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left-handed player looking to convert a righty guitar
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Steve Wright
Posts: 120
Joined: May 11 2011
From: Scotland Fife UK
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RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to jsierles)
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Hi Josh, don't know what sort of budget you are thinking of, but Sharon Isbin plays a travel guitar http://www.sharonisbin.com/guitars.html which might suit you. Basically, on an acoustic, then nut may need some slots widened, however, keep in mind that the saddle should already be ok for intonation, so no need to turn it around in haste. You might find though that the saddle needs some height adjustment as low/bass strings tend to slap around - and where your bass strings were, the high string will be (1st & 2nd) and they may now be a little high. You have to simply try swapping the strings around and see how it plays and how you like it. Personally, I hate the action being different on each guitar I play, and you just need to make the practice guitar personal to you. Then you can tell everyone it's customised.
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Rhythm, grace & passion. El ritmo, gracia & la pasión Be the change you want to see in this world - Gandhi http://www.youtube.com/user/FusionMusic1000
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Date Sep. 18 2011 17:56:34
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3462
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to jsierles)
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The topic of left-handed guitars interests me. I have been left-handed all my life. I write left-handed; play squash holding the racquet in the left hand; and as a kid I played baseball, throwing the ball with the left hand. None of this could I then, nor can I now, do well with the right hand. Nevertheless, when my father bought me my first guitar, when I was 17, I learned to play it right-handed, and it seemed as natural as writing with my left hand did. It just seemed completely natural to work the fretboard with my left hand and strum and play the strings with my right hand, even though I was strongly left-handed. Question for anyone with a similar experience or an idea of what this is about. Is my experience, described above, unique? Do most lefties feel more comfortable playing the strings with the left hand, in which case I am some sort of wierd aberration? (Note: I have been called worse!) Or is the guitar itself unique, in that if one starts out playing it right-handed it can seem just as natural (as it did for me) to a left-hander as to a right-hander? Cheers, Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East." --Rudyard Kipling
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Date Sep. 18 2011 19:17:32
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XXX
Posts: 4400
Joined: Apr. 14 2005
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RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to BarkellWH)
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Mixed handedness is something common, especially in lefties. I am only 60% lefthanded But I use the left hand for writing so I would call myself lefty. You are right about that many lefties do not have problems playing a right handed guitar. But I must add, in too many cases this is not because they COMPARED both ways of playing with an appropriate guitar and chose the way which suited them better (something which I DID, with my cousin's guitar). I am a bit speculating here but I think it is a minority of lefties who picked a right handed guitar because playing left handed felt unnatural. Proably it was more like with me and scissors. I cannot use scissors with my left hand. Since being a child I use right handed scissors with my right hand. This is because right handed scissors are simply uncomfortable to use with the left hand. Now scissors are very unimportant to me so I didnt care, but with guitar I wanted to pick the best solution right from the start. Besides, who doesnt want to hold the guitar like Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain or Paul McCartney, those are all cool guys, except Paul McCartney. Steve, I agree the "frethand" being a bottleneck in guitar playing. But its doable. In any case, practice is the key. I never considered those theories about dominant hand. I mean after all, if the hand matters so much, you can still reverse the strings and see if it works out for you, if you are really determined about using your dominant hand for fretting.
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Date Sep. 18 2011 20:18:19
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BarkellWH
Posts: 3462
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
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RE: left-handed player looking to co... (in reply to Steve Wright)
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Probably the most interesting person to play a right-handed guitar left handed was the early American folk and blues singer Elizabeth Cotten. What really made her unique is that she played without converting the strings for left-handed playing, i.e., she just played a right-handed guitar upside down as a left-hander, with the trebles on top and the bass strings on the bottom. Her method of playing, alternating bass with her fingers while playing melody with her thumb, is still known as "Cotten Picking." Cheers, Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East." --Rudyard Kipling
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Date Sep. 18 2011 21:25:43
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