Silvia Bluejay

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1397671281' post='2426353'] Just for fun I slashed a hefty amount off the price of a lefty bass today to see if it might generate any interest [/quote] Link please Barrie?

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1397653065' post='2426068'] I am so glad that you posted this ... I didn't want to have to be the one to do it! Although I think you'll find that "left hand dexterity" is an oxymoron. I can see where you're coming from, but I don't play a R/H bass in a R/H fashion because I am right-handed (which I am, by the way) and it feels more natural or better that way. I play a R/H bass in a R/H fashion because that's what I was presented with when I first picked up a bass - or, more accurately, when the 12-year-old me picked up a guitar for the first time. If that 1970's guitar had been L/H and I had been shown how to play it L/H it would never have occurred to me that maybe my right hand would be better at plucking, while my left hand would be better at fingering. Even as I write that, I still can't think why being right handed OR left handed should make one hand better at either plucking or fingering. Our primate ancestors by and large did very little of either ... [/quote] OK, so here we have people who say the plucking hand should not be perceived as the dominant one; therefore lefties can play a righty instrument with their "better" hand in the correct place. Yay. So,why isn't that true of righties then? Why isn't there an absolutely massive demand for lefty instruments, if you guys' "better" hand, the right, is more suited to the fretboard? Don't say "because there are not enough lefty models" - we've established that demand drives the offer, and there are a lot of righty players out there. If that myth was true of lefties, it would be true of righties and they'd have found a way to get manufacturers to help.

We'll have to get a nice screen to shroud the bass's identity in mystery...

All played by the same person and on the same rig, with the same settings, probably. That sounds intriguing, and I've tweeted your post

I think you're agreeing with me, and refuting the theory I was quoting. And - I've posted this link before, but it's appropriate here too [url="http://www.lefthandedpiano.com/"]http://www.lefthandedpiano.com/[/url]

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1397642158' post='2425892'] I must admit I am MASSIVELY outnumbered by my colleagues at work in terms of being a righty. All of them apart from me are left-handed and all of them have achieved a minimum of grade 8 and above on their main instrument playing right-handed and are mostly proficient on a number of other instruments too. Lefties are just as entitled to choose to play right-handed as you are to choose not to. Most of the guys I work with don't understand the concept of being a leftie on guitar/bass etc. One of them actually believes it makes more sense to be left-handed and play a "right-handed" instrument as the dexterity required for playing the notes on the neck comes from your left hand, exploiting his natural left hand dexterity. He does play drums left-handed though. [/quote] Being absolutely useless at doing most things with my right hand I may not be the best person to comment on this, but it looks like a spurious argument to me. I mean, if it was true, then there would be a lot of demand for lefty instruments by right-handed players who would want to use their more "dextrous" hand on the fingerboard as opposed to using it for plucking.

[quote name='mcarp555' timestamp='1397639785' post='2425851'] True, and that's the nub of what I'm saying. Contact the makers and make your voice heard. [/quote] No, I don't think we're on the same wavelength here. It's not writing to the manufacturers that would help in this case, whether or not the manufacturers themselves are lefty-friendly - they currently can't afford to do much for us (see all the discussion above). It's us who need to help ourselves. As a hypothetical example: if the only available lefty bass I can get my hands on is black, provided the rest of it is to my liking, I'll buy that bass rather than turning a red/sunburst/green righty upside down or, if I'm a beginner, learn to play righty altogether. Multiply that slightly less-than-ideal purchase by every left-handed bassist or would-be bassist, and you immediately double the size of the market, because all lefties would be playing lefty instruments. Demand would eventually trickle through to manufacturers, and red/sunburst/green lefty basses would eventually start appearing.

[quote name='mcarp555' timestamp='1397638027' post='2425824'] And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the issue in miniature: "Why didn't you just learn to play right-handed in the first place?" I wish there was a way to count all the people who picked up a guitar or bass and tried earnestly to learn to play it in the wrong direction, then gave up and decided they weren't 'musical'. This kind of narrowminded thinking ranks up there with "Why don't gay people just stop being gay?", "Why doesn't everyone like [blank] like [i][b]I [/b][/i]do?" You think it easy, you pick up a left-handed instrument and teach yourself to play. Discrimination, pure and simple. [/quote] While I fully agree with this, and also with the hope for change, I don't share the sense of entitlement. Companies lose money on lefty instruments, and they will continue to lose money (and consequently axe production of lefty instruments) for as long as half or more of all lefties - who are already a minority - choose to (or are forced to) learn to play righty. I think the work needs to start with lefties themselves - we need to learn not to be bullied into becoming substandard righty musicians. Manufacturers will follow the demand, once there is some. In the meantime, I think we'll need to put up with less choice in models and buy what's available. It's going to be a long process and take patience and resilience. Incidentally, the above easily applies to any other handed object or instrument on the market, not just in the music field.

I agree with Ped and, as I said on the other thread, Throwoff. Let's try thinking about it in different terms. If left-handed people comprise, say, 10% of the population and of the market for left-handed guitar/bass/etc., but half of all lefties learn to play the instrument right-handed, that leaves only 5% of possible buyers of lefty instruments. That's a tiny number that any company can not just afford to ignore, but even afford to annoy and be hated by. It won't make any difference to them in hard money terms. There's no way out of it. Hopefully, with time, the number of lefties who learn to play instruments left-handed will slowly increase and the market will slowly expand. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

The pickup should be held by some screws (top and bottom of the pickup if the images I'm looking at are of the correct model) which you can tighten to lower the pickup (or loosen to raise it, if you go too far).

Public Facebook album of another packed Fox gig on Sat 12/04: [url="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.834716503208754.1073741840.407912292555846&type=1&l=dc574ecc74"]https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.834716503208754.1073741840.407912292555846&type=1&l=dc574ecc74[/url]

Totally agree with both these last posts. Unfortunately it's a fact of life. My personal preference for "lefty-friendly without being custom-built" is for Warwick. Most models are easy to obtain in LH, and with no surcharge. I love the Warwick sound, and the look of most of their basses. At first I wasn't too keen on the shape of their headstocks but I've grown to like it. I've only been able to afford models from the low-cost line so far, but I haven't been disappointed.

Tonight, folks!

I'll start reminding people via Twitter from the next few days, in case anyone has missed this thread so far.

Brilliant - I've copied the Troubadour photos link in there too More to come, plus a couple of videos. (One of the videos comprises two songs segueing into one another.) Keep up the excellent work!

Excellent stuff! Here again is the link to the photos from the Troubadour gig, 09/04/14: [url="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bluejay_my_photos/sets/72157643765603643/"]https://www.flickr.c...57643765603643/[/url] Edit: forgot to add the taster shot - here it is

The next Dogs gig is at the Fox in Twickenham this Sat - in the meantime, here is a medley from their gig in February: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66N8tTiRmyE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66N8tTiRmyE[/url]

Quick photo album here! [url="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bluejay_my_photos/sets/72157643765603643/"]https://www.flickr.com/photos/bluejay_my_photos/sets/72157643765603643/[/url] First photo of set: Ralph, you guys should create a thread for the band in the Live Music and Videos subforum! I have around a million more photos and oodles of footage from the gig, and I'm slowly working my way through it.

Some photos now on the appropriate thread in Live Photos and Videos. I'm working on some from Cherry White's set as we speak

Dani, Damian and Happy Jack at the Troubadour, yesterday. [url="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bluejay_my_photos/sets/72157643763950715"]https://www.flickr.com/photos/bluejay_my_photos/sets/72157643763950715[/url] First shot of set:

I think people like you guys are pretty close to being ambidextrous, which is rather good

Another KK BabyBass outing for Happy Jack with singer-songwriter Kareña K tomorrow. Not our usual side of London - come along if you're around

Great news - we want to see the photos! I'll tweet this in the meantime

[quote name='krysh' timestamp='1397126365' post='2420878'] this doesn't sound bollocks to me, because as a lefty this exactly is the reason why I did it after trying both ways when I started in 1982. I never looked back. [/quote] And you're not the only one either. I think there are different degrees and/or types of left-handedness. I can hardly pick a righty guitar up, let alone attempt to play it...

Here is where having started after I hit 40 helped Lots of lefty instruments around now, from eye-wateringly expensive to dirt-cheap, and mine was a 24-fret, lefty Crafter bass bought in a combo with a practice amp. I got along with it very well, until the electronics began to misbehave, so I got a Warwick RB Corvette 4, and discovered that the Crafter's neck was waay chunkier that the Corvettes. Never looked back since, I absolutely love Warwicks. I still have the Crafter.