Welcome to my site on left handed guitars and playing left handed. It's kind of a right hand guitar world but there are several ways around this small roadblock. There are several nice guitars and basses on the market now but it wasn't always this way.

When I was coming up, I had a neighbor that was a good left handed guitar player. This is before we could figure out how to work on our guitars so he just used a right handed guitar turned upside down. This means the little e string was on top, as well as the controls.

To some people this would be awkward, not to my neighbor. He actually got good with it. It was strange playing along with him for the D chord would be on top and such and the high lead parts would be on the top so he had to pull down to get a bend. It actually gave him some cool sounding licks to pull instead of push up. Different muscles I guess and vibrato.

I remember Hendrix would make use of the knobs being on top also, you can see him in videos reaching up with his thumb to get an effect. Of course his hands were so big he could reach all over those strats.

IF you find yourself as a lefty and don't want to play a right hand guitar upside down and don't want to pay for a left hand guitar it's just a matter of switching the nut up at the tuners. Have it removed and in it's place the string grooves will accommodate the width of the string for left handed playing. So when you flip the guitar around to play left handed the large E string will be on top.

Do the same for the saddles on the bridge. This is back by the pickups, it's where the string rests on the bridge, again it's just a matter of the diameter of the string has the correct space in which to sit on the bridge.

It's easier to show this in a picture or any local music store that has minor guitar repair should have a technician that can do this setup in their sleep, it's really basic, but I would get it done properly, you could do it yourself if you're motivated, just get it right, you don't want the strings buzzing or out of intonation. (if a guitar's intonation is out, it will sound in tune on the low end but when you play higher up, it will sound out of tune, this can be corrected)

Some people say that left handed musicians are more creative because something to do with right brain (creative part) is connected to the opposite hand. And Hendrix was left handed and you would be hard pressed to find a rock guitarist more creative than he was. I don't know myself, for me the jury is still out but I sure did think the Beatles looked cool with one guitar pointing one way on the outside and McCartney's bass pointing the other way from where he stood.

Now if you could be a switch hitter (ambidextrous) and do it well you would probably get the best of both world's and come up with all kinds of original guitar stuff but the time it would take to pull this off might be more time than a lot of us have.


Here is an excellent video about restoring an old acoustic guitar to a left handed acoustic.

Here's a cool video from Elliot Easton of the "Cars" talking about what it's been like for him being a lefty.

Info and Tips:

Even know there's a list a mile long of famous left handed musicians, when it comes to guitar, whether electric or acoustic and bass guitar the club the lefty's belong too is quite impressive. Maybe there is something to the right brain (creative part) connected to the left side of the body.

If you're just starting out and deciding the best way to go about playing guitar if your left handed,  there's help several places online and hopefully you can locate a few from my site.   So even know you may feel like your being discriminated against sometimes, there really are some nice guitars online.

A lot of players just start with what they have and modify it, unless you're like me neighbor that just played upside down.  There are guitar lessons online especially for left handed players.

The important aspect is just get started any way you can, because no matter if your guitar is right side up, upside down, reworked pieces or one specially made for a lefty, I can think of no greater satisfaction than just sitting down and playing a song I had been hearing in my head.  It's a fantastic feeling...

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