Why left handed guitars?

[Zach Keele]

I don't know how many people know who Spider Rich is, but he is the great finger picker that wrote Yakety Axe which was made famous by Chet Atkins. He played on the Opry and was well known in Nashville. We live south of Nashville in Manchester, and Spider lived about 20 minutes further south in Winchester.

My dad's name was David Keele, some may remember him playing steel south of Nashville in the 70s 80s and 90s. He was good friends with Spider, and I remember Spider told me that he learned to play left handed. Later, he went to war, and he caught shrapnel in his hand and he just flipped his guitar over and started playing right handed. He was a truly amazing guitarists. It's a shame he's gone.

[Alvin Blaine]

I've always thought that the standard pedal steel was more of a "left-handed" instrument.
Your left side of the body does the intonation, vibrato, sustain, the changer pedals, and half the knee levers. The right side just hits the strings and turns up and down the volume.
Looks like having your dominate side working the bar and pedals would be an advantage.

[Dwight Lewis]

I am right handed(since birth) and must say that ever since I was a child I have noticed that lefties were special in all areas, ie sports, thinking.... I grew up as a right handed drummer in the 80s, most people played right handed. I left the drums for 16 years, then went back to the drums and found out that most drummers were not only left handed but ambidextrious or whatever the word( Carter Beauford from Dave Matthews Band). I started using my left side more and more and found new ideas and became better at playing. Left -handed steels shouldnt cost more, someone needs to figure out a fool proof method for us right handers to use our left side of the brain as efficient as the right. I take my hat off to the gifted or maybe they are not gifted but normal and I am abnormal. Shame I got all that wasted brain and ability and no way to tap into it. At least my daughter has the ability to use both sides. Steel on folks.

[Clete Ritta]

I used to play in a band in the early 90's with a left-handed bass player named Paul DiLeo. A great player, once with Billy Joel on his Storm Front Tour at MSG, now on tour with Nena in Germany.

He plays left-handed bass all right, but the twist is that he plays a left-handed bass strung right-handed. High on top, low on bottom. I have never seen anyone play like this before or since. He once introduced me to Dave LaRue who, despite his phenomenal chops and teaching skills, was at odds with how to teach such an unorthodox player.

Joe Zawinul once programmed his DX7 to play the reverse of standard piano tuning.

Has anyone ever seen or heard of a right-handed steel strung left-handed or vice versa?
I figured this old thread on left/right was apropo for my question.

Clete

[Paul Redmond]

Dwight - We have spoken on the phone a few times recently. You're aware of the fact that I'm presently building a few prototype guitars. I designed these guitars from total symmetry. They can literally be built as a "leftie" or a conventional right-handed instrument WITHOUT the addition of so much as one custom-made part. These guitars will be able to be disassembled and re-assembled as a mirror-image opposite without the addition of so much as two-cent screw. The cost for a "leftie" won't be a dime different than a RH guitar.
I don't know why a "leftie" would have to cost more, but they sure do. I suspect it's because there must be some additional custom work involved especially on the cabinet itself. Any routing fixtures made for a RH guitar could not be used to cut the necessary details on a LH...all custom milling work. I have eliminated that problem from the radar screen with these prototypes. Now I just hope they work as well in reality as they do on paper!!!
PRR

[Dwight Lewis]

Paul when you get those babies up and running, send one down to Florida and I will see if we can put it thru it's paces The Dekley is doing wonderful and getting rave reviews. Wonderful job. Do you mind if I post a few pics? The ext E9th tuning was almost spot on with what I had drawn up. And it worked beautifully. I put it on the SD12 Dekley; hated to sell. So nice the sound was. The "RED Rajah" ie Dekley was just being admired last week. You are the Master in every since of it.


Dwight

[David Nugent]

I am not certain about steel guitarists or bassists, but there are many left handed guitarists who play right handed guitars strung right handed and played reversed. Albert King and Dan Seals (not certain how Hendrix had his guitars strung) come immediately to mind. I worked with a local guitarist from Richmond who played his Telecaster in this manner, although it looked rather strange (and sort of counterproductive) to have the cutaway portion at the top. (Speaking of Hendrix, once saw him playing a right handed Les Paul reversed with the cutaway on top.)

[Brint Hannay]

Hendrix strung his guitars left-handed.

[Clete Ritta]

Hendrix strung them left handed and played them left handed. Nothing particularly different about that. What made it look different was that he had right handed guitars, so they apperared to be upside down, while the strings weren't to him. The headstock, cutaway, pickguard, tremelo arm etc. was all reversed since it was a right handed guitar, but the high strings were closer to the floor as normal.
My friend Paul could play a right-handed bass left-handed without reversing the strings. Just imagine playing a guitar with the strings on reverse order (low string closest to the floor).

Like I said, I've never seen anyone play bass in this manner. I've listened to Albert King, but never realized he played this way too. Same with Dan Seals. Thanks a lot David

Clete

[Duane Reese]

When I first started playing, it was awkward of course...but before I built any skill, I switched position so that my picks were on my left hand and my bar was in my right, just to see how it compared...it was just as awkward feeling. I'm glad I decided to do that at that moment, for the purpose of this conversation, just to show that it's at that point which it could go either way. I went right-handed of course, since that was the going thing and I knew life would be easier...

[Alfred Ewell]

Although I'm highly ambidextrous, I'm somewhat right-handed (but I'm sure it's training). Playing the fiddle, even though you'd think all that power and energy of the bow would be it's defining characteristic, it's the subtlety of motion that gives the music its quality. The strength of the right hand on the bow seems to negate its control by the left brain, whereas the right brain is considered artistic. Although not entirely true, my fiddle teacher says the left hand is just a typist.
The pedal steel seems just the opposite. Even though the picking has to be done properly, the bar seems to be where the expression comes from. But even more to contradict the idea of handedness, up comes the idea of using feet to control the swell and the tuning of the instrument. The brain is too busy to worry about which hand is doing what. Well, on second thought, maybe I'm jaded by my ambidextrousness.
PS I don't say violin cause you could say viola - it's a 5-string. So I say fiddle.

[Henry Nagle]

This has almost already been said in this thread.... but not quite, I don't think

Besides the obvious conclusion that a player is better off choosing what is most comfortable for them...

I would guess that most steel guitarists start out as six string guitarists (I could be wrong). If a person can play guitar well as a lefty It seems that it would be worth the gear limitations to stick with a left handed instrument.

[Robert Vardaman]

I am new here, currently do not have a PSG. I have decided that i am going to get one ....you guys get it..the sound is ...like the song of a mermaid. Ive been playing acoustics, some electric, banjo and mandolin for 35 yrs....the question of lefty? The dexterity in my right hand for fingering lead, or chording is not the same as the dexterity in my left hand, which i use for finger picking. I think im too far down the path, to be able to retrain my right hand for finger picking. If you are not a southpaw, this probably makes no sense, in that you could say i am ...equally ambidexterious. That is true to a point...but if i have to choose a hand to "pluck" strings with...Lefty all the way! At this point it is a matter of Comfort!
Robert

[Rich Peterson]

Untested theory: the lack of 'left handed' instruments in the classical world probably has to do with rigid pedagogy, in the same way that left handedness used to be discouraged in elementary schools; & where there are relatively informal ways of learning music it's probably not uncommon for lefties to flip the instruments around where it's practical.

One reason the classical world does not welcome lefthanded playing is logistical. Place a lefthanded violinist to the right of a righthanded one, and the concerto starts to resemble a sword fight.

When I was playing for a living, I would hang around music stores a lot. There would be some parent asking if their child should play a lefthanded instrument, and the salesmen would refer the question to me. My response was simple: "It takes both hands anyway."

Almost all lefties are partially ambidextrous. Very few righties are. We can adapt. Playing a righthanded instrument brings out different qualities in the music, but there's nothing "wrong" with that.

I used to, and sometimes still do gigs playing sixstring and kicking bass pedals like an organist. To do that with a PSG, I'd have to have the pedals at the right. But I'd still want to pick with my right, as I've developed some skill at that.

[Roual Ranes]

I am thinking about ordering a left handed piano.

[Mule Ferguson]

Back in 1957 I traded a martin D18 for A left hand 1956 Fender Tele I Played it right hand. People would come up and ask me why the tuners were on the bottom. My answer. Because its for a leftie. The guitar was stolen when I was living in Durham, NC in 1962

Mule

[David Nugent]

There have been several mentions in this thread concerning the fact that if you are starting to learn an instrument from scratch, the body/brain can be trained to adapt to most any method. I witnessed a case in point on TV the other evening. The Cumberland Highlanders Show (on RFD. TV)featured a five string banjo player playing his instrument strung right handed but turned around and played left handed. Any of you that play Scruggs style banjo will surely recognize how difficult this must be. He was actually using his middle finger to play the fifth string and his thumb and ring finger to execute the rolls and did it very well. Now, talk about a unique style!