Hi guys , excuse me for not introducing myself at the moment , i will do so soon , but i have been an "email buddy" of Andrew for many years now , originating from the old DudePit board , anyway ,i was reading this epiphone lefty discussion , and i just had to jump in , , , , andrew can and hopefully validate my truthfulness and statements herein ,as he has seen some of my left handed basses ,both in my collection and items i have sold on ebay . many years ago ,when epiphone started to "pump" things up ,in i believe the early 1990's , i had a small endorsement deal with them , due to the fact that i was on tour with a major well known act, and i used epiphone basses . i have much to everyone's dismay left handed epiphone EB-O's , lefty thunderbirds ,a few lefty Flying V's , and a left handed Rivoli . my contact at epiphone would custom make these for me, and then try to pass them off at monthy a & r design meetings ,with no avail. mine are actually one off concept items, created for me, and then brought into the design boardroom to hopefully get the OK to go into production , well ,long story short ,they never obviously did. i have campaigned epiphone for many many years on this topic ,and their market research just does not support the financial feasability to make - manufacture -produce and sell left handed instruments on a large contingent needed to suffice the suppy demand criteria for obviously a profitable outcome, for them !! funny thing i have always told them , is that they do make left handed les paul 6 string guitars , but they wont make a lefty lp bass - on the same cnc and other machines, that make the lefty lp guitars , ,same pick up routing same neck pocket ,actually same neck can be used with no other advance woodworking or technology or anything !! go figure !! i know, it just dont make sense. even their bottom basement low end eb-o bass counterpart ,the epiphone sg guitar comes in a left handed version , , , well , bottom line ,as my "in-man" at epi once told me, IF EVER THE CEO , OR OTHER BIG WIG IN A HIGH POSITION WAS INDEED A LEFT HANDED PLAYER, MAYBE AND ONLY MAYBE THEN , WE MIGHT SEE SOME LEFT HANDED ACTION !! well ,that's my 2 cents here , and PLEASE ask anything you may wish of me on this topic , , as many of you might know or remember me from the "other" board , for many many many years i have lobbied the majors for left handed instruments with no avail. !! !! !! pipps
Hi Andrew , i made it here !!! after all these years of speaking to you !!! yes , still have some contacts with epiphone , although not as touh as in the past , my man at epi is now a big time nashville musician for hire and producer , he is more or less now a consultant for epiphone, and travels to the far east on business for them in a financial capacity . but you know what ,it is all a moot issue , that is anything left handed with them ! unfortunately . to all board members and anyone reading this ,it is actually far more feasable and less stressful to just " do it " via warmoth , dolan ,greg rogers , and many other talented luthiers whom can and will build you anything you can imagine in a left handed version. another point of interest , i am a big fan of the early 1950's era P basses and tele basses , , fender just issued a tele squier, at an unreal retail of only like under $300 !! !! i just had two built for me, at $800 each , and that was by far a cheapass price from a builder whom i have contracted for many years , , once again ,us lefties were " left out" on that one too !! !! !!
bbl wrote:
At least Guild gets it. Heck, everyone else does. Except Gibson and Sadowsky.
Sadowsky is the same as Lakland....pony up for the high $$$$ USA model or go home, lefty.
You might be right, but I've never seen a lefty Sadowsky. Ever.
Can't say the same about Lakland USA, as I and several others here have at least one.
Mmmm, yes there have been a few lefty Sadowskys around - I have had three, which I bought all used, and I know of at least 3 more. They build lefty USA models, no problem. We are talking about Sadowsky not taking the risk and building a small batch of Metros to offer for sale.
I could live with flipping a Casady if it was symmetrical bodied, but it isn't, so I don't like flipping asymmetrical bodied basses. I hate flipping righty basses period, but with symmetrical hollowbodies I strip the knobs and pots out of them, cover the knob holes with stickers and move the output jack to the other side so it passes for a lefty.
What Epiphone, Gibson and other companies don't realize is that lefties as well as being very few are also impulse buyers in the sense that if they see something in a lefty model, they tend to snatch it up right away because they know there's a 99.9% chance that they may not see it again, due to how rare it is. IMHO it would behoove these companies to make more than 3 lefties. I've been gassing for a Thunderbird badly for so long and I'm gonna either have to get a Tokai version which I haven't seen around lately or have a Luthier build me one and lets face it, it will sound better than anything coming out of either company's factories. I wouldn't mind having a Cassidy or an LP bass either. I think first act makes one similar.
ED2STRINGS wrote:What Epiphone, Gibson and other companies don't realize is that lefties as well as being very few are also impulse buyers in the sense that if they see something in a lefty model, they tend to snatch it up right away because they know there's a 99.9% chance that they may not see it again, due to how rare it is. IMHO it would behoove these companies to make more than 3 lefties. I've been gassing for a Thunderbird badly for so long and I'm gonna either have to get a Tokai version which I haven't seen around lately or have a Luthier build me one and lets face it, it will sound better than anything coming out of either company's factories. I wouldn't mind having a Cassidy or an LP bass either. I think first act makes one similar.
Man ED, you and me both. If Gibson offered lefty Thunderbirds tomorrow I'd seriously order two.
ED2STRINGS wrote:What Epiphone, Gibson and other companies don't realize is that lefties as well as being very few are also impulse buyers in the sense that if they see something in a lefty model, they tend to snatch it up right away because they know there's a 99.9% chance that they may not see it again, due to how rare it is. IMHO it would behoove these companies to make more than 3 lefties. I've been gassing for a Thunderbird badly for so long and I'm gonna either have to get a Tokai version which I haven't seen around lately or have a Luthier build me one and lets face it, it will sound better than anything coming out of either company's factories. I wouldn't mind having a Cassidy or an LP bass either. I think first act makes one similar.
Man ED, you and me both. If Gibson offered lefty Thunderbirds tomorrow I'd seriously order two.
At this point, it don't matter, the guy who works on my basses can build anything under the sun, I'd be willing to shell out some serious money and also have the headstock read "NOTGIBSON" or "NOTEPIPHONE" so they get no credit what so ever, lol
