Many will ask, why not just learn right-handed? When you start to learn an instrument, getting into successful habits and the right mindset can be one of the biggest challenges. These challenges can be much harder when you play the left-handed guitar.
Because the majority of guitar players around the world play the guitar the other way round, you'll often find resources like guitar tabs, and access to instruments wherever you go will typically be right-handed guitars. If you ever have a friend ask you to jam on stage with them, they will probably have a right-handed guitar. Understanding this and setting yourself up with the right mindset is key to success so that you don't stop playing.
After getting the right mindset, you need the tools. You can do it the Jimi Hendrix way and restring a regular right-handed guitar. Jimi Hendrix seemed to have a deep mistrust of left-handed guitars, but in there is a wide range of left-handed guitars available. Deciding which type of guitar to buy can be a tricky business.
However, there are many buying guides on left-handed guitars to look through. You can go the route of flipping the guitar over; it suited musicians like Albert King who just took a regular right-handed Gibson and flipped it over.
For many of us regular guitar players though, we need something a little easier. You can go the route of restringing a regular right-handed guitar, this way you can use the guitar left-handed and the strings will be the right way around to play.
Although flipping strings might seem like an easier option than buying a dedicated lefty guitar, you can start to notice issues. Once you've flipped a right-handed guitar things like the switches, input socket, scratch guards and tremolo arm are all in the wrong place. You might be better off just to start the right way and buy yourself a dedicated left-handed guitar.
Not only it is a very time-consuming process, but playing with your guitar like this can significantly reduce its resale value. If you still believe that you have to restring it — I have written down the entire process below which you can follow. The guitar nut is placed at the end of the fingerboard. It is used to control sting spacing, and its height above the first fret. These nuts are designed to accommodate specific strings. Therefore, if you restring the guitar upside down, then you would need to sort out the nuts as well.
If you do not do so, then the strings would be strung in the incorrect nut slots. One of the most common problem is that you will be unable to pass some strings through the nut.
As the end of the strings are thick — the nut would be unable to let that string pass through. To fix this problem, you can either do one of the two things; flip your current nuts around or simply purchase a left handed nut.
You can get the left-handed nuts on Amazon from this link. The next step is to fix the bridge. Bridge is basically the component in the guitar which helps to transmit the vibrations of the strings to other parts of the guitar. Just like nuts, the bridge is designed to accommodate the strings as well. Therefore, it is essential that the string goes in its appropriate bridge compartment.
Guitars like Fender Starts are the easiest to adjust. Therefore, when it is flipped over, the inherent intonations points of the bridge do not change.
Therefore, for Fender Strat guitars, simply unscrew the bridge, flip it over rotate it degrees , then screw them back. Although, guitars such as Gibson guitars may have bridges that are slightly tilted. This makes the whole restringing process quite tedious and a pain some process. For some of the guitars, when you flip their slanted bridges, it might become impossible for you to tune the guitar. The same problem is concerned with acoustic guitars. As acoustic guitars saddle is also usually placed at an angle as well.
Hence, if you have an acoustic or a guitar with a slanted saddle, then it would be best for you to buy a left-handed saddle. Either that, or you can actually buy special left handed pots such as this one. Acoustic guitars are braced internally to accommodate the thicker low strings on one side and the thinner high strings on the other, so if you mess with the string order you will eventually warp the guitar.
Also keep in mind that if you mess with the layout of a guitar you are likely to adversely affect its resale value. For example as mentioned above, if you move the strap peg you will be left with a gaping hole where it used to be. These issues are the main points to consider when thinking about restringing a right handed guitar left handed, but they really are just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on but I feel I should have made my point already.
It is not worth the hassle and added expense of going to the effort of re-jigging a right handed guitar for left handed playing. Left handed guitars are generally no more expensive than right handed guitars these days, so it makes no sense to switch around a righty unless it is just a quick fix. Hopefully it will be good enough to give you a decent introduction to guitar and then you can feel confident in buying your first left handed model later on down the line.
To answer this question, I contacted several well known music stores and took an average of the quotes I received back. At the lower end this would just involve making you a new nut, and at the higher range would also include a setup and intonation check.
An acoustic guitar will be slightly more expensive to convert as more work is required. This would include a new nut as well as a new saddle.
But if you can, it is recommended to source a proper left handed guitar in order to avoid having to modify the guitar to address several issues that will likely arise: 1.
0コメント