Northpaw Woes

[Michael Holdsworth]

SO, let me begin by introducing myself, since this is my first post here. my name is Michael, and I’m a young six string/fiddle player here in northern Arizona. I’ve had my eye on the pedal steel for a few years now, and i’ve just been itching to make the jump to this golden instrument. occasionally I’ve had the the chance to talk to some steel players of considerable skill and talent here in the southwest, and after much deliberation (not to mention saving up) the time of my big purchase was upon me. now after some serious research, i found what i thought was just the right guitar for me: a Sierra Session s10, purchased at a small used guitar shop (no returns!), for what i thought was a great price (comparable to the starter instruments that i’d been looking at). now, let me emphasize that I have only myself to blame for the next part! even after 20 odd years of guitar picking, i failed to notice in my research that my immanent purchase was, in fact, a left handed instrument (doh!). obviously, that was my problem as an informed consumer, though it would have been nice if they’d have pointed that out to me. BUT the salesman was pushing eighty, and deafer than than my sound guy, and so, it IS what it IS . Anyhow I’m here looking at this machine, and it still makes my heart beat like an excited metronome, still picking it with every spare moment that comes to me, in spite of the fact that my picking technique is very much a right handed one, and enjoying the hell out of it anyway. so next comes my question. it seems out of the question to convert the the damn thing to a righty, so ruling that out, have y’all any suggestions? it seems crazy to learn it left handed, but the scarcity of these instruments where i live makes trading prospects look a little grim. i’m just a poor music student, and i’d hate to have to take a big fat loss on it and have to save up again,( in the very moment of my victory, no less) but my mentors are urging me to go that route.i said that I thought it would be silly not to ask you folks, and that brings me directly to it: what’d you do if you was in my shoes? it bears mentioning again that returning the the thing is out of the question. I say thanks in advance for your understanding,as you’ve all been such an amazing resource for this sweet siren of an instrument, and either way, i’ll be a picking’ in the mean time

[Alan Berdoulay]

Well.......I just tried picking with my left hand.........and I'm thinking........what's it worth to not have to go through that?

I'd be savin up.

[David Nugent]

Michael...Left handed steel guitars are a relative rarity and only a few builders even offer them (that may be the reason some left handed people choose to learn to play right handed). My suggestion is to take a few detailed photos of the undercarriage as well as front, back, and top views and post the guitar for sale here, some lefty just may be looking for one.

[chris ivey]

yeah that's about all you can do, and this is the best place for it.
it's a shame...the guy at the store should have undone the deal if he were any kind of man.

[Bob Blair]

I agree with David and your mentors. As you progress you will want to try out different instruments, and there are so few left-handed pedal steels around you would be seriously limiting yourself. Sierra Sessions are good instruments. This is likely a great guitar for someone - just not for you. List it on the Forum (do a search to see what people have been asking for Sierras over the last few years) and use the proceeds to get an instrument that works for you. The proceeds might well be sufficient to get you into something that works for you.

[Pete Burak]

I would insist that the seller refund 100% of your money.
My father would drive me right over there carry it into the store and "Handle" the return himself if this had happened to me as a kid.
This is a clear case of being ripped-off.
Please post the name of the guy and place.
This is rediculous.
You sell a kid a left handed Steel???
How much did he charge you?

Again, this goes for every Steel anyone will ever buy...
Always negotiate a trial period and a full refund if not satisfied.
(You may have to pay for return shipping if that applies).

[Jim Williams]

I would post it here and try to get enough out of it to buy something like a Stage One or Justice or a good used right handed professional S10. There's bound to be a few left handed pickers on here that would love to have that Sierra. You would be surprised at the response to the ads on here...I just sold a guitar that I thought would be a hard sell and wind up on Ebay...it sold in 1 day here.

[Greg Johnson]

I have to agree with Pete. This like buying a used car and finding out later the motor wasn't included. If this is a small store I would make a big stink until I got my money back. Stand in front with a sign whatever. Threaten newspaper, media whatever. I would also post the name of the shop and owner here and maybe as a group we could help bear a little pressure. This is a clear case of being wrong on so many levels.

With that being said, Never buy a car without a test drive or a steel without sitting behind it.

[Richard Sinkler]

The owner should probably refund your money. But I also doubt that he knew it was a left handed steel guitar. He probably never saw a PSG before.

I don't see where posting the guy's name here will do anything. Michael said he got it from a "small used guitar shop", and the chances that one of us would even go in there is very slim.

First I would talk to him about refunding your money. He will probably say no. Then I would probably take him to small claims court, or if your local newspaper or TV station has an action line, talk to them.

[David Mason]

Obviously, no one could force this to happen, but:

I wonder if one of our dealers could trade you for an equivalent-value righty? He would pretty much be sure he could advertise "WEE SELL LEFT-HANDED STEELS TOO!" and be the only kid on the block to say so.

dammitdammitdammit <-Me, trying to remember something... I briefly had a doubleneck non-pedal Excel pass through here, and the previous owner, or the one before that, had been sitting on the "wrong" side cause he was a lefty. Who knows, he may holiday-flush... Lemme find Kurt Kowalski and see if he remembers the sequence of owners.

[Michael Holdsworth]

hey, fellas. thanks for the thoughtful replies. I sincerely appreciate the insight.

"Never buy a car without a test drive or a steel without sitting behind it."

firstly, this has been a wonderful object lesson on this subject. certainly an unforgettable one.

Now, it would seem that returning the guitar would be the clear solution. however, there are a few things outside of the store’s ‘no return policy’ that make me hesitate. first and foremost: the store is some 900 miles north of where i live. I purchased it in utah while on a road trip last week, (maybe that explains some of the hastiness in my purchase) so this means that even if they’ll let me return it, i’ll have to see about getting it back up there somehow. the other factor is the price; the shop let me go with it for about what I would have payed for a brand new Carter Starter, so that makes me think that if i can find the right buyer, this could work out to be a good thing for both of us. lastly, Richard, you were pretty much spot on — there was no malice to this old fella what sold it to me. like you said, i don’t think he had dealt with many a PSG in the past, and this was clearly the only one in the shop -- not to mention utah and idaho!
SO, just to give you a brief update, I’ve begun investigating the return more closely as my first line of action, but i’d rather not call in the cavalry just yet, so i’ll hold off on posting the details of the store and sales person unless it escalates beyond civility. in the mean time, i’ll be searching for that perfect buyer, and hoarding my pocket change just in case and of course, i’ll provide you with updates as the story develops. cheers!

[Richard Sinkler]

There are lefty's that pop up here from time to time looking for left handed steels. Besides putting an ad on here, I would let the dealers that are listed in the links section know about it. They may have someone looking for one, but didn't have a lead on one.

[David Mason]

There was a non=pedal console that passed through my hands, and I got it from Kurt Kowalski, who got it from lefty forum member Mark Addeo - he was playing it from the front side! I don't know much else, but most forum members are happy to get a Private Message to yak about steels, and he might know some things that righties can only guess.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/profile. ... le&u=10705

I would also contact the bigger steel sellers, Jim Palenscar at North Country in California, Billy Cooper in Virginia and Bobbe Seymour at Steel Guitar Nashville at least.
http://b0b.com/wp/?page_id=121

If I had a steel store with 20 or 30 of them lined up, I would love to make an even-up trade for a left-hand steel - just to have one on hand. It might seem like something of an albatross right now, but it is also an investment of sorts,and being rare is even better - to the right person, of course.

Also, I have noticed that around Christmas, things tend to kinda gum up and slow down, at least for non-Christmas type dealings. I wouldn't get too discouraged yet.

[Howard Steinberg]

I think David's post makes a lot of sense. The rarity of something like this could have an impact on it's value and there could be a silver lining to all of this. Perhaps you could post a picture of the guitar and ask for opinions as to value (were it right handed). I'd stay away from the legal system and look to re-sell it or trade it to a dealer.

[Ian Rae]

I haven't thought this through completely, but is any individual component of a lefty steel inherently left-handed? For example, a l.h. regular guitar has to have a l.h. body and a l.h. peghead, but I can't just think of any particular bit of a single-neck steel which couldn't work the other way round.
I would consider rebuilding it if you're mechanically inclined and there isn't an obvious snag I've missed. Enough folks spend time rearranging their undercarriages so the advice is out there.

[David Mason]

Oh, and, another thing or two. I do believe that most left-handed steels actually WERE right-handed, and then converted to left? They really are sorta like giant tinkertoys run amuck. Way, way amuck. So it's not impossible to convert it back, but it would be a quite a bit of work - put it as "Plan D", maybe. And, Sierra was/is a Left Coast steel builder, made in Oregon and big there and Washington and California - plenty of parts and people who know where they go. And that Mr. Palenscar in San Diego is quite familiar with Sierras and has parts (I know this because I have a sort-of "pre-Sierra" Neanderthal "Wheeler" steel I'm slowly working up my courage (and savings!) to tackle).

And I saw the Arizona on your tag, and Fred Justice is building steels down there (Mesa), and could be quite helpful if you do need some work done, or info.
http://www.fredjusticemusic.com/

[Lane Gray]

The pedal stops typically reside on the front apron.
Many guitars have a cutback rear apron, or a metal one.
Zum, JCH and others have that access strip on the rear.
Presenting the rear as front would look as odd as Jimi's Strat.
Conversion can happen, but it's more involved than a regular guitar.
EDIT: Most single necks have a wider "back deck" than front, so that knee levers can fit between rear apron and string 10. Another thing to think about.
If it was BUILT righty then converted, there might be clues where to put things.

[Michael Holdsworth]

well, as for silver linings, this has been as good a crash course in PSG value, maintenance and ownership as i could have hoped for. i’ve learned a metric crapton about this instrument in last few days - now if i could just get to playing it!

i’ve made up my mind to trade or sell her, and now i’ve just got to establish her value. i made contact with a dealer down in phoenix, but in the meantime maybe y’all could provide me with some assistance? hopefully that sort of question isn’t out of line. let me show you what i’m working with here:

serria session s-10
3 pedals and 4 knee levers
emmons E9






sorry for the bad image quality, the only camera i've got is this old moldy potato.

i've searched the for sale section of the forum and found that similar guitars in the right hand configuration go for around 1k, but i found very few lefties (go figure). ive also spend a good chunk of time on ebay completed sales and had similar results. the instrument in in good shape, might need some polishing, plays smooth and quiet and it came with a hard case. i payed 700 for it.
seemed like a great deal at the time, doh. anyways thanks for everything, dudes

[Mark Eaton]

What's interesting about all this is that I'm one of probably many guitar players (including steelers here) whom is a lefty that plays right-handed, not just steel or dobro, but also standard guitar. Not that I'm encouraging Michael to go the left-handed route, but were I starting over (I do everything left handed: write, throw, use a fork, swing a baseball bat or golf club, shoot a basketball, shoot a rifle or shotgun, etc.) and even though I'm a natural lefty, the idea of using my "uncoordinated" hand or right hand as my bar hand or fretting hand seems almost impossible to me. Whereas the idea of using my coordinated hand or left hand to pick or strum seems pretty doable.

But the vast majority of the world's players do just that: as righties, they use their left hand as the bar or fretting hand.

Just off the top of my head, a couple of my favorite musicians who are lefties that play their instruments right handed: Lloyd Green and Mark Knopfler. I believe Curly Chalker was as well.

[chris ivey]

i'd think it's worth at least $1000.

[Jack Hanson]

Just off the top of my head, a couple of my favorite musicians who are lefties that play their instruments right handed: Lloyd Green and Mark Knopfler. I believe Curly Chalker was as well.

Add Duane Allman (and his little brother) to that list.

[Tab Tabscott]

I didn't read every single post, but it really didn't hurt Hendrix any to just play it like he found it...

[Jason Lynch]

Personally, If I couldn't trade, sell or return it I would rather spend months converting it to a right hander than play left handed.
Some clearer pics might help, But it's not impossible.

[chris ivey]

converting it would be a nightmare, and even if you did,you'd wish you had a right handed steel. i absolutely wouldn't consider it. way more hassle than you realize.
it 'will' sell or trade eventually. it's a good steel.

[Lane Gray]

From looking at those pics, it looks like both the pedal shafts and lever shafts could switch which ends have the pedal pulls and lever brackets. But that would leave whatever switch that is coming off the pickups on the front apron and the logos on the rear apron.
If you took LOTS of pictures, and took your time, it MIGHT only require a weekend's work (If it were my guitar, I'd give it a try on the A pedal first: if that went well, I'd do the rest).
Whatever you do, don't dismantle the changer, Sierra has a reputation of being both a good changer and a hair-pullingly complex one.
NOTE: I've seen Sierras, I've played a couple. But I've never worked on them. That's just my guesstimation based on your pictures.
I think trading for a rightie would make more sense.