LeftyBassist.com

A friend has offered to help me build my own (Since it looks like Fender is never gonna get around to it).

Anyone have a good recommendation for getting lefty parts for making a single coil Precision/Tele style? I'd like as much of it to be from stock lefty parts as possible.

Any advice appreciated

are you open to going the Warmoth / USA Custom Guitar / etc ... route?

all the best,

R

I mentioned this in another thread. I looked into building one myself a few years ago. Every part you'll need can be had for a lefty bass, from woods to hardware, except the control plate, which I could never find lefty. (The only place I've seen one is on a Schecter Rob Deleo bass, and those are pretty hard to come by too). The only alternative I could come up with was obtaining a right handed one and chroming the underside of it.

So what happens if you reverse a right hand control plate and don't chrome it, what's it look like?
I'm not hung up on the authenticity/historical aspect . I will want a string-thru bridge with 4 adjusters. If some consider this blasphemy, so be it. If I got one stock I would switch out that bridge anyway. If I do build one I want it to have the SCPB/tele look but I'm not trying to fool anyone. The sound is the key

I've got RFQ's going in to couple places for a lefty control plate. Once I know the cost I'll either make these individually for for builds or offer the group here opportunity to join in on a purchase of 10 - 25 covers

all the best,

R

I wish Arni had contact info listed for the guys on his site. There's a guy on leftybass.com who has a lefty '51 P-Bass style bass, complete with control plate, but there's no way to contact him to ask where he got the plate.

I have to ask again, what does the "wrong" side of a right handed '51P control plate look like? I'm just wondering if i could get away with reversing it. I flipped a righty gold anodized pickguard to use on my lefty 57P CIJ RI and it looks fine.

I have real estate agents about to walk clients thru our place, but later this evening I can pop the cover plate off my '51Pish Darkstar build and snap an image for you to see

all the best,

R

Hey Rodent, that would be greatly appreciated whenever you get the chance, there's certainly no rush! Thanks!!!

OK ... here's the topside of an installed '51P control plate. it has seen about 18 months of action in a bass I custom built as a design prototype, but still is in reasonable condition all things considered. the top side has a nicely polished chrome plated surface



this image shows the two mounting screws removed, and their countersunk holes. this is the main difference between a righty and lefty from a physical design perspective



here's the flip side of the typical control plate I use. the chrome plating isn't as detailed as the top side ... actually this is quite good compared to a few parts manufacturers out there who have a dreadfully awful finish on the back side. note that there is no countersink to the mounting holes on this side




if you purchase a control plate with good chroming on the back side, you'll need to utilize dome head screws to mount it with vs. countercunk screws like most everything else utilizes. it'll look a little bumpy when viewed up close, but nobody will be able to tell the difference from 30 feet away. when I have the lefty control plates made, they'll have the correct orientation for the countersinks ... a small detail, but significant to me and my building efforts

all the best,

R

Hey Rodent,

Thanks so much for these detailed pictures!

I'm still not even sure I will tackle this project but if I do, of course I'd prefer to find a proper lefty designed control plate, but it looks to me like using a reversed right hand control plate wouldn't be a serious problem at all.
If it comes to that, using round head screws wouldn't bother me. In fact that's exactly what I use on the right handed anodized pickguard that I flipped over to put on my CIJ lefty P bass. As with the control plate, the screw holes on the guard are counter sunk on the "right" side but flat on the reverse. I found brass roundhead screws that fit and match the anodized color nicely and I love the look of it.

Thanks again for the great pics, I'm sure everyone here will appreciate!

I have a Nordstrand order going in next week. I've used their SCPB pickups in previous builds, and plan to order a SCPB for a refit project I'll be doing in a month or two. If you're interested in a custom Nordy SCPB pickup wound to original Fender specs, drop me a PM and I can shoot you back a LeftyBassist price quote.

all the best,

R

Check here:
http://edenhaus.com/default.htm

This guy said he was going to start building them soon.