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My name is Ziggy Bokalders, aka "ZiggyB".
I am a part-time left handed bassist. By day I am a professional commercial photographer.
I am also a crazy Latvian-American...
I am currently playing in The Samantha Russell Band here in South Florida.
I learned to play on an older Right Handed pre-CBS white Fender Precision with tortoise
shell pickguard back in 1972 when I was 17. I flipped it over and re-strung it lefty,
but I could never get the intonation right. Frustrated, I sold the bass for
$150! I kick myself now knowing what that would be worth today.
Soon after that, I found an old LH Cherry Red Gibson EBO which I customized by adding
a second Telecaster bass pickup. I sold this bass to Arni a few years back and it is
now a showpiece in his collection on this website. (It appears at the top of the page
in the "Forum" section.) I also perform setups and bass maintenance. I also
like to build and customize instruments.
Here is an interesting story a lefty can appreciate:
As a huge RUSH fan, I wanted to buy a Left Handed Geddy Lee Signature Fender Jazz Bass.
I learned that Fender doesn't make a lefty version. The Fender Custom Shop told me
I could custom order one for around 5000.00!
My solution was to buy the parts and build my own. I used a right hand replacement
Geddy Lee maple neck coupled to a lefty black jazz bass body. I installed factory replacement
Geddy Lee pickups with a custom passive wiring harness with a vintage capacitor and
added a series/parallel circuit. I put on a black BadassII bridge, black Gotoh tuners,
added blackout parts which I had powder coated by a custom motorcycle shop. As a "piece
de resistance," I designed and cut my own custom one of a kind pickguard.
It is a cool looking bass, because it is all blacked out, like a Harley-Davidson motorcycle,
and it has a backwards headstock. It gets noticed, believe me!
My custom boutique bass sounds better than any stock Japanese Geddy Lee you could buy
at the store. We call it the " Ziggy Lee."
My advice to lefty bassists is don't get frustrated if you can't find an instrument,
build your own! |
