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Thread: JB-4L (Jazz Bass Left Handed)

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  1. #1

  2. #2
    Yes, I have the neck straight now and just need to do a bit of "fine tuning" on the intonation.
    I haven't touched the frets yet, but checking with a steel ruler shows they don't need a lot of adjustment and it it plays pretty well just as it is.

  3. #3
    I never actually noticed until last night that BOTH volume pots are wired back-to-front.
    I guess somebody has assumed that since everything else on a left-handed guitar is a mirror-image, the pots should be too!
    No, I don't think mastering "Clockwise = louder" is any more difficult for a left-handed person.

    Besides, I'm not actually left handed. I have two damaged fingers of my left hand which makes fretting impossible but I can hold a pick OK.
    (Incidentally, if you enter "Jimi Hendrix" + "Signing Autographs" into Google Image Search, you'll note that he wasn't actually left-handed either!)

    I finally excavated my old 1970s Vase Trendsetter 60 guitar amp from all the cushions and other stuff that had been stacked on top of it and plugged the bass into it. (I wish I'd tidied up the shelf above it a bit; funny how you never see that until after you've taken the photo).
    It's not a proper bass amp, but it still sounded pretty good. It took about 15 minutes for my hands and fingers to "remember" how to play but it all came back pretty quickly. My fingertips need a bit of hardening up though.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by Keith Walters; 17-05-2017 at 10:26 AM.

  4. #4
    Overlord of Music Fretworn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Keith Walters View Post
    (Incidentally, if you enter "Jimi Hendrix" + "Signing Autographs" into Google Image Search, you'll note that he wasn't actually left-handed either!)
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Steve Morse, Gary Moore, Joe Perry, Nils Lofgren were/are all leftys who play righty. It almost makes sense that you fret with your primary hand.
    Current:
    GTH-1

    Completed:
    AST-1FB
    First Act ME276 (resurrected curb-side find)
    ES-5V
    Scratchie lapsteel
    Custom ST-1 12 String
    JBA-4
    TL-1TB
    Scratch Lapsteel
    Meinl DIY Cajon
    Cigar Box lap steel

    Wishing:
    Baritone
    Open D/Standard Double 6 twin neck

  5. #5
    Overlord of Music Fretworn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fretworn View Post
    Steve Morse, Gary Moore, Joe Perry, Nils Lofgren were/are all leftys who play righty. It almost makes sense that you fret with your primary hand.
    Add Mark Knopfler to that list as well.
    Current:
    GTH-1

    Completed:
    AST-1FB
    First Act ME276 (resurrected curb-side find)
    ES-5V
    Scratchie lapsteel
    Custom ST-1 12 String
    JBA-4
    TL-1TB
    Scratch Lapsteel
    Meinl DIY Cajon
    Cigar Box lap steel

    Wishing:
    Baritone
    Open D/Standard Double 6 twin neck

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fretworn View Post
    Add Mark Knopfler to that list as well.
    Add me as well- not that I'm deserving of such exalted company. 😀

    I maintain it makes perfect sense for lefties to play "conventional" stringing as the strongest hand is doing most of the work (fretting). Are there any righties out there who flip and play McCartney-style?
    "Music is in the air; it's my job to pull it out."- Jaco Pastorius

  7. #7
    Overlord of Music
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    I've had a lefty who played righty in almost every band I've been in. Weird. BTW it's fine to play a bass through a guitar head, it will damage the speakers (eventually), but not the amp.
    'As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll.'

  8. #8
    Your brain definitely works differently when you play an instrument of the opposite "polarity" to your handed-ness.
    If that wasn't the case, and it was just as easy to learn either way round, there wouldn't be any market for left-handed instruments.
    You can understand a left-handed person deciding to persevere with a right-handed instrument, because basically, just like everything else, the world is set up for right-handed people, and it gives you more options.
    A right-handed person playing a left-handed instrument is far more unusual.

    "it will damage the speakers (eventually), but not the amp."
    Not with this amp :-) The 6CA7s are almost completely knackered, but it still sounds OK.
    I've actually got a 100 Watt subwoofer that I'm going to try plugging into one of the spare sockets on the speaker box.
    It's truly astonishing what that can do.

  9. #9
    As I mentioned in an earlier post, the editor of Silicon Chip magazine thought their readers might be interested in guitar kits and asked me to write an article on this build for them. It's in the November issue which is in newsagents now.

    Generally they didn't make too many alterations to my original text, but a few contradictory paragraphs have been inserted that I didn't write, some marked "editor's note," others not. The parts where I described how to line the bridge up and how to adjust the intonation were rather severely truncated, possibly to get it down to 8 pages. But anyway, the publication fee will finance quite a few more DIY guitars :-)

    Here's a link to the blurb on the Silicon Chip website
    http://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/...+Read+on+.+.+.
    Last edited by Keith Walters; 10-11-2017 at 07:37 AM.

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  11. #10
    Overlord of Music andrewdosborne's Avatar
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    Agree BG, I'm a lefty who also uses a RH bass/guitar
    Current Projects
    #Planning 5 String Bass

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