Left handed guitar Help!

janeywoo1978 wrote: »

I would just turn the guitar upside down and re-string it top to bottom. You can even buy another scotch plate and put their on the other side. It will play exactly the same. Its how McCartney started out so if it was good enough for him!

Scratch plate!

Please read this

http://leftyfretz.com/restring-right-handed-guitar-left-handed/

Kaybenson wrote: »

Hello Fellow savers,

I have kids who started learning guitar recently.

The recommended guitar for them was this http://www.musicstore.de/de_DE/EUR/_SET_-FENDER-Squier-SA-105-NT-Bag-Tuner-Strings-Pics/art-GIT461

One of them is left-handed and its double the money.

Can someone recommend a cheap version for me for a 8 year old boy?

Cheers

Kay

I play left handed (though I am right handed)

I avoid the extra cost usually by buying a right handed guitar and converting it to left.
As long as the guitar is symetrical (i.e. it doesn't have a cutaway) this just means changing the nut (the plastic or bone bit at the "head" end of the fretboard) and the bridge saddle (the plastic or bone bit at the other end of the strings). If you take the strings off the saddle will just drop out. The nut usually requires a tap with a hammer.

Sorry if I'm being to simplistic here but I'm not sure how much you know about guitars.

For a beginner the above should be fine and provide a perfectly playable guitar but....................
as the player advances and starts fretting higher up the fretboard there is one problem remaining, that of intonation. This is where the note that the string sounds when played open and then played at the 12th fret needs to be exactly 1 octave higher than when played open. On most except beginners guitars this is acheived by having the bridge saddle angled to provide the correct note. (on electric guitars it is achieved by having adjustable saddles but I won't go into that)

Now then, even if later you buy a more expensive guitar that has a saddle to provide the correct intonation you can STILL buy a right handed guitar but you will need to find a luthier who can re-router the bridge for a saddle at an opposite angle and fill in the gaps that will inevitably be caused by this process. My local luthier does the full conversion, nut, saddle and bridge conversion for £60 and you can't tell it's not a lefty. Sorry if this overcomplicates things.

The problem with lefties whne you advance is that many manufacturers just don't manufacture left handed guitars and when they do they don't offer the same range of models.

Hope this helps but come back to me if you need more, PM me if you like

Finally "words of wisdom" from one of my local guitar shops...
"most left handed musicians just play right handed"


Cheers

Ian

when I learnt to play the guitar as a child, my guitar was just turned upside down and restrung, I never had any problems learning with it like that, and my guitar teacher had no problems either.....