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Setting up a Lefty Bass


bigjimmyc
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Hey Lefties.
Am I paranoid?

I've had guitars and basses professionally set up before and never been satisfied with the results. I always suspected that a righty doesn't do a proper job for a lefty. Even worse, a guitarist doesn't do a proper job on a bass, so taking a lefty bass to a righty guitarist.... you see where I'm going.

I do most stuff myself but honestly I don't have the tools, patience or eyesight to do this properly.

What do you guys and gals do? Anyone you can recommend (Hampshire or Middlesex area)??

Cheers
Jimmy

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  • 2 weeks later...

As a lefty I've always did my own set ups and never thought to ask someone else. Perhaps only in recents years and with a bit more experience with instruments (and patience), my current basses play more to my liking than ever before. I also recently allowed the GuitarGuitar guys in my local store to re-string my old Overwater and they did a very good job including a fret clean and its first minor truss adjustment in about 20 years. The guy who strung it was i believe a rightie guitarist :) I still do all the tuning and intonation myself as its a breeze with modern digital tuners.

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For a professional there should be no difference in setting up a righty or a lefty. What I don't like in the setups offered by most specialists is that they will follow the book, so to speak, measuring distances and gaps and making them all standard according to "the rules". I don't know how many of us enjoy standard setups, but I know I certainly don't: for instance, I like the G string to have a much lower action than the other strings (makes it easier to play the high notes when I use my pinky). I like to adjust the action through lifting or lowering the saddles and the nut (Warwicks are way ahead of most other makes, in that they have adjustable ones) as well as through the usual truss rod tweaks. Some of the above would be anathema to a pro... :rolleyes:
I'm the official re-string/setup person in our lefty+righty household, and it makes no difference to how I work; however, I always do the final adjustments only after we have actually played the bass and decided if it still needs tweaking.

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[quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1469267556' post='3097028']
For a professional there should be no difference in setting up a righty or a lefty. What I don't like in the setups offered by most specialists is that they will follow the book, so to speak, measuring distances and gaps and making them all standard according to "the rules". I don't know how many of us enjoy standard setups, but I know I certainly don't: for instance, I like the G string to have a much lower action than the other strings (makes it easier to play the high notes when I use my pinky). I like to adjust the action through lifting or lowering the saddles and the nut (Warwicks are way ahead of most other makes, in that they have adjustable ones) as well as through the usual truss rod tweaks. Some of the above would be anathema to a pro... :rolleyes:
I'm the official re-string/setup person in our lefty+righty household, and it makes no difference to how I work; however, I always do the final adjustments only after we have actually played the bass and decided if it still needs tweaking.
[/quote]^ yeah this, I'm a lefty and do my own set ups, if you've got a logical mind it really isn't rocket science, a few basic tools and there's good tutorials on youtube, and there shouldn't be any difference between setting up a righty or a lefty , a luthier's bound to set it up by the book, how else should he do it? unless you give him detailed instructions, having said that I once fitted new strings to a mates guitar and did them the wrong way on because he was right handed, I did feel a pratt

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Cheers all for the input. I'm leaning towards DIY here, but each instrument need a different tool!

Just got my Stingray today, and it's got flat wounds on :mellow: . Those need to go.

Maybe I'll hit youtube this weekend.

Thanks again.

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  • 3 months later...

Hi everybody
I play guitar for several years and decided to jump the fence just recently. In my opinion it's important to know at least the basic things about a good set up.
When it came to choosing the right first bass i went for a Warwick corvette lefty short scale because to me it looks easy to tweak
(of course i have other reasons as well).
I'll do a NBD when I get it in 4-8 weeks.
In the meantime, it looks like a good place to talk all things lefty here.

Cheers :sun_bespectacled: 089

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