lefty, i need help - Guitar Players Discussion

RE: lefty, i need help

Laoch — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 18:40:28 +0000

Good point JosephLefty. A person should learn whichever ways feels most natural/comfortable to them; regardless whether they are right-handed, left-handed, or ambidexterous. There are plenty of lefty guitars out there; just not nearly as many as there are righty guitars.
My only problem with playing lefty is that I can't play friends' righty guitars.

salesmen...

JosephLefty — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 03:35:06 +0000

Yeah I LOVE those guitar salesmen in the stores (who everyone I have met so far has been LEFTY ) and playing righty because it is better and I should buy a righty guitar from them immediately!

If that was true then all the righty's would be playing lefty and all the guitar stores of the world would have LEFTY guitars hanging on the walls with 2 righty's over in the corner, both crap.

Salesmen are too funny.

:shock:

RE: lefty, i need help

mushin — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 02:09:17 +0000

Im in a similar boat to others above. I am a lefty from Birth. When I bought my guitar at the end of last year I didnt know which way was up, or the actual differences between a left/ right hand guitar. The guy I was talking to at the shop suggested if I wasn't already adjusted to lefty guitar to try to go with right handed guitar as there is much more available. This is what I did. All in all, as a newby it is all awkward, left or right, but I am happy with playing a right handed. Mind you I have never held a lefty let alone played one.

I like to think of a lefty playing a rh guitar as a little bit of an advantage. The left hand does the fingering, while the right the strumming. Lefties generally have better control over their left hand and fingers than their right (hence the term). Given the right hand is used for strumming which tends to become a timing thing (yes big simplification but I think you get my drift), it has helped me to be able to control the fretting hand on the strings without as much of the awkwardness that comes with being totally new.

my 2c.

Cheers

Mick

PS- I still sound like crap...... :D

lefty....

JosephLefty — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 01:07:43 +0000

I wouldn't re-string a righty.

You even have to BEWARE of lefty guitars. My first guitar was a brand new lefty Hohner..........with a righty nut. I sent it back and they sent me another one. Turns out they make all their lefties this way and claim they have no problems. It was almost impossible to tune the low E. I sent the second guitar back and bought a Dean instead.

If you could possibly be comfortable learning righty, then it would be best. The only problem with learning lefty is you can forget about trying before buying.

If you must play lefty to be happy, as I am, then ebay has many hundreds of choices. There are also sites like musiciansfriend.com. So don't think there is a shortage of real left handed guitars out there.

RE: lefty, i need help

TwistedLefty — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 19:17:53 +0000

lol, i'm not much help because i learned to play a rt. handed guitar early on.call me "Twisted" or call me "Lefty" just don't call me late for dinner :wink:

RE: lefty, i need help

Laoch — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 19:16:43 +0000

I'm a lefty playing lefty guitars. Playing lefty felt much more natural for me. I bought guitars from the internet due to the lack of selection in local shops. I'd prefer to "try before I buy", but that can be difficult as a lefty. However, I've been happy with my purchases and in choosing not to force myself to play right-handed.
My advice is to look elsewhere for a left-handed guitar (or see if your shop can order you one).
I bought lefties from Adirondack Guitar and Musician's Friend. You could also try EBay and other online stores.
Good luck

RE: lefty, i need help

geoo — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 18:43:34 +0000

Welcome to GN beefy. Have to agree with NoteBoat on that one. Not sure if it would work for you or not but my son is left handed and he actually plays my guitars, which are set up for right handed people. Its just what he is used to. Now, he is very much a beginner but so far its working for him.

Geoo

RE: lefty, i need help

NoteBoat — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 18:39:26 +0000

If that's all they're going to do, it's a bad idea.

Plenty of lefties have played right-handed guitars that have been re-strung... AND set up for left handed play. You'll still have to deal with the placement of controls, but people adjust.

Look at that ESP... look at two places in particular:

- the nut. See how the slots are cut deeper for the bass strings? If all he does is a string swap, you'll get buzzing from the treble strings and high action from the bass strings. It'll never play or feel right without a new nut, properly cut for left handed stringing.

- the bridge. See how the saddle slants away from the peghead on the bass strings? That's because bass strings actually need to be a little longer to compensate for the length of the vibration - strings don't actually start to vibrate at the last point of contact (nut or saddle), but slightly beyond that - and the fatter the string, the bigger that 'slightly' is. The saddle pieces on the ESP are adjustable to make fine adjustments to your intonation, but the overall bridge is slanted because fine adjustments aren't quite enough to compensate for string diameter. Without re-positioning the bridge to slant the other direction, you probably won't get the intonation right...

So what he's really suggesting is that he'll sell you that guitar in a condition that makes it hard to play and out of tune, and let you worry about it from there.

lefty, i need help

beefy — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 18:29:54 +0000

im new to guitars and im a lefty.im thinking of getting an esp viper 50.because the only place around me that sells guitars dont have much lefty , the salesperson said he would re-string it for me. u guys think thats a good idea?