said he would swap out the pots, no problem. Personally, I couldn't hang with the tighter string spacing, but this could be a great bass for someone who likes that kind of thing. Setup was decent, but it felt like it could be set up even better without any issues.

3.) Fodera Emperor 5 - http://planetbass.com/shop/fodera-emperor-5-lefty/

This is the second lefty Fodera I have played and it was the better one of the two. It needed some love in the setup department, but it sounded absolutely killer and felt really nice. The koa top on it is one of the nicest pieces of koa I have ever seen in person, and it wasn't a boat anchor like many Fodera basses are known to be. I wish I could have pulled out my tools and started setting it up myself because I know EXACTLY what needed to be done and I would have loved to see if it was possible to get there... but obviously that wasn't going to happen. Is it worth $9K or close to it? The jury is out on that... but I do know that these basses retain their value incredibly well and if I was bleeding $100 bills out of my eyeballs, I would have probably taken it home.

Anyway... for those of you who aren't Facebook friends with me, here are some pictures of me playing the Fodera and the Tobias!

Do you remember what he was asking for them? I can't seem to find any prices on his website...

Addison is mentionning something like 9K

Yeah, when I asked about the Fodera a couple of years ago, I was quoted $8,475...

I'm honestly not sure what the prices are on the other two, or if the Fodera has gone down... I never asked since I wasn't buying.

I sent Tony an email to get pricing. I'll let you know if I hear something.

Chris

I'm not a 6 string player but a pre-Gibson Tobias has been on my wish list for years. That bass looks very cool.

Info I got from Tony... I'm guessing there's some wiggle room on these prices.

Flame Koa pickup covers $650. Seems a bit steep.

Yeah, well it is Fodera after all...

Check out their price list... they charge something for EVERYTHING.

http://fodera.com/content/Fodera%20Pric ... 202015.pdf

Fodera's "percentage" up charge for lefties is fucking enraging. Those basses are so gorgeous and I'd love to have one, but fuck them.

ZON has the same up-charge...

But, their basses don't typically cost $10,000 either.

I'll be honest... once I talked to a couple of builders about upcharges, I don't get that mad about it anymore. When you go from making 100 righty basses and you suddenly have to completely reset your brain and do a a double and triple-take before every single contour you sand because your muscle memory is fucking with you and you need to literally stop every few seconds to make sure all the angles are right, etc... it takes a lot of extra time and when people are paying $5K for a bass, it has to be PERFECT.

I understand, though. I used to get fucking enraged about it... and then I watched work being done on my bass right in front of me (nut being shaped and cut, control holes being drilled, fingerboard radius checked, electronics wiring, etc) and the frustration on their faces while they were trying to make sense of it all... I finally got it.

I get it for the most part.
But the thing that I find stupid is this: say I can choose (theoretically) between a top that costs $250 or that $650 koa top... Why should THAT influence the lefty upcharge? That's just robbery to me. If they are going to upcharge, it should be a flat fee.

That's just what upcharges do. They charge right up the buyer's...

Yeah, you're right. That makes perfect sense.

I can see how some options could deserve a higher upcharge. Neck-thru vs. bolt-on would be a good example. But, even then, it seems like you should be able to come up with some kind of flat fee to cover it.

But, if you decide on something like $250, someone who buys a bare bones $1500 bass is getting hosed at 16% and someone who's buying a $5K bass is getting a sweet deal at only having to pay 5%.

I need to bring this up with Joe again... after we've had a couple of beers.

I'm counting on you Chris. Haha

The problem with ALL THESE BUILDERS is that they charge a percentage for the lefty option. It should be a flat rate on customs. I get it but also I don't.

So when it's a percentage the more expensive the bass the more we get poled! Don't tell me the profit is the same on a 2,000 bass and a 5,000 bass. The builder is making WAY more profit for the 5,000 bass. The cost of materials and labor do not sky rocket like that I agree they are more but not that much.

So when you are at work and you have a typical task job and for some reason one comes up that is difficult and requires more time, energy, and concentration do you get paid more? We are not asking builder to make a boat for ----- sake! It's a bass and yes it's harder and there should be an upcharge but when it exceeds 400 - 500 bucks I think that is excessive..IMO

Bingo!

anything is possible. It took him about 2 or 3 years, but Jerry of JerrysLeftyGuitars convinced Bill Collings to drop the lefty upcharge. He also conviced another builder to do the same, but the name escapes me ATM.

No upcharge for lefties at Birdsong Basses.