Switching to left hand bass after injury

[UnderFret]

I'm wondering whether anyone has any thoughts/experience of this...

I've been playing bass for a couple of years. I'm not great but I love it! I've got one of the Scott Whitley short scale basses which I bought through this forum from a very nice chap. I love my bass! It feels like it's 'mine'.

In January I fractured my left elbow and did a pretty thorough job of it and had to have surgery with metalwork fitted. Recovery is incredibly slow and not looking promising for getting the flexion/rotation back that I need to get my fingers onto the strings. 

I'm wondering whether to cut my losses and see if I can learn left handed bass. 

Two questions really:

1) has anyone managed to switch happily from RH to LH bass playing?

2) any ideas on where I can find a LH short scale bass on a very tight budget? My income as a musician has been affected by Covid and is now looking set to be decimated by my injury so as long as I'm doing left hand playing on a trial basis, I need to spend as little as possible. Eventually, I would hope to get a left handed Scott Whitley bass but I'm miles off being able to do that.

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited March 14, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[pineweasel]

2 hours ago, KateWantsToPlayBass said:

any ideas on where I can find a LH short scale bass on a very tight budget? My income as a musician has been affected by Covid and is now looking set to be decimated by my injury so as long as I'm doing left hand playing on a trial basis, I need to spend as little as possible. Eventually, I would hope to get a left handed Scott Whitley bass but I'm miles off being able to do that.

This is still available 

 

[UnderFret]

Thank you both for replying.

Pineweasel, I think you've made a sale! Is the Harley Benton in playing condition as it is or would I need to get the little flaws sorted first?

 

 

[pineweasel]

27 minutes ago, KateWantsToPlayBass said:

Thank you both for replying.

Pineweasel, I think you've made a sale! Is the Harley Benton in playing condition as it is or would I need to get the little flaws sorted first?

PM'd

[PaulWarning]

Steve White out of the Bootleg Beatles, originally played right handed but learnt to play left handed to be more like Macca, https://www.chichester.co.uk/arts-and-culture/bootleg-beatles-head-portsmouth-and-guildford-834558

[uk_lefty]

On 08/04/2021 at 16:51, KateWantsToPlayBass said:

Two questions really:

1) has anyone managed to switch happily from RH to LH bass playing?

2) any ideas on where I can find a LH short scale bass on a very tight budget? My income as a musician has been affected by Covid and is now looking set to be decimated by my injury so as long as I'm doing left hand playing on a trial basis, I need to spend as little as possible. Eventually, I would hope to get a left handed Scott Whitley bass but I'm miles off being able to do that.

Hi Kate

Firstly, hope your recovery goes well. My mum fell and fractured her arm really badly and had wore work fitted. The recovery didn't go well but she had a second op and has recovered a lot of movement and strength that she thought she'd lost forever. So hang in there, it might take time but don't give up! 

To answer your questions... I think us lefties are more adaptable to going to RH. I am only truly left handed for writing and playing musical instruments, but if you asked me to play cricket left handed I'd do better than most RH people going lefty, but us lefties grow up in a right handed world. I think it's doable but would potentially be very slow of you're not naturally already quite ambidextrous. 

Secondly, look on ebay for the Hofner and similar copies. Almost zero weight and a nice short scale too. Also, lovely lovely Beatles tones! 

[Joe Nation]

As a lefty who plays right-handed (don't tell anyone!), I can assure you that it is possible to learn something the "wrong" way around. At school I played hockey right-handed, because there's no such thing as a left-handed hockey stick*), so I then started to play cricket righty as well. But when I took up baseball at uni, I hit lefty - until I tried it righty and was actually better (though still rubbish). I use a knife left handed on it's own, but right-handed with a fork, and there's no way I could do either task with the other hand! I too started playing bass righty because the choice of instruments is so much better, and my mate who was teaching me told me to.

 

Any dexterous skill can be learned, and we only think it's impossible to switch sides because we've gotten used to doing it a certain way. Think about how bad your handwriting is if you write with the wrong hand. But then look back at your writing when you were 3/4/5 years old and first learning to write - probably not much difference. If you try to learn a known skill with the opposite hand, you will assume you should be better than you are because you know you can already do it with the dominant hand, so you get disheartened. Only practice and patience will solve this.

 

*but weirdly, one of my friends who was 100% right-handed otherwise, player hockey left-handed with the stick upside-down.

[Paul S]

IIRC the bass player with the Bootleg Beatles was a righty who learnt lefty for the part.

[patch006]

Hi Kate , take a look at the lefty section . I have a junkyard bass advertised . If you pay for delivery and return you can borrow it , or buy it if you get on with it. Its actually not a bad lil bass. its no short scale though 🙃

[bpc]

Sorry guys but I find these discussions irritating. If someone is fully left or right handed then playing the other way will NEVER be as good as playing with the natural hand. One side of your brain deals with rhythm. If you try to play with the wrong hand doing the plucking then you'll never be as fluent as the "correct" way round. What most of you are describing is some level of ambidexterity. I'm fully left handed, kick with my left foot, if I golfed it would need to be lefty clubs etc. I could learn to play right handed with enormous effort but I'd never match my skill playing lefty even if I practised for 100 years.

 

Having said all that, the only way to know for you is to try it. You will be able to develop some degree of ability left handed, how much and how quickly depends on how your brain is wired to your body.

 

Good luck, sorry to hear about your injury, sounds nasty and painful.