August 2008

It´s quiet in the internet during the summer time. This experiences we did years for years. But we lefties can´t complain about that. The reason for this is, that some lefthanded bassplayers did a great job for our website. They are from Brazil, USA und Germany and they stay in touch with me very intensive and send me very intresting informations.

There is the brazilian journalist William Perron, a lefty bassplayer of course. William found the way to our website and his support is a one of the biggest support I got from a user ever. I think he knows how difficult it is to reach lefties overseas.

But at first I like to introduce you to new friends and lefty bassists:

William Parron / Brazil

Roy Versteegen / Netherlands

Hervé Jegousso / France

ZELI - José Ricardo de Barros e Silva / Brazil

Jacky Grandjean / France

Cor Claessen / Netherlands

Updated websites:

Luca Carboni / Italy

Jerry Ploeg / Netherlands

Peter Bertges / Germany

Marco Mazotti / Schwitzerland

Jeroen Gahrmann /Netherlands

Thank you all!

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Something for your eyes:

These are two nice and rare lefty basses, offered in the USA. If you don´t have trouble with your money, ...

Let´s talk about the contacts of last weeks:

William Parron

I told you before about William Parron, a journalist from Brazil. He has a lot of contacts to the music scene in South America and I´m glad about his great support. So I would thank him for the conctat to the brazilian bassplayer Zeli.

I´m sure to wellcome more liefties from South Americal next time.

William pointed me to the luthiers from Brazil and has send me some links. So please check them out and I´m sure you be astonished.

This and much more links you will find her: Links.htm

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Peter Bertges

Peter is a lefty bassist from Germany and we are in touch for a long time.

But I didn´t know that he is an author and writer of the "The Fender Reference". His work is a phantastic and complete publishing of Fender guitars and basses. It´s a book with enormous details and a must for musicians who are intrested in Fender guitars and basses.

You can get some impressions at http://www.bomots.de/fender/index.htm

Description:

Finally a book has arrived on the market that contains all the technical information on every single electric guitar and bass marketed under the Fender brand. You can consult this reference whenever you need to find out about a specific technical detail of a certain Fender instrument or if you would like to know in which way the instrument was modified or when it was dropped from the production line. The foreword is written by Thomas Blug, Germany's Stratplayer Nummer One.

A lot of music has been made with the Strat - a great deal actually varying in a lot of different styles!
The reason for this may lie in the versatility and the multifacetedness of this guitar.
Or is it perhaps because each Strat is different from another?

We live in the 21st century and somehow a guitar which first saw the light of day in 1954, is still one of the most-played models of all the electric guitars of the present. As for myself, I have been playing this guitar for more than 20 years, and I still discover new tone colours and musical hues which I can get out of it.
Similarities between Strats are mostly in appearance. Every Strat has its own special character, which can really be heard if you listen carefully.
The closer you look, the more you'll understand how essential the influence of each component, which is built into the Strat, is for its sound. I have come to realise that not only the changing of pick-ups alters the sound - even the material of the pickguard, where the pick-ups are mounted, makes a noticable difference.
Summing up, this fact results in different sound properties which provide each instrument with its own character. Even small tolerances during the production process leave their acoustical traces and help form the quality and character of individual instruments. Which brings us to a particular phenomenon -one which non-musicians cannot grasp and which they would most probably shrug off as just being nonsense - the influence of the instrument on the musician.

Some call it inspiration, others call it the soul of the instrument that speaks to them. Whatever the case may be, this is a point on which I agree with many of my fellow guitarists.
Go and ask a violin player who plays a Stradivarius about the huge influence the violin has on its player and his music - this is an incontrovertible fact which is acknowledged all over the musical world.
What I have experienced time and again, is that the soul of every single Strat I've ever played completely took me by surprise, as I discovered that every instrument inevitably shows you its character which you have to come to terms with, otherwise no musical oneness between musician and instrument can be established. Strats can be stroppy little beasts which you've got to become acquainted with and understand first... ...but that's exactly what makes them so fascinating to deal with.
As a guitar player I can only reiterate what an immense influence the material used have on the sound, the response and subsequently on the tone of the instrument.
I have spent half a lifetime collecting these experiences.
Today I have a clear conception of which tremolo, which pick-ups and which wood I like best.
And that's exactly where the fun starts for every serious guitarist. Every guitarist has his own personality and is somehow searching for 'his instrument' with which he has the best rapport and which lets him express himself best.
That's why it makes sense to take a much closer look at the varied aspects of the Strat including its history. Many accounts that you'll find in this book will either ring a bell or bring something to light.
Many of these things that you may have merely felt up to now, will start to make sense in the light of your own experiences.

For me it is still fascinating to hear and see the things, different guitarists can do with the Strat, especially such diverse personalities as David Gilmour, Richie Backmore, Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher, Hank Marvin, Nile Rodgers, Eric Johnson, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan. This book gives you a complete summary on what changes occurred to the hardware in the course of the years. There are exact references to the materials Fender used in the various series, and thus the book helps you understand what has changed, not only in the Strat, but also in all the other guitars and basses Fender has brought to the music-making world.
Whether you use this information as a collector in order to establish the genuineness of an instrument, or whether the data serve as sources for your own research, is at your own discretion.

And the story will go on! That's a thing I'm very, very sure of...

Thomas Blug
tblug@t-online.de
www.guitarplayer.de

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Peter McCulloch

Peter McCulloch is allways looking for rare lefthand basses. One of his efforts is to get in touch with the luthiers to ask for a small series of lefty basses. These series will be rare ever. Most of us didn´t know about this small series, so I´m glad to get informed by Peter.

"I just got an e-mail from Mike at Eastwood Guitars, and he told me that lefty Classic 4 basses are shipping in 3 weeks! These basses are kind of like copies of the old Gretsch Broadkaster or Guild Starfire basses, but in my opinion they sound better than both. Here's a picture:

And there's more information about these basses as well as other lefty basses that Eastwood makes at www.eastwoodguitars.com

Eastwood Guitars now has the Classic 4 bass lefty in stock for $499US. (August 2008)

I read your mention of guitarshogun.com and how they ship MIJ stuff overseas. Well, I'm trying to find a way to get the new lefty Fender Jaguar bass that Fender is only selling in Japan. Here's a link to 1 japanese store that sells them:

http://www.taniguchi-gakki.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=133_150_222&products_id=1382

In addition to the red, it also comes in black, white, and sunburst. I sent an e-mail to guitarshogun to see if they can get them, but with the US dollar so weak now these basses will be over $1200US.

Fender Jaguar Bass, lefthand, Made in Japan

In the meantime Peter McCulloch has a truly impressive collection of nice and rare lefthanded basses. His treasures with detailed information you will find here:

The Peter McCulloch Collection

Enjoy it!

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Lakland Metro (Made in Japan)

If you are looking for a lefty Lakland Metro bass, hurry up!

Last order is the August 29th, 2008.

(Thanks to Cor Claessen)

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When idiotic´s meet entertainment...

German private televison on August 5th, 2008

This is a stupid TV spot. The winner is, who smash 12 guitars at frist. Some lefty guitars were killed too

That´s it for the moment.

Stay in touch and keep healthy, specially take care of your fingers....

....not like this webmaster, who had a stupid accident and broken his finger on the right hand.

No chance for bass playing these days!

CU later,

Arni

www.leftybass.com ---------------------------- Arni`s Lefthand Bassplayer Community ---------------------------- News from the world of lefthanded bassplayers---------------------------- This website needs your support---------------------------- Email: ArniBi@gmx.net

July 2008

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Dear lefty bassplayers,

it´s time again for a update.

Since the last update from May, I wasn´t at home for most of the time. But I found time to create some new outfits for our website and I hope you like it. Specially the international list of lefty bassplayers, which is one of the importent things on this website, was complete overworked. This list contains all the names of lefty bassplayers, who gave me their consent to post the name there. If you miss your name there and you like to represent your country, feel free to get in touch with me! Please check it out as well as the other new websites.

I can´t rule out that all links are working perfectly. So please let me know, if there is something wrong!

What´s up since the last update?!

I got support from five new lefty bassplayers and I´m more than glad to wellcome them to your community!

Tim de Jager / Netherlands

Rob Kittler /United Kingdome

Will Driscoll / USA

Keith McKnight / United Kingdome

Thomas Blodig / Germany

New informations are available from

Flavio Mangione / USA!

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In the beginning of this year, Scott Surine of Surine Basses told us about a unfinnished 7string Affinity Series I bass. Maybe you will remember. He was looking for coustomer, who´s intresting in this unique bass for a very special lefty price.

Now Yvan Burke is the proud owner of this wonderful and unique bass, which was produced by his own wishes.

Yvan Burke and his 7-string Surine Affinity Series I

Congratulation, Yvan!

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Arni,
I have been going on leftybassist.com lately. That forum is remarkably dead, the lefty community needs to be much more supportive. When you do your next news update perhaps you should mention that. Hope all is well.
Bart

This email is from Bart Bruno, a very active user of www.leftybass.com. Bart (and me too) is disappointed of the small support for this great and own lefty bassplayer forum www.leftybassist.com

So please contact Andrew and his forum!

Last but not least, here is a very rare bass!

Rosdi Salim (Rudyblizz) from Singapore has the lucky owner of a coustom lefthand 5string Gibson Thunderbird bass. This is the first lefthand Gibson Thunderbird I have ever seen!

Thanks for looking and stay in touch!

Arni

www.leftybass.com ---------------------------- Arni`s Lefthand Bassplayer Community ---------------------------- News from the world of lefthanded bassplayers---------------------------- This website needs your support---------------------------- Email: ArniBi@gmx.net

11.05.2008

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Dear bassplayers,

I hope you are all doing well and you are bussy with the bass playing. Here are the latest news I´ve got last weeks and I hope you will enjoy them.

At first I´m glad to welcome new friends and lefthanded bassplayers:

Guy E. Partin / USA
Luca Carboni / Italy
Markus Hügel / Germany
Tom Morelle / France
Kai Waldowski / Germany

Thank you very much for your support! I hope you will encourage more lefties to join our community.

Please also notice the websites of

Sam Manise / Belgium
Bruno Murgia / Italy
Jack Frisch / USA

These websites got an update. Thanks to all of you!

Fender Made in Japan

The Fender MIJ basses are often topics for discussions and for myself it´s a little bit confusing what basses are avialable for us and how to get them.

I think the email from Michael Kutsch / Germany will help us to get some more informations about this.

Michael told me about „Ken“, who´s shipping Fender MIJ basses from Japan to nearly all countries. He´s selling some of these basses throughout Ebay . His Ebay name is "seikosuru2003“.

I was in touch with Ken to get more informations for you and he told me about his website

http://www.guitarshogun.com/ or his Ebay store http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZseikosuru2003QQhtZ-1

Please check out these websites to get more informations about Fender MIJ basses and the shipment to your country.

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Lefty bassplayer Forum

Does it makes sence to open up a new forum, or is it much better to support a already existing lefthand bassplayer forum?

Andrew Morrison is a webmaster and admin of www.leftybassist.com. I think it´s the better way to support this than to open up a new one.

Take a look and say hello to Andrew and all the other lefty bassplayers.

You will find a link to his forum on the left site.

Marc Hohl, a lefty of course, is a writer of a booklet with 9 solotracks for bass guitars.

You will get more interesting informations about this book (price: 19 €) with the title 912 and soundfiles for example at check it out and I´m sure you will like it!

Take care my friends of the low end, that´s it for now. Have a good time, a lots of gigs and enjoy the wonderful springtime.

And remember: I´m always interested in news from the lefthand bassplayer scene!

Have a good time!

Arni

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