LeftyBassist.com

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/msg/5894417514.html

Crap, that's walking distance from my apartment! Not the year for it, though.

I'm assuming, that this is not a fully converted lefty upright. If it is, $1000 is a good price for it (depending upon condition)
A full conversion to left handed would run anywhere from $1200 to $1500 depending upon the bass being converted and the luthier doing it.

I was about to post pretty much the same thing. If anyone looks into it, make sure the soundpost & bass bar are properly situated.

Yeah, I just emailed him asking if it was a full conversion lefty. While having a bass that's partially converted is ok, it definitely diminishes the overall tone of the instrument as well as can lead to structural problems down the line as the bass gets older. Not as much in plywood bass as carved ones, but the tone definitely suffers if the bass's internals are not converted.

I got the impression from the listing that it was made left-handed, not converted. Is that not the case? (I know next to nothing about upright basses.)

Aside from Shen basses, I don't know of any manufacturer that builds actual plywood left handed upright basses. I could be wrong though. The only bass builder that I know of that offers left handed as an option in their plywood series is Shen (SB 80)
I'm sure others offer it as well, but to my knowledge, only in the high end carved models.

Englehardt builds lefties, Tom. A tad cheaper than Shen, but supposedly good.

Thompson I believe makes a plywood and a hybrid lefty.

Did not know that Matt. Have you ever played one? I'm looking get a plywood upright and have always liked Englehardts.

Haven't played one, but it came down to choosing between that and the Shen SB80. I picked the Shen because of availability. Both seemed very well regarded based on the research I was doing at the time.

I have the Engelhardt ES1 and love it. Bought it through Upton Bass around 2005. The bass was a factory lefty, then they refined and upgraded a bunch of stuff (tailpiece, fingerboard, bridge, etc.), and and set it up before shipping to me. I recommend giving them a shout if in the upright market. I don't think they do Engelhardt anymore, but they do build their own basses that I understand are very good and appear to start in the $2750 range per their site. They were happy to help this lefty find a good bass, and I had tons of rather stupid questions they were all too happy to answer.

I've played lefty Shen basses that sound great, and some that are a struggle...the good ones are great for the price point. Otherwise I've been hard pressed to find a real lefty upright (surprise!).

I have also had two BSX EUBs...different beast altogether, but Dino at BSX is amazing and very lefty friendly as well.

Should also have mentioned that I've had some conversations with Bob Gollihur about lefties and he used to have a relationship with some European company that would build lefty basses. Maybe they were in Poland if memory serves...anyway, the price was right (low $2ks if I recall, but that was near 10 years ago), but I was never able to convince myself to pull the trigger since I couldn't get my hands on one first. But that's another potential source if you're in the market.

Strunal makes factory lefties. I've owned two of them.

I know the Shen basses are full lefties, are the other basses mentioned, full lefty as well? It's very cool to see other manufacturers embracing the lefty market. When I first started to study upright, the only way to get a left handed model was to have a right handed bass converted. Obviously that applies to older instruments like mine. I purchased my bass from Kolstein's and Barry converted it to left handed. And it was not cheap!!!

This has been mentioned in previous threads, but Upton will do a full lefty conversion for $500, the stipulation being you are buying a righty of theirs first:

http://www.uptonbass.com/product/left-h ... ss-option/

Engelhardt is the first company that comes to mind when I think of lefty upright availability. I believe that back when Matt bought his the consensus was that Shen made a higher quality instrument, but I can't vouch for newer Engelhardt's. They do seem to be more readily available, however, and lefties can be ordered in any model. Bob Gollihur can get them, starting at $1549 for the EM-1 or EC-1 models up to the ES-9 Swingmaster at $2149. I've seriously thought about getting a Swingmaster. Such a sharp looking bass in that blonde finish. Reviews I've read online are pretty positive, and it's supposedly made in the US, though I'm dubious:

http://www.gollihurmusic.com/product/12 ... _BASS.html

If I remember correctly, Shen offered the left handed option but it was an additional charge. Can't remember what it was though (may have been around $500 for the lefty conversion) this is really good news about the availability of left handed uprights. Esp plywood ones. There are certain gigs that require that type of tone that can only be gotten from a plywood bass and there are also gigs that I'd rather not use my carved bass on. To be honest, I was not particularly crazy about the Shen SB 80. It's great that there are more options out there for us lefties to choose from.

There's a lefty Eminence upright at NJ Guitar and Bass right now:

http://www.newjerseyguitarandbasscenter ... tBass.html

Not a true upright, but one of the best portable acoustic/electric options I've ever heard. If it's good enough for Esperanza Spaulding it's good enough for me.

I'll post this as a separate subject as well.

Never been a fan of EUB's, although I have used them for fly dates. The Eminence being one of them. Good sounding instrument, I just found them to be a bit uncomfortable to play.

According to the seller:
I am not an aficionado in this regard. It was right handed and Scherl and Roth made it lefty to accomodate a left handed player. I do not know about the bass bar or sound post, but I would guess yes. I am currently away until friday. That's all I know.