LeftyBassist.com

Has anyone done this? I need general thoughts about it. I love being a lefty bassist, don't want to learn to play right handed, but finding a decent left handed upright for <1000 is near impossible. Has anyone tried just buying a lefty and playing it backwards (keeping strings and everything in right handed setup). Any disadvantages to doing this? I play mainly jazz.

Here is an older thread on the Upright topic

http://www.leftybassist.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1623

Here is a used upright for $1,400 which includes the pickup

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/2114544155.html

Personally I could not play with reversed strings as you suggest it.

Thanks for that link. I investigated into Gollihur and found the EM-B1 (blonde) that goes for 1099 right handed. Emailed for a quote (assuming 10%). So add in shipping, setup, and pickup and i'm looking at about 1600? Not too bad

PS. I have been playing my school's bass (righty) backwards for sometime. It's not that hard to do really, would just need to retrain my muscles to read as I can improv and play chord changes with ease but I use muscle memory for reading.

If you can use a right-handed bass, it is much easier. You may want to look into getting a used one. Englehart basses are pretty good values I heard.

I did read that, and i'm strongly considering it right now. There is a used bass in my area for 1000, but I haven't seen pics / played it yet

If its a righty, a beveled fingerboard would kill it for me. I could be wrong, but beveled boards seem to be very popular now.

The beveled board isn't too bad, as i never noticed it affecting playing. I just can't decide. Maybe I'll go serious with my school's righty basses and see if I like them. I can't afford the 1800$ cheapo ones from gollihur (flat ass broke)

Hi there.
You have to keep in mind that the internal construction of the double bass can't be reversed. I'm thinking of the bass bar.
Well ok, you can, but it is very expensive doing so..

If the bass bar doesn't get reversed, you will have trouble getting a powerfull sound from the bass when you pluck it. I.e. try switching from playing lefty on a lefty bass to righty. Then you ought to hear a huge difference in sound level.

It is true that re-stringing a right handed double bass to left handed is not the ideal setup and a true left handed instrument is preferable for all the reasons stated previously. However, when I played in my high school orchestra that's exactly what they did and even with a beveled board it worked just fine. I think this a very practical (not to mention more economical) way to get started.

When comes to orchestral instruments, you really do get what you pay for, so use a good student quality right handed bass converted while you are learning and start saving for a quality lefthanded instrument. Then, once you're ready, you can sell the right handed bass at pretty much what you paid for it.

Cheers!