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I'm a 32-year-old lefty bassist who hails from the country where Guinness is
brewed and pubs and bars are aplenty. I started playing bass at the age of 14. My first
bass was a small one suitable for beginners made by a British company called Encore.
It was a righty, but I had the strings switched around. As I was a beginner, young
and naive, I didn't realise that the nut and strap button had to be changed as well,
but the bass saw me through my first practice and jam sessions.
Up till then I had never seen many lefty bassists except for Paul McCartney and
one or two others. Then, in April 1991, AC/DC visited Dublin as part of the Razors
Edge tour. I was 16 and it was my first concert, so I was really excited. And who were
their special guests? None other than the brilliant King's X, with Doug Pinnick brandishing
one of his Lefthanded Hamer 12 string basses. I was quite bowled over. It was great
to see a fellow lefty bassist hammering away on a big stage in a huge arena. It would
have been just as good if he'd played one of his 4 strings. That gave me a real urge
to never stop playing.
I played a few other basses over the next 8 years, attended a music college and
did lots of gigs. In 98 I purchased a Yamaha BB300 right before I went abroad to Raleigh,
North Carolina in the states. I did quite a few shows there using my Yamaha, and got
to check out many different kinds of bass guitars, including 5 strings (I'd like to
get one someday). A year after I went back to Ireland, I recently received a Stingray
copy by a company called Vintage. Its all passive but sounds very similar to a Stingray
and feels great to play. The only modification I had to make was to change the strings
as the ones on it were too light and I only like standard or heavier gauge strings.
I'm also a fan of Marshall and Ampeg and I have a small Marshall amp for gigs although
I'd love to get a bigger one once I have the transport. I'm playing with a few bands
at the moment and have a C.D. out with one of them and I also do blues sessions in
bars, where I get to play with a variety of drummers, guitarists and singers, and its
a great way of developing your ear even further. A lot of the time I end up being the
only Bassist as either there are no others there, or they've forgotten to bring their
bass with them and can't play mine as I'm the only lefty. The down side is that I'm
usually the only one who dosen't get a break from playing, but its definitely great
to get recognised by that and have your skills exhibited. (Plus it dosen't hurt to
have people, especially women, telling you how great it was).
Hi Arni, hope all is well with you? I was just wondering if you could change some of
my details on my Page on leftybass.com? First I notice that the link on my name goes
to Myspace. I closed my Myspace down some years ago so now I only use Facebook and
Twitter. Could we reroute the Link to https://www.facebook.com/Peter.Jordan.Ireland.Bass
? Also could you add another Band to the list that I'm now playing with? The Band is
Stone Trigger, Facebook URL is https://www.facebook.com/StoneTrigger?fref=ts . Any
other updates I'll get back to you with. Thanks Arni.
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