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unusual string configuration
Posted:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:39 amby drakula63
I'll confess that this is something I've never seen before...
Has this bass player got his bass strung the opposite way round? Thick strings at the bottom, thin at the top? As I say, never seen that done before.
Go to 18 mins 22 sec.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hq-6K8YYJY
Re: unusual string configuration
Posted:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:47 amby rogera
We have a guitarist at our club that plays left handed with his strings upside down and this is just the same but with a bass.
A very confusing concept!
Re: unusual string configuration
Posted:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:59 amby drakula63
...Yeah.
My Sherlock Holmes-like powers of deduction tell me that he is left-handed and probably taught himself to play the bass on a right-handed bass, held upside down! Now whilst that may not present problems as such - if that's the way he's taught himself - surely this makes his way of playing quite unique and surely it must also be impossible for him to follow conventional tablature, music notation and exercises, etc? This would also be true of the guitarist you speak of. And surely if they tried to learn by watching other guitarists fingers on the fretboard, it would be all wrong?!!!
I just find it intriguing. Actually, my brain hurts now.
Re: unusual string configuration
Posted:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 2:07 pmby Jay Bass
If you look at Dick Dale playing he also has the guitar strung with the bass strings on the bottom
its basicly a right handed guitar played upside down by a left handed guitarist.
regards
jay
Re: unusual string configuration
Posted:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 4:05 pmby JimN
Over the years (decades) I have met several guitarists and bassists who play with the bass strings "at the bottom". If I recall correctly, wasn't the bass player of the Bay City Rollers a LH player who played a RH-strung Jazz bass?
Re: unusual string configuration
Posted:
Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:34 amby RayL
Err, Chris, do you spend ALL your time looking at Youtube videos?
Re: unusual string configuration
Posted:
Sat Jan 19, 2019 10:16 amby George Geddes
Jim
Yes, Alan Longmuir played that way. Could probably have afforded a custom bass in later years...
George
Re: unusual string configuration
Posted:
Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:23 pmby drakula63
RayL wrote:Err, Chris, do you spend ALL your time looking at Youtube videos?
Yeah. Apart from when I'm on here talking about them.
Re: unusual string configuration
Posted:
Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:58 pmby JimN
George Geddes wrote:Jim
Yes, Alan Longmuir played that way. Could probably have afforded a custom bass in later years...
George
I thought so.
The Jazz Bass must be the popular model which is least suited to being played upside down, and it stuck in the memory for that reason.
Re: unusual string configuration
Posted:
Sun Jan 20, 2019 4:37 amby johnc
Back in the day, there were a lot of players who were left handed and they had to play like that...proper left handed guitars were very rare...and left handed basses were even harder to find.
Some people restrung their right handed guitars to facilitate playing left handed, some pressed on and learned to play 'upside down'..a lot of lefties could play either way!!
My dear old pal who was the bass player in my first band built himself a left handed solidbody electric guitar at secondary school (woodwork lessons!) and our drummer built him two left handed basses for use in the band...