[quote]i’m lefty playing right handed without too many problems [/quote]

Which variety, noodle? Do you play strings reversed or do you mean you strum with right and fret with left? The latter is just too weird for me.

hi

i’m lefty playing right handed without too many problems

http://www.soundclick.com/balthazaar

^proof

when im bending strings i virtually always use my 2nd and 3rd simultaneously which makes it a whole lot easier

[quote=”1bassleft”]Dave! How very good to read you here again. Please have a look in the “fave riffs” thread of the bass section. I think you’ll know the “Starless” bit of Wetton’s and describe it better than I did.

Back on this thread, Upsidedown and I have swapped PMs and his acoutic is not major-expense so a purpose-lefty is being looked for. Good point, Dave, I’d forgotten the lack of side-dot markers on a flipped righty. That can be a real pain when playing strapped and stood up :cry:[/quote]

Thanks 1bass.. I’ve taken a shufty in the bass forum….

Some further points… The strutting inside an acoustic is designed for tonal reasons and not just structural ones and swapping the strings around will not really have that much effect on the front. I still use my old (right-handed but strung left-handed) Eko Ranger 6 and the bridge angle is all wrong. Not only does it not compensate for the string thicknesses but it doubles the compensation the wrong way! So you tune the instrument to work in the lower positions which is just about bareable and ok for a beginner, which I was when I bought it aged 13 and a budding John Renbourn(e).

The Shaftesbury Berney Kessel was ok as it had a floating bridge and could be angled accurately. Unfortunately, the neck was so narrow and the strings were so close together that it was very difficult to play having developed my technique on the Eko. Othe than that it was a nice guitar.

Dave! How very good to read you here again. Please have a look in the “fave riffs” thread of the bass section. I think you’ll know the “Starless” bit of Wetton’s and describe it better than I did.

Back on this thread, Upsidedown and I have swapped PMs and his acoutic is not major-expense so a purpose-lefty is being looked for. Good point, Dave, I’d forgotten the lack of side-dot markers on a flipped righty. That can be a real pain when playing strapped and stood up 😥

[quote=”1bassleft”]Hmmm, this isn’t the easiest one, as there’s no definite answer. I’m a natural lefty, play bass left-handed but (because all my mate’s guitars were righty) play guitar upside-down. If it gives you something to aim for, two very able guitarists (Robert Fripp and Mark Knopfler) are left-handers who play right-handed guitar just as an righty would. On the downside, lefties adapt to right-handedness baetter bacause we just have to. It’s a lot more unusual for the righty.

Seeing as you’re starting out, I can’t see any advantage to learning with the strings the wrong way round. As you say, all the chord diagrams will need reversing and a lot of those chords (except for some strange jazz things) are a lot easier the correct way.

Apart from flipping the strings, you’ll need to do a couple of things. The nut (plastic thing the strings sit in at the end of the neck) will need to be replaced or at least recut. The thick E will not sit in the slot designed for the top E. Secondly, you see how your bridge is slightly slanted? It will have to be slanted the opposite way for intonation (keeping each string in tune all the way up the neck). You might feel like it’s easier to sell off the righty and buy a purpose lefty acoustic or electric, but find out how much a local guitar person will charge to do the swapover if you don’t feel like you can get it right.[/quote]

A couple of points here…

….. if you go the leftie route you’ll find that reversing chord diagrams will become quite normal after a short time.

My recomendation is that you get a left hander and start from there. It’ll save a lot of heart ache, frustration and money down the line should you wish to change to the orthodox leftie way.

Flipping a right handed guitar over to play left handed is a real pain. Along with re-cutting the nut and re-angling the bridge (not so easy on an accoustic) you’ll find that the position dots on the side edge of the neck are missing, trem arms can be irritatingly in the wrong place, as is the case with volume tone controls, and access to the upper frets is reduced ( in the case of electrics).

There are a lot of very good entry level guitars around for left handers and you don’t have to pay a fortune.

Good luck

Dave

I’d be wary of changing the stringing on a good quality acoustic from right-handed to left-handed, as it can play merry hell with the internal bracing and you could end up with a warped top. (I say “good-quality” because I assume you don’t want to wreck it! If it’s a cheapie – then give it a try by all means.)

The guitar may look symmetrical on the outside, but that doesn’t mean it’s the same case on the inside!

Hmmm, this isn’t the easiest one, as there’s no definite answer. I’m a natural lefty, play bass left-handed but (because all my mate’s guitars were righty) play guitar upside-down. If it gives you something to aim for, two very able guitarists (Robert Fripp and Mark Knopfler) are left-handers who play right-handed guitar just as an righty would. On the downside, lefties adapt to right-handedness baetter bacause we just have to. It’s a lot more unusual for the righty.

Seeing as you’re starting out, I can’t see any advantage to learning with the strings the wrong way round. As you say, all the chord diagrams will need reversing and a lot of those chords (except for some strange jazz things) are a lot easier the correct way.

Apart from flipping the strings, you’ll need to do a couple of things. The nut (plastic thing the strings sit in at the end of the neck) will need to be replaced or at least recut. The thick E will not sit in the slot designed for the top E. Secondly, you see how your bridge is slightly slanted? It will have to be slanted the opposite way for intonation (keeping each string in tune all the way up the neck). You might feel like it’s easier to sell off the righty and buy a purpose lefty acoustic or electric, but find out how much a local guitar person will charge to do the swapover if you don’t feel like you can get it right.