Agent 00Soul

I got to try an Aerodyne in a Japanese music shop. One of the best bass sounds I've heard for the "rock" end of the rock n roll spectrum. You can easily get lefties in Japan, but for some reason they don't export them - or didn't last time I checked. Interestingly, the models they do export have Strat-style output jacks with knobs flush to the body which I prefer over the standard Jazz jacks/panels on the domestic models.

Hi - I have an RH450 bass amp head that I bought in the USA a decade ago. I recently moved to the UK. Can I simply swap the USA power cable for a UK one like I do for my computer? Or do I need to plug the unit into a step-down transformer to externally convert the 220 volts to 110 like on my vintage amps? Its plug is removable and goes into a generic three pronged socket, so I wasn't sure. Thanks in advance!

Wow - I’ve been interested enough in these bases to keep my eye on them since they first came out in 1982, but I’d never seen a lefty in anything other than black before. I just assumed they didn’t exist.

Today's email blast from online music empire Reverb features a video and article about what they call upside-down guitarists, that is left-handed players who play lefty, but with the strings reversed (the low string is on the bottom). The vast majority of these players seem to have learned this way simply because they picked up right-handed models, flipped them over into the more comfortable/natural left-handed position, and never changed the string order. It looks like a lot of people featured were self-taught and didn't know any better, although some, including host Malina Moye, knew but preferred it upside-down: https://reverb.com/news/a-brief-history-of-upside-down-guitarists-with-malina-moye No bassists, but I have seen photos of lefties who do the same thing.

I hope this thing survived it's six weeks on a container ship!

The Twin Peaks theme song on the streets of Brooklyn, 2013. (The woman in the middle playing guitar went on to write "Nomadland," a best-selling book and later an Oscar-winning movie!)

The black one? It's a Frankenbass. It started as a 1993 Fender Custom Shop 61 Jazz. By the time I bought it in 2001 it had been played to near death, and bits gradually failed. So the neck is now a Warmoth and the front pick-up is a Duncan P-bass to replace the original J-bass after the electronics also went kaput. I think the only original thing left is the body and the hardware.

Hello - I'm relatively new to this forum. It seemed more fun to introduce myself to my fellow lefties first. I've been playing bass in bands in New York for almost 30 years. Got married and now I live in Chelsea, London. At 53, I'm not sure if there's anything left for me to play in, although I have to admit that gigging in London never gets old - unlike me. Here are some piccies of the basses I've acquired over the years. I brought them all with me to the UK so who knows....

I realize I'm late here, but I wanted to confirm what Pineweasel said. I bought two Hiscox standard cases and they fit my lefties fine. They really are as strong as they advertise. My bases just spent 6 weeks on a container ship and two moving trucks and they - the cases and the basses - were completely undamaged.

Agh - Jack, where were you a decade ago?? I would have jumped all over it then when I was touring and recording a lot.

I'm sure you all know this, but leftybassist.com has had tons of reviews over the years specifically about models made for those of us born with that recessive gene. And on the subject of Macca's Gaskill above, Slovakian company Bach produced a run of lefty non-reverse Thunderbirds about a decade ago that have been nicknamed Bachbirds. There are reviews of those on leftybassist.com also.

A blast from my past in Soundpool: 2010 was soooo groovy! "Kite of Love" - music vid "But It's So" live - shot by an audience member but pointed at the bass by chance

Great article. Quick, un-official, visa-less gigs in Canada and the EU (when the UK was a member) were incredibly stressful for me as a US citizen. I was terrified I would be caught and banned from visiting. It wasn't worth it.