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Choosing the Perfect Bass Guitar
Selecting the ideal left handed bass guitar requires careful consideration of various factors to ensure it meets your musical needs and personal preferences. Start by evaluating the number of strings you want. A 4-string bass is perfect for beginners due to its simplicity and versatility across most music genres. However, if you’re an advanced player or enjoy heavier music styles, a 5-string bass might be more suitable, offering an extended range for deeper tones.
While the standard 34-inch scale is common, shorter scales can be more comfortable for beginners and those with smaller hands, providing easier access across the frets. The body shape is also significant; Jazz, Precision, and StingRay models each offer unique ergonomic benefits, with Jazz basses often favored by newcomers for their ease of handling.
Consider the aesthetic and design elements of the bass guitar. Traditional designs exude a classic vibe, while modern designs are lighter and may offer enhanced playability. The type of music you play should influence your choice, as different bass guitars produce distinct tones. Whether you’re aiming for a deep groove in funk or a smooth jazz sound, ensure your chosen bass aligns with your musical style.
Finally, the electronics of the bass guitar can greatly impact your sound. Decide between active electronics, which provide a wider range of tone-shaping options but require batteries, and passive electronics, which offer a straightforward, no-fuss approach ideal for beginners.
Types of Bass Guitars
Understanding the different types of bass guitars is crucial for selecting the perfect instrument that suits your playing style and musical needs. Bass guitars generally fall into several categories, each offering unique characteristics and features that influence their sound and playability.
Solid Body Bass Guitars
Solid body bass guitars are the most common type and are characterized by their solid construction, which typically uses woods like alder, maple, or mahogany. This design provides a consistent tone and sustain, making them versatile for various music genres. Solid body basses are often preferred for their durability and ability to handle high volume levels without feedback issues.
Hollow Body and Semi-Hollow Body Bass Guitars
Hollow body and semi-hollow body bass guitars offer a warmer, more resonant tone due to their construction. These basses feature a hollow chamber inside the body, which enhances their acoustic properties. They are popular in jazz, blues, and rockabilly styles, where a richer, more organic sound is desired. However, they can be more prone to feedback at higher volumes compared to solid body basses.
Acoustic Bass Guitars
Acoustic bass guitars have a completely hollow body, similar to an acoustic guitar, allowing them to produce sound without the need for amplification. They are ideal for unplugged sessions or intimate performances where a natural, unamplified sound is preferred. While they can be amplified with built-in pickups, acoustic basses generally have a softer, mellower tone.
Electric Bass Guitars
Electric bass guitars are designed to be played through an amplifier and offer a wide range of tonal possibilities. They are equipped with pickups and electronics that allow players to shape their sound extensively. Electric basses are the standard choice for most modern music genres, including rock, pop, funk, and metal, due to their powerful sound and adaptability.
Fretless Bass Guitars
Fretless bass guitars lack the metal frets found on traditional basses, allowing for smoother slides and a more expressive playing style. This design is favored by jazz and fusion players who seek a distinct, fluid sound. Fretless basses require a more precise finger placement and can be challenging for beginners, but they offer a unique tonal quality that can enhance musical expression.
Top Left Handed Bass Guitars
Fender Player Jazz Electric Bass Guitar – Pau Ferro LH Fingerboard
- Guitar Bridge System: Hardtail Bridge
- Guitar Pickup Configuration: Single Coil
- Two Player Series single-coil Jazz Bass pickups
It’s a left-handed variant of the well-known Fender Player Jazz Bass, to put it simply. It boasts a sturdy alder body with a lovely gloss sunburst finish, and the 20 medium jumbo fret Pau Ferro Fingerboard is mounted on top of the ‘C’ shaped maple neck. The Player Jazz’s two Alnico 5 single coil pickups, each with its own volume control, adhere to the traditional Jazz Bass design.
Fender’s most affordable line of instruments is the Player Series, which is made in the company’s Mexican factory to help keep costs down. The value here is astounding; these are bass instruments of the highest calibre that will last you a lifetime. There is a good chance that one or more Player Series instruments will be on stage if a band is performing at your neighbourhood bar. Their popularity has nearly made them synonymous with the travelling musician.
The signal from each pickup can then be blended to your preferences in this way. One knob controls the overall tone, making modifications quick, simple, and efficient. The last touch is period-appropriate hardware, including a bridge with open gear tuning machinery and individually adjustable saddles. There’s no doubting the Fender Jazz Bass left-handed thump power or the air of ‘cool’ that surrounds it. Oh, and it also plays and sounds really decent. This is the Best Left Handed Bass Guitar in 2023.
Squier by Fender Classic Vibe 70’s Left-Handed Jazz Bass
- 100% designed by Fender
- Inspired by 1970s-era Jazz Bass models
- Fender-Designed alnico pickups
One of the most recognisable bass models is Fender’s Jazz Bass. The Squier Classic Vibe ’70s model is a very reliable and competent bass that welcomes left-handed players into the fold and provides a decent feature set for the price. With a body that is an exact reproduction of the vintage design, but reversed for left-handed bassists, jazz bass mojo is in the house. Poplar, a gentler tonewood with a mellow sound, was used in its construction.
Each of the neck and bridge pickups has a master volume and tone control. Furthermore, for those who enjoy a more aggressive bass attack, these two pickups offer an intriguing sound. especially now that they have slightly repositioned the bridge pickup. This enables you to produce a variety of tones resembling the original versions from the 1970s. For the machine heads and the bridge with its four saddles, they stayed true to the original designs. Furthermore, it features a bone nut, which is a wonderful addition.
The neck is made of maple and has a ‘C’ shaped profile that many players find to be quite cosy. The fingerboard is also composed of maple, but the fret marks are block inlays rather than dots. Although the electronics on the Classic Vibe ’70s Jazz are very low-frills, they are nonetheless of high quality.
Fender’s own-design Alnico single coil pickups are used, and they are each given a separate volume knob (ideal for blending the two signals) as well as a master tone control. There isn’t any high-tech active material here, but you might not actually need it. Both the open geared tuning machinery and the saddle-style bridge include historical styling in the hardware section. Overall, the Classic Vibe ’70s Jazz left handed bass is quite excellent and more than deserving of a place in your collection.
Sterling By MusicMan 4 String Sterling by Music Man Ray34 StingRay Bass, Left-Handed
- The Ray34 in Natural finish pays tribute to the iconic, original Music Man...
- Precision built with Ash body, Hard Maple neck, and Maple fretboard for a...
- Sterling by Music Man design Alnico humbuckers coupled with a 3-band preamp
The Sterling S.U.B Ray4 was made by Music Man using an existing design and is intended to be a left-handed duplicate of the original while maintaining a manageable level of investment.
The basswood body of the S.U.B Ray4 is available in gloss black or gloss black. Although it’s terrible, there aren’t as many colour possibilities for left handed models as there are for right handed ones. A bolt-on hard maple neck, maple fretboard with 22 frets, and plain black dot inlays are features of the left-handed version.
Leo Fender also created the Music Man bass guitar, which is why it has an eye-catching, aesthetically pleasing, and ergonomic design. A list of bass guitars is available from Sterling by Music Man. Sterling by Music Muic Man Ray would be the most reasonably priced one. Basswood was used to contour the body, and maple was used for the neck and fingerboard. Pickup is a typical fat humbucker that is controlled by Volume, 1 Hi Cut/Boost, and 1 Low Cut/Boost. It is mounted on the bridge. Next up is Sterling the Music Man Ray34’s bass model.
The bass’s natural-finished swamp ash body has a lovely satin-finished maple fretboard and neck. A volume knob and a 3-band active preamp are used to control the Sterling alnico humbucker pick-up. Both basses have the heavy duty bridge, open tuners, and six screw bolt-on neck to body joints that made the Music Man bass models famous.
In the bridge position, a single humbucking pickup is managed by a master volume and 2-band active EQ. It’s a relatively straightforward arrangement that might not offer as many tonal options as a two pickup setup, but it’s more than sufficient. In terms of gear, what you’ll discover is typical for a bass at this price range. On the headstock, open gear tuners are mounted, and the bridge, which has adjustable saddles, has a die-cast metal base rather than a piece of steel that has been cut into it.
Despite this, none of it is “poor” or “substandard”; on the contrary, the hardware options are wholly useful. Many players adore the StingRay’s core characteristics, and the S.U.B Ray4 is an excellent method to do so without incurring additional expenses.
Schecter Stiletto Extreme-4 Bass Guitar (4 String, Left Handed, Black Cherry)
- 2 Humbucking Pickups - Black Cherry
- 4-string Electric Bass
- Rosewood Fingerboard
When choosing and searching for a bass, especially one in this price category, we frequently choose the most obvious or well-known options, forgetting that there are other brands that produce high-quality basses, such as this pair of basses from Schecter. as a brand introduction for individuals who might not be familiar with it yet. Since its inception in 1976, Schecter has produced high-quality spare parts for guitars and basses made by renowned manufacturers. When it introduced its first range of completely constructed guitars and basses in 1979, that’s when everything really got going. Hisatake Shibuya, the creator of ESP LTD, is the current owner of Schecter.
Each bass has a unique body style. The wood double cutaway body of the Schecter Stiletto bass guitar boasts a see-through finish. A 24 fret rosewood fretboard with a maple neck is adorned with perloid and abalone vector inlays. The middle and bridge pickups on this bass are Schecter’s proprietary Diamond Bass pickups, which are managed by a single master volume, Blend, and an active 2-Band EQ. While the Shecter Diamond P Plus bass has an alder wood body with a retro appearance. Rosewood has a 20-fret fingerboard and a maple neck with MOP dots. Seymour Duncan’s Quarter Pound P SPB-3 and MM SMB-4D pick-ups are used on the neck and bridge, respectively, and are each controlled by a single master volume (Series-Parallel Push-Pull), a 4-way rotary pick-up selector switch, and an active Seymour Duncan 2-Band “STC-2S-B0” for EQ.
Rogue LX200BL Left-Handed Series III Electric Bass Guitar Metallic Blue
When it comes to making inexpensive bass guitars and entry-level guitars, Rouge is a well-known brand. Some seasoned players actually prefer to purchase bass models like this that are less expensive and then upgrade and modify the parts as a hobby for a custom-built instrument. The basswood body of the Rogue LX200BL bass is light and sculpted with a double cutaway, while the maple neck and rosewood fretboard. high-quality wood is used to make guitars and basses.
Bridge to tuners, everything of the hardware is sturdy. P/J bass pickups have independent volume and tone control knobs for the neck hum-canceling split single-coil P-Style pickup and the bridge single-coil J-Style pickup. Cheap instruments don’t always imply that they are difficult to play or have poor sound quality. They are simply manufactured particularly and kept at a reasonable price to be accessible to a larger market, so that anyone interested can learn to play and enjoy these wonderful instruments.
Conclusion
When choosing a left handed bass guitar, it’s essential to consider your music style, budget, and personal preferences. Think about the key features you need in a bass guitar, such as scale length, number of strings, and electronics. The sound and playability of each option are crucial factors to evaluate when deciding on a left handed bass guitar. Don’t hesitate to try out different options to find the best fit for your music. Remember to site properly and take care of your instrument to ensure it always sounds its best.