What is a left-handed electric guitar? Can’t you just flip a regular electric guitar over, string it backwards, and call it a left-handed guitar?
Well, maybe south paw acoustic guitar players can do that, but for any serious guitarist, that is sacrilege. As for the left-handed electric guitarist, however, that is simply asking too much. Due to the positioning of the electric pickup control knobs, simply flipping and restringing an electric guitar is not an option. The knobs that control the electric qualities of the guitar are situated on the body near the bottom of the strings. The placement of these knobs is relevant to comfort and convenience so that the musician can manipulate them with only a slight movement of his strumming/picking hand. Therefore, simply restringing a right-handed electric guitar will not result in a satisfactory instrument for the left-handed musician, even if he did concede to sacrilege.
How is a left-handed electric guitar any different from a regular electric guitar?
A left-handed guitar is one that is strung in the opposite order of a regular guitar because, as the chords and picking styles are designed to move from lower to higher notes, the thicker strings are placed at the top of the instrument’s body (as it is positioned against the body of the musician) and the thinner strings at the bottom. A left-handed guitar is held with body of the instrument in front and to the right of the musician, the neck reaching out to the left. The fingers on the left hand are then used to press the strings against the neck so that when the strings are strummed or picked with the right hand, the desired notes are produced.
Until only the past couple of decades, left-handed guitarists were encouraged to learn to play regular guitars simply because of a very limited availability of left-handed instruments, and even fewer chord books designed for left-handed guitars. It was also considered to not be very important since playing the guitar is ultimately a 2-handed art. People just accepted that no matter whether you are right-handed or a “lefty”, you would have to develop strength, flexibility, and speed with both hands, so there must not be much need for a specially designed guitar for lefties.
Lefties are strong-minded, though, and so the market finally had to respond to the need. Left-handed musicians no doubt spurred the growth of custom designed instruments also filling the market. Even though there are many more companies today manufacturing left-handed electric guitars, the fact remains that when you are out in the world of guitars, you are more likely to find awesome electric guitars that are not made for the south paw. Don’t let this discourage you though because even a quick web search will bring up thousands of retailers, one of which is bound to have your dream left-handed electric guitar!
Peter Suhm
