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Post subject: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:31 pm
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All i ever wanted was a geddy lee jazz bass. all i wanted was a fender jazz bass with a nice black badass II bridge, some hipshot tuners, a maple neck, some block inlays and a teeny extra bit of spacing between my strings. alas that will never happen. the closest i can get is a fender american standard j bass with a rosewood fretboard. it seems that maple isn even an option for lefties like me. thankfully it comes with hipshot tuners but no badass bridge. god knows those things are hard enuff to find nowadays. leo quan hasnt put out a shipment in awhile and im not fully sure if a bridge is universal or if i have to get a left handed one which i doubt exists. all i see on ebay are the 5 string badass bridges left. then i decided hey what if i just got fender custom shop to build me essentially what consists of the parts of a geddy lee signature...sigh, with the masterbuild costs it would run me somewhere between 5000-7000 dollars. and i am not a pro musicians who can make regular runs to fender custom and get his dream guitar built. im just a 20 yr poor old college student/ bass fanatic. then i decided to check on fender japan because lately i have been hearing from several musicians and acquaintances alike that often times the japanese fenders are better. a name that comes to mind is duff mckagan who used to use the fender jazz bass special from japan and now uses the fender aerodyne. so i decided maybe the aerodyne wont be bad...and fender japan surprised me in that they are way more accommodating to left handed people than fender us :( they even had a lefty aerodyne. before i could get too excited i found out from several forums that for the time being it is not possible to purchase a Fender JP model from overseas. and even if it was, it is still way too hectic of a process to go thru just because a left handed person wants something that isnt straight up generic for once. it seems US only deems it important to make the standard p bass and j bass in left handed models, giving us very little variety while the right handed ppl have a field day with variety and so many options. all other lefties will understand the pain. the pain of walking into places like guitarcenter and seeing a right handed person point to the rack and say "can you bring that down so i can try it?" we have to say "umm do you have any left handed instruments i can try out?" usually the answer is..."hmm i think we have one in the back"....


i understand that right handed ppl are a majority in society and so marketwise it is more practical to constantly mass produce right handed instruments but it seems like fender doesn even care about lefties. i know we dont give you as much business but for the music's sake so many lefties want fenders but cant get them. let alone the fact that we already have to pay more for left handed models of basses, the fact that you guys humor us with just a standard j bass and p bass hurts. ive always dreamed of a fender but i can never make that dream come true. im not gonna be a pro musician who can walk into a fender custom shop and not feel a twitch when you drop 10k on a custom instrument. im a normal person with no options.

i am willing to deal with the badass bridge deficiency for now but what really gets me is that if you can make an american standard j bass for lefties in a rosewood fretboard, how hard is it to make the option of a maple fretboard? i dont see how that is not reasonable. i always thought fretboard wood was the most trivial thing. just like picking an instrument, just pick either rosewood or maple. but left handed ppl dont even have that option!

is there ANY way i can get a left handed fender american standard jazz bass with a maple fretboard instead of a rosewood one? im so tired of rosewood, my last 3 basses have it. i can get over the not having the badass bridge or a lefty geddy lee signature but why is there no option for a maple FB.

to put it into perspective...

these are the options for a right handed bass player on fender.com

infinity

now these are the best options (im not including the lower end, nonstandard versions or the mexican ones) for a lefty bass player on fender.com

fender am. std. p bass (black or sunburst)
fender am. std. j bass (black or sunburst)


see what im saying?

i just feel like the largest instrument manufacturer in the world shud be more welcoming to left handed people and it feels ridiculous that when a new series comes out or something, its not something a single lefty will get excited for becuz there not made for us.

i dont no the technical specifications but is there literally no button on your machines that produces a mirror image of a right handed body? are the technological implications of converting from a right handed model to a left handed model so extreme that only several dozen custom shops across the world can manage such grueling tasks?

fender has to be rolling in money, if you guys are sitting in your staff meetings, plz stop talking about releasing new models, reissues, and special editions...talk about how every instrument you offer can be offered to all left handed ppl.

altho we are a minority, ud get more business if you had more lefty options

i play acoustic and electric but im not as serious about them as i am bass, ive played bass for 10 years but im guessing your options for guitars are probably

fender am. std. strat (black or sunburst)
fender am. std. tele (black or sunburst)

just as heart-breaking


i just need some answers! im tired of IBANEZ!!! im telling you guys that i want to give you my business! i will be a lifelong customer! ill buy and buy from you guys but you have nothing to offer me. i want to have my dream bass. for most ppl, money is what stands in the way of a dream instrument. in my case, its my hand.

plz help.


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 3:27 pm
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Be patient. There are some people here who may help. It's a holiday weekend so there may not be as many reading posts. Give it the weekend and see what happens.

I just looked at a lefty maple neck at allparts.com, it was $295.00, if they have one, there must be more out there.


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 4:05 pm
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thanks for contributing to this post :) maybe there is hope.

as for the allparts.com maple neck, i checked it out, unfortunately i dont think that neck was a bass neck, i think by the look of the headstock...its for a strat :(

but i appreciate you giving me some hope that sites like allparts exist and maybe just maybe i can find what i want!


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 4:31 pm
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There are more opinions on the way.


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 5:19 pm
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pbassbob thanks a bunch! im leaving the expertise for allparts.com in your hands. ive only just recently heard about it. maybe they only show what they have in stock but i cant seem to find any maple boards for specifically a lefty bass, i saw a strat and tele one though! and i am checking out the warmoth site right now! i took into consideration about the mighty mite board or whatever you said on amazon and i would def be more leaning toward something from allparts or warmoth because the way i see it, if im going to drop 1300 some dollars for the am. std. jazz bass, i want the fretboard quality to match the rest of the instrument you know? which begs the question, do these boards from allparts or warmoth have "fender" still written on the headstock?

thanks for everything you guys!


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 12:43 am
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Well I'm new here so I'm not so experienced as the rest of the people here, but I'm also a lefty.

I understand the pain, Personally I'm happy with the Am.St.J-Bass in Sunburst so I ordered one last Monday (store says that the people from Fender told them that it might take 4 to 6 weeks for them to be available again so I'm waiting for it).

I contacted a bunch of official dealers here and none of them had a Lefty Fender J-Bass I could go and checkout so I basically ordered it blindly (I'm hoping I'll be as happy with it as most people tell me I will :wink: ).

I guess the reason for the limited number of variations for Lefties is that like you say there are way less of us so it would be bad business if they would offer more options.

I assume that Fender in the USA builds a specific number of Lefty-basses each month (or something like that) and these get shipped to their importers (for outside the USA) or they official dealers. So there will always be a stock of xx lefty-basses.

Now if they were to make 10 models instead of 2 there must be a larger number of basses in stock (at least I would guess) so the loss if these basses don't get sold is higher if there is a bigger stock of them.

Also, I guess (again) that they figure that Black and Sunburst are the 2 most popular finishes so it would make sense to have these available for us lefties. Maybe they assume that a bass in Candy Red doesn't sell as much as a black one so it would be stupid (market wise) to build a large number of Candy Red Lefty basses.

Anyway, I guess it should be possible for Fender to make other lefty models on demand since as I've read here it's mostly done with CNC machines so while they are making their batch of "regular" lefty basses they can make a more custom one. But it will probably cost more and perhaps it might take a long time for it to be build (I don't know how frequently the factories make lefty basses).

Well, this is just my idea of how this works so IF I'm completely wrong here feel free to correct me.

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PatrickOnBass
2011 Fender American Standard Jazz-Bass Left Handed


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:50 am
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pbassbob, sabre lane, patrickonbass

thanks you guys for your quick and detailed responses i didnt realize there was such an extensive underground community of musicians who are way more knowledgeable than the music stores where i live (maryland) seems while they spend their time telling me what i CANT do, you guys are digging deeper and telling me all that I CAN do! i look forward to being a part of this fender community after my amazing first impression from you guys :)

oxfan

you went the extra mile for me and summoned all your brethren just to help out a fellow musician. i would like to give you special props for doing that for me and keeping a fellow musician happy and hopeful

for the time being i think i have taken all your answers into consideration...

i think im going to buy the:

1.fender am. std. j bass in black

2.a neck that i have already made from warmoth that very much resembles the one of the geddy lee signature

3. custom left handed pickguard from warmoth

4. black control plate from ebay, or some online seller

5. black nongrooved saddle badass bass bridge II (this will take some finesse as the allparts stock currently has non of these, they only have the black badass III when i am not to educated on, in fact ive heard bad news about these guys, something bout the action being too high and whatnot

6. i think the am. std. j bass comes with hipshot tuning machines so i dont think i need to buy them. which begs a side question? when i was making my neck on warmoth it gave me 3 options for the tuning peg holes and none of them appeared to be compatible with normal hipshot tuners, there was one ultralite hipshot tuning pegs, one for gotoh tuners or something of that name? and a normal bml tuning hole...forgive me if these names are off im drawing from memory.

also a second side question...will the tuning pegs differ for a lefty? i know that options on hipshot let you choose from tuning machines that are on the "bass side" or "treble side" and im not entirely sure what that means. of course if i buy the am. std. ill already get the tuners on it so tht wont be an issue. in that case i only need to know what size tuning peg holes i need

7. i think with this my dream will be coming true soon. im sure from reading this that you guys have figured out that i wanna deviate the body from black with white to all black!!! (pickguard, control plate, pickups...duh,bridge,block inlays, black binding on the neck,black control knobs, and if i have the ability, black tuning pegs!)

also ONE final question, i can 99% promise that it will truly be my last question, after which i think i will have a solid idea of what i am going to undergo for this dream....

warmoth necks are standard 21 frets, but they have options for 24 frets and 20 frets (which are the fender standard) i really want to stick true to my design as close as possible so i would like the 20 fret fingerboard but it only gives me that option if i place a "special order"...what consists of a special order? becuz i would like to not have the fingerboard hang a little bit over the pickguard, just personal pref tho! but i would like to better understand what special order means!

thanks you guys!


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 9:09 am
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You're welcome. If there's an opportunity to help, we'll always offer what we can. All of us have benefited from someone elses experience here. Personally I feel obligated to do what I can, even if it's just "calling in the troops".

It's always good news to hear of someone realizing their dream. Don't forget to post pictures when you can.

As far as your questions, I'm sure you'll get the responses you're looking for.

You may not hear from Sabre today, he went to an Easter egg hunt at noon. He's very competitive so I see the potential for it to go bad.

Have a great holiday.


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 2:38 pm
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HAHAHA! you guys are TOO much. All I had to see was "Fiver-Porn" and the word "P-bass" associated with sci fi and horror to know you guys are ridiculous!! (in a good way). Thanks alot for your help and I will keep you posted on that Warmoth inquiry on special orders. who knows, maybe i will settle for the 21 fretter. im not much of a high end player but things may change. my current mission is to cover all the RUSH songs which is somewhere around 163 lol. Seems I can manage to teach myself early RUSH material but somewhere around the early 90s, any of you Geddy fans will know that he started implementing the "flamenco" technique where he rakes his index finger back and forth to create a high speed picking sound. Guess i gotta learn that one. And doing so on an ibanez just doesnt seem to work as well. no disrespect to my iBee ($@!& off steve jobs, this one is mine) i love my bass but everyones music career always intersects with Fender at some point in life, be it in the form of an amp, t-shirt, instrument, or cables lol. The fender j bass is such a staple in good rock and roll. DONT WORRY, im not excluding the P bass in that one you guys :) alot of my fav session musicians actually rock the P bass, notably pino palladino when he was touring with The Who, John MAyer Trio, or just plain grooving lol. Nate Mendel of the foo fighters rocks one too although he may have switched to lakland i believe, essentially the same look and feel though.


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 4:11 pm
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Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

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pbassbob, sabre lane and oxfan

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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 6:06 am
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Here's a real outside the box solution. If you haven't been playing a long time, switch to right-handed playing. I'm left-handed but play right-handed and I think it gives me a distinct advantage. If you think about it, you have already developed "experience" in your brain for fine motor skill control in your left hand (eating, writing, throwing a ball, etc.) so why waste all that skill when you pick up your bass? I think you might be surprised at how fast you make the switch. And if you do, you can then walk into a music store and have lots of toys to play with. One of my best friends started off playing left-handed (on string bass in an orchestra no less) and then switched to right-handed playing and wound up being a fine ambidextrous player (including using the bow).


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 10:36 pm
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fretless5 wrote:
Here's a real outside the box solution. If you haven't been playing a long time, switch to right-handed playing. I'm left-handed but play right-handed and I think it gives me a distinct advantage. If you think about it, you have already developed "experience" in your brain for fine motor skill control in your left hand (eating, writing, throwing a ball, etc.) so why waste all that skill when you pick up your bass? I think you might be surprised at how fast you make the switch. And if you do, you can then walk into a music store and have lots of toys to play with. One of my best friends started off playing left-handed (on string bass in an orchestra no less) and then switched to right-handed playing and wound up being a fine ambidextrous player (including using the bow).


Steve Cropper, T.M. Stevens, and Randy Coven are all left handed players who play Right handed.

Stay Brown,
Rev J


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 6:29 am
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I can drink coffee with my left hand!


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 9:54 am
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Sabre Lane wrote:
fretless5 wrote:
Here's a real outside the box solution. If you haven't been playing a long time, switch to right-handed playing. I'm left-handed but play right-handed and I think it gives me a distinct advantage. If you think about it, you have already developed "experience" in your brain for fine motor skill control in your left hand (eating, writing, throwing a ball, etc.) so why waste all that skill when you pick up your bass? I think you might be surprised at how fast you make the switch. And if you do, you can then walk into a music store and have lots of toys to play with. One of my best friends started off playing left-handed (on string bass in an orchestra no less) and then switched to right-handed playing and wound up being a fine ambidextrous player (including using the bow).

In theory, this makes a lot of sense, but I tried playing lefty, (and even though I'm slightly ambidextrous at some things), I couldn't do anything harder than "Wild Thing". :oops:

I suppose that if I really worked at it, I could do a little more, but there's NO way I could do lefty, what I do righty. :mrgreen:


But think about how you played when you first started. I'm sure about all you could play right handed was Wild Thing and Louie Louie.

Stay Brown,
Rev J


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Post subject: Re: Lefty people being marginalized yet again. sigh. HELP!
Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 2:14 pm
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Now, now , now, let's not get testy. Didn't you get your nap today? You seem grouchy. You wouldn't like me to pull the other rabbit out of the hat would you?

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Hhhmmmmmmmmm?


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