LeftyBassist.com

Here are some of my instruments. I'm very fond of P basses, I have quite a few. The green one is my '74, the orange one is a 70's reissue from Japan. Both have Duncan '57 pickups; Fender Super Bass are on the '74, LaBella flats on the Capri. Also a photo of yours truly onstage with the '74 recently.

Bart

That Capri Orange looks really cool Bart.

Drool.

Hi Bart. Is that green one a factory finish? I've never seen that color in lefty before.

No, it's a refin, and color wise it falls somewhere between surf and foam green. I'm very fond of the late 50's/ early 60's colors, and the finish is suggestive of that era. When I opened the case for the first time I was really taken aback; it was beautiful and weird looking at the same time! As it turned out, it's also one of, if not the best instrument I own. Compare color with my reissue '62 Jazz in surf, and my "50's era" P in foam.

Bart

You're killing me. Those are gorgeous!

Are all of those refinish jobs? Who did the refinishing?

I'm really gassin' for a P-Bass in Sonic Blue (with a Jazz neck).

No, those two are original finishes. The "51" is custom made from Fender and Warmouth parts. While the color is not accurate for '51, it's a great player, and among the very few custom/reissue pieces from that era that I know of. As for the J, that finish was being offered by Fender Japan earlier that decade and was continued; I got the last one that Ishibashi Music had in stock. It seems like Fender Japan has discontinued a lot of cool colors and quality basses for lefties in recent years; I have to wonder if the geniuses in Corona and Scottsdale decided to put a stop to it because so many of us were not settling for Mexican J's and Squiers. I wouldn't doubt it, I have very ambivalent feelings toward Fender and have for many years. Speaking of Sonic Blue, I have one, see enclosed picture. Did you ever see a Graffiti Yellow P? I'll see if I have a photo of that one too.

Bart

Amen brother!

I still have lustful thoughts about your '51

It's a shame, isn't it? At least Fender is making USA lefties again, though as usual we get the fecal end of the stick in terms of of finishes (Black or Sunburst only) and choice of fingerboard (rosewood only). They still haven't figured out that lefties like cool colors too, but that's OK, I've found many ways to undermine their Cro-Magnon mentality. Working harder for what you want; thats part of being a lefty!

Bart

Hi Bart, Dave Edwards sayin' hi! GREAT basses, Bart! Bart, for the record, and ALL the people in the left handed bass community were extremely cool after I posted that my Lake Placid Blue p-bass was stolen a year ago... and returned a month later! It was just very refreshing to me, after a negative like that theft, to feel good about things again. Here's a pic of it. I LOVE the Ishibashi Fender Precisions I have- my candy apple red one, and this lpb one. The blue bass has been tastefully modified, I think- LOL! It has a custom fabricated mint green pickguard, full tin ground shield, thumb rest from my long gone 1973 p-bass, Fender pots, Duncan vintage pickup, reverse tuners and an allthread bridge. It's strung with Fender 9050 ml flats, man, it plays and sounds wonderful. What a pleasure to see this site...and yeah, like Bart I have some bad feelings about Fender. You can see them in print on Harmony Central, and elsewhere in several reviews of lefty Fender basses.
I saw ONE hacked up original mid sixties Gibson T-bird, had a big EBO humbucker installed by the neck, only original lefty t-bird I ever saw. I ordered a Gibson Bi-Centenial t-bird in late '75. It was listed as available left handed in their own catalog....never got it. I also waited for a lefty black Ripper, also listed as available lefty, never got that either. So, with a year almost gone, I went to Carl Thompson and had him make me a bass. I got it in October, 1976. Meeting him changed my life. You can see the results of his influence, filtered through my twisted mind lol - in the post directly below this one. I was repairing back then, but didn't have the tools or a facility to build. I learned a lot from him, a great, genius pioneer in the bass making tradition. So, the point here is, Gibson isn't exactly lefty friendly, either. As you can see from my experience, it's been like this for us for a damn long time! That's why I sought out Carl Thompson. He didn't charge one cent more for a lefty bass. I liked that right away. He made my bass right after Rick Laird's righty!!!

Here's a pic of "Pumpkin" as my bandmates called it when I first showed up with it on a gig....built it in October, 2006, just in time for Halloween! It is made from flamed maple, body is one piece. The set neck is of flamed maple, pau-ferro board, 2.5" nut, 3.5" heel...a big neck! It has Hipshot tuners, an ABM ultra wide 5 bridge, Schaller Straploks, EMG 40 dc-5 pickups and the bqs system, and a locking trs jack. It sounds pretty good if I do say so myself!

Hey LHBASSIST, welcome to the lefty board. how does that BQC System sound and did yo have it wired left handed? I have a few BQC Systems to put into my Spectors but have fear it might change the tone of the Spector and I love it as is. I just want a little more control of the EQ.

Hi, I heard this system in a Modulus 6 about 10 years ago, loved it, always knew I'd have one someday.
This particular bass is VERY bright, maple and hard pau ferro board, and stainless rounds. I hardly use the treble control, its' almost off. The mid control is quite useful, very flexible. I just installed a bqc control (concentric treble/bass and mid control only) in a passive Music Man Sub 5 string bass, and it sounds great! Yes, it can be used with a passive pickup. I have a BTC control in my passive pickup Japanese Jazz bass, it sounds amazing! As far as the control direction goes, I like clockwise on. I have ALL my basses except my jazz bass volumes wired like that. My p-basses are all clockwise on, and that's unusual. The system is pretty easy to install, and you could always remove it if you don't like the tone change. By the way, on a technical note, EMG uses high quality components and silver wire, really top notch stuff. I also like the reasonable price compared to similar units. Good luck!

Cool.. Thanks much for the info. I have all the schematics I need to do this. Its seems fairly simple so i'll set some time to do it.

Hi Gravesbass... I almost forgot, I had a small problem wiring it up. The preamps made later have a plug in connector, and color coded wires on the other end. It's a bit different, in that there are TWO black wires right next to each other coming out of the circuit board, not shown on the wiring diagram EMG supplies with the preamp or provides in pdf. format online. They both get soldered to ground. This was confirmed to me by the EMG service dept. Black or green usually is ground in typical guitar/bass circuits, but I contacted them just to be sure of the assigns. Better safe than sorry. Hope this is of some help, Dave.

Sweet.. Thx Dave. I will save this info for when I do this. I'll post the results when completed. Cheers