LeftyBassist.com

Not a lot to report, to be honest... I didn't get a ton of time to go to every booth, but here's what I experienced as far as basses go.

Carvin - I saw a red 4-string Icon. Didn't play it, but it looked cool.

MusicMan - For basses, I only saw one lefty 4-string Stingray. It was their antique burst with a black guard and maple board, if I remember correctly. It looked cool, but I didn't play it.

Fodera - I played this bass for about 15-20 minutes. The craftsmanship was superb... there wasn't a detail missed and every line and contour was perfect, from what I could tell. I'm guessing that the weight was a little under 10 lbs. I was not a fan of the setup... the weird thing about it was that the neck was bone straight, but the action still felt high. The saddles needed to come down a lot, and I'm not sure if there was enough air underneath the saddles to come down enough. I see this problem on basses a lot, unfortunately. The nut was a bit high for my tastes as well. Joey asked how the setup was and I said it was pretty good but I'd like to see it a little different and he said it's really hard to set up a lefty properly.

As far as tone goes, it sounded like a Fodera... there were a ton of usable tones. It's just too bad they make you test them through a Phil Jones headphone amp instead of through an actual amp. It kind of ruined the experience for me, even though I understand why they do it. Overall, it would be a fantastic bass with a killer setup... but I have owned basses that I liked much better that were 1/3rd the price. I would NEVER pay $13,000 for it.

Wyn - Randall wins the "Most Consideration Given to Lefties" award for bringing TWO lefites... one of which was strung righty!! How often does that happen??? NEVER!!

I thought his work was incredibly beautiful and the bass I played was very close to the Fodera in craftsmanship, had a much better setup and was only $4K. In my opinion, the bass sounded a lot like my old Warwick Streamer custom shop... it had that sort of burpy, woody, spongy, booteeky tone that I associate with woods like wenge and walnut and afzelia or whatever other dozens of woods were used on the bass. It wasn't my cup of tea, but I can see how either of these basses would make someone very happy.

Sandberg - These guys had two lefties as well. One was a white heavy relic Jazz with maple board, blocks and active electronics. The other was their weird jazz bass "California UMBO" design that has an angled neck pickup and '51 precision style pickguard. It was alder with a rosewood board and a heavy relic sunburst pickup. The setup on these basses were absolutely horrible... really bad forward neck bow. Set up well, these basses would be perfectly fine, I think... although I'd probably rather just play a Fender, TBH.

F Bass - These guys brought a swamp ash/maple BN5 and it was "Best in Show" for me... BY FAR. Hands down, it was one of the most incredible basses I have ever had my hands on. Construction was perfect, setup was simply fucking ridiculous and it sounded like the most bad-ass active jazz bass you've ever heard in your life. I wanted this bass... really, REALLY bad... however, the Japanese distributor swooped it up before I ever had the chance.

I think that's everything I got to experience.

My brain is fried... so if something pops up that I forgot, I'll add it later.

Cool report man, thanks. I had been green with envy all week long because all my friends that went were posting pictures on Facebook all day, posing with everybody from Stevie Wonder to Marcus Miller, and everybody in between.

Not so cool for gear this year, but all the shows and jams that happen around NAMM it's where's at, I think. . .

Did you get to see any good music at least?

Addison, you pretty much nailed it. I didn't see anything else that you described.

As y'all know I'm a big Wyn fanboi. It would really take an act of desperation for me to sell the one I have. I SO wanted to take one of those lefties home with me. However my accountant (sic. the wife ) talked me out of it as I have other gear priorities scheduled for this year. But I'll tell ya, it would have been the best "nice to have but not needed bass" in my collection! I am thankful that my accountant helps me rationalize my gear purchases. With her, it's about the priority and not the budget. Boy, did I marry the right girl!!! But I digress. Oh, one other thing about the lefty's. The one strung righty is pre sold, the one strung lefty is not, and may not be for sale. Randy continues to be lefty-friendly and since he builds 30 basses a year max and has an almost 3 year wait list, he's on the fence about selling it since he wants to have something to bring to shows for us lefty folk.

Question tho, did you try it through the Aggie or the Shuttle? IMHO Randy's basses sound their best through Shuttles or amps of similar ilk in active mode. In passive mode they do well through tube amps with sealed cabinets. Sounds altogether like a different animal. I wasn't in love with the tone thru the Aggie. And this years lefty's have some kind of Aggie preamp in them, whereas my does not.

Again Addison is spot on about that F Bass, I'd give it best of show for lefty's as well. F bass knows how to build lefty's that's for damn sure.

The Carvin was OK, typical Icon bass, nothing to write home about that hasn't been said before. However, they had a righty Vanquish fretless with their "Hard As My Granite Countertops" epoxy finish on the fretboard. I played it through their BX1600 amp and IIRC a 210 sitting on top of a 115 stack. Not sure what roundwound strings were on it. Took a while to dial in the mwah factor cause those strings were real zingy, but I was suitably impressed once I got it dialed in. It doesn't compare to an F bass or Zon fless of course, but for a $1400 bass it held it's own. And I liked the form factor of the body and neck a lot. They couldn't tell me what the string spacing was. It wasn't 19mm fo' sho' but it was damn close. I'm thinking it would get way closer to the Jaco tone with different strings and a nice chorus.

From what I could tell above the din in the booth the BX1600 is a good amp, I think it'll do well for Carvin.

As for the Fodera, I'll agree with most of what Addison wrote, but really, that bass did nothing for me at all. I didn't pay attention the saddle and nut details as mentioned. But I couldn't get those Fodera tones. I couldn't get much in the way of any tone through their headphone setup. Yes, the build quality was there as one would expect, but I tone tapped the bass back and top and neck with my ears pressed against the wood and all I can say is "meh". Didn't find the wood to be resonant, it felt kinda lifeless to me. Oh well, c'est la vie.

I avoided MusicMan like the plague, way too crowded and noisy by the time I got there.

Ric had a real nice 4003FG with an excellent neck profile compared to the one they had on display last year. Last year's model felt like a Louisville Slugger. This one was much more flatter, a lot more like their 70's profile which I like a lot. When I asked a rep, he told me "Well they're all unique you know, they all get their final shaping done by hand". This is the 1st time I've ever heard that one from a Ric employee, so I dunno, my BS meter kinda went up a bit when I heard that. Your opinions are welcome on this subject!

Sandberg - another tidbit about the relic'd Jazz bass. It has painted on black blocks. IIRC it retails for almost $2900. For that kinda $$$ you can do a lot better elsewhere. I didn't try the UMBO as there were a couple of slap-happy geeks dueling it out at the booth when I was there.

There is a new brand of bass amp called Trickfish. The preamp is designed by Mike Pope. The power module is identical to the power module used in the JBL PRX powered P.A. cabs. I know this as I talked for about an hour to the guy from Harman (JBL) who is one of the Trickfish team members. I spent more time talking about P.A. stuff (since my P.A. is a JBL PRX series) than the actual bass amp LOL. They have the typical cab line up: 1x15,1x12, 2x12, 2x10, 4x10. The 10's and 12's are NEO, The 15's are ceramic and the 1x15 weighs like 76 lbs. The cabs on the single 15's are about twice as deep as a Berg NV115. Imagine rotating an NV11 on it's side and that's pretty much what the front of their 1x15 cab looks like. It's front ported. The back, sides and bracing(!!!!) are multi-ply Baltic Birch which helps explains the weight factor as well. I have no doubt one of those 1x15's would get most of us through a typical bar gig.

Addison nailed pretty much everything above......

Sandberg
These were the worse setup I ever have seen on a lefty.. high action, not comfortable to play at all. They must have thrown them together for the show and didn't give a crap. I played both and neither were worthy to me. Not once in my 10 min there did anyone even come ask if I had any questions. Well, it is lefty and the NAMM show... busy

FBass
Enough said. George knows howe to build a bass. George is meticulous and sets up basses at the show so sure it was tits! Its all about representing your art and hard work at the NAMM show, right? For some thats true. Best lefty of the show.

Wyn
He had 2 lefties? Damn. When I went there there was 50 people standing around his booth. I didn't even see a lefty at the booth. His basses looked very well built and Ken Smith-ish luminance.

Fodera
I was afraid to touch it. It looked nice but at that price point, there is no way I would have interest even at half.

HipShot
Bill brought his modded Gibson SG bass. That was interesting to play as it was only a 30 1/2 short scale. Cool little bass.

Darkglass has a new onboard preamp thats pretty damn cool. Tone Capsule. I will be picking one of these up soon.

A good NAMM show but light in the lefty area as expected.

Fodera says that it is difficult to set up a lefthanded bass properly?! B******T!! and for the ridiculous prices they charge...I'd have looked him in the eye and told him that Alembic doesn't seem to have that problem.

As for the shaping of necks a Rickenbacker, I've wondered about that myself. As I reported about the lefty Ric I played a while back the profile at the headstock was almost as square as a 2x4. Yet I was in the same shop a week ago and they had a new righthanded 4003 in the rack and just out of curiosity I picked it up and tried the neck and the profile at the headstock was noticably more rounded. It was the only one there so I couldn't compare multipule basses.

Basshappi wrote:Fodera says that it is difficult to set up a lefthanded bass properly?! B******T!!

I agree, that's total fucking bullshit. I actually laughed when I read that.

I think there may be some truth to that "every one is finished by hand" line that Ric uses. Even my righty friends who are dedicated Ric guys talk about the difference from one bass/guitar to the next. They are all done CNC for the rough stuff - nowadays anyway - but if the final shaping is done by hand and by a variety of different workers, it may not be that far fetched.

I saw they had a white 4 string lefty Spector at the Darkglass booth. Did it have their new preamp in it?

Also did everyone pop by the Regenerate booth and say hi to Rod?

andrew wrote:Also did everyone pop by the Regenerate booth and say hi to Rod?

Rod and crew did not attend this year. I saw that lefty Spector as I ran by and said hello. Never made it back to the booth tho.

The lefty Spector is Hugo's from Darkglass... it's his personal bass.

Yes, it has a new DG pre in it and I would have loved to play it if it wasn't strung righty!! Dammit!

I played Hugo's bass briefly but didn't get to plug in because there was a guy doing a demo on the Dingwall. High action but felt like a EURO4. Always fun playing upside down. As far as setup, he just used a stacked volume pot and the rest was std 3 hole preamp (4 holes total).

I did get a demo run thru on the electronics from Doug tho while the guy was demoing the Dingwall. That preamp is def on my wish-list. Very aggressive.

Addison wrote:The lefty Spector is Hugo's from Darkglass... it's his personal bass.

Tell Hugo to join us here. Also, is that Jayce's former Spector?

andrew wrote:

Addison wrote:The lefty Spector is Hugo's from Darkglass... it's his personal bass.

Tell Hugo to join us here. Also, is that Jayce's former Spector?

I have to contact him and will mention that as well. Giving him a few days from the NAMM hangover.

I believe he got the bass from PJ @ Spector.

a few eye candy pics for those that didn't attend the NAMM show.

Great NAMM lefty report - thanks !

- Schecter had none ?
. . I relied on them to be one of the most LH friendly brands out there..

thordisc wrote:Great NAMM lefty report - thanks !

- Schecter had none ?
. . I relied on them to be one of the most LH friendly brands out there..

They are, but in previous years I've attended they never have lefties on hand.