Guitar for beginners (left handed)

[didcot]

I've been wanting to have a go at playing electric guitar for years. I'm a dab hand at air guitar, but would really like to be able to play some rock. I had a dabble about 30 years ago with little success. I'm left handed and just couldn't get to grips right handed.

I'm not that outgoing or confident, so want to teach myself rather than go for lessons. 

I played Trumpet at school, but have forgotten the basics of reading music. 

So are there any other left handers out there that can point me in the right direction in terms of learning materials and suitable non expensive guitar?

[DIW]

You have a choice - you can play a right-handed guitar 'upside-down' i.e. with lower E string at the bottom and high E at the top, or have a left-handed guitar where the low E is at the top like on a right-hander. If you start with a budget guitar where the bridge runs straight across the sound box you can easily re-string it left handed. However most guitars have the bridge at a very slight angle, and sometimes a slight offset for the B string. If one of these is restrung left handed then there will be a slight discrepancy in the low E string to A string registration. So for a better guitar, get one made for left-handers, or choose an upside-down right hander (think Jimi Hendrix here!).

I currently have (and don't play any more) a proper left-handed electric, proper left-hander 12-string acoustic and a restrung ex-right-handed 6-string acoustic (cheapo version with straight-across bridge). My old 6-string (was a proper right-hander with angled bridge and thus poor E-A registration) has now been re-right-handed for DIW jr, whose ability shows me up most tragically!

Hope this helps.

Edited March 9, 2023 by DIW
extra strings

[slow8dirty]

It's hard to find a truly terrible guitar nowadays. Do a search for Squier, Epiphone and Ibanez left handed guitars. They will cover most styles of instrument depending on your taste and will be best quality. (I have a road flare red Ibanez, I'm not judging).

Rule of thumb seems to be accept slightly higher price slightly less availability for LH gear. But if trying RH is too much of an obstacle for you that is how it is. Availability these days is far better than it ever was.

[slow8dirty]

As a RH player I'm not aware of any site that specifically caters for lefties, and not sure there is a need but I think most discuss LH aspects.

Sites I have used over the years are;

https://www.justinguitar.com Brilliant teacher and largely free to use.

https://www.guitartricks.com/ one of the 2 biggies, some reckon that the early beginner lessons are slightly more structured, I would agree 

 https://jamplay.com/  the other biggie. Lots of material here both very good quality videos. I find this slightly harder to navigate and whilst I use it now I didn't like it years ago for that reason.

All very good and down to individual taste really. 

I am and always will be just a bedroom quality guitarist but hopefully I've helped just a little. Rock on.

 

[Nick Holliday]

There seems to be plenty of tutorials for left-handed guitar players such as this one I found floating in the big river.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Play-Left-Handed-Guitar/dp/B08VCM9GWK?asin=B08VCM9GWK&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1

I must admit that I have always been puzzled by this. As a right-handler, I’ve always found my left hand is struggling with the chord shapes, whilst the right hand is cruising, so I’ve always thought it should be easier for a left-hander to play right-handed, but obviously this isn’t true.

---

 

[DIW]

4 hours ago, Nick Holliday said:

 

I must admit that I have always been puzzled by this. As a right-handler, I’ve always found my left hand is struggling with the chord shapes, whilst the right hand is cruising, so I’ve always thought it should be easier for a left-hander to play right-handed, but obviously this isn’t true.

---

 

Many years ago I was discussing this with a guitarist in a band we were watching, who told me that Mark Knopfler is naturally left handed but plays right handed, and thus can create the incredible string bends achieved in his playing. This may be apocryphal of course; however the guitarist told me that his band used the same agents as Dire Straits, so that did lend his tale a bit of credibility. It's up to you what you believe of course! 🙂

Edited March 10, 2023 by DIW
Odd behaviour of 'quotes' box

[spamcan61]

20 minutes ago, DIW said:

 

Many years ago I was discussing this with a guitarist in a band we were watching, who told me that Mark Knopfler is naturally left handed but plays right handed, and thus can create the incredible string bends achieved in his playing. This may be apocryphal of course; however the guitarist told me that his band used the same agents as Dire Straits, so that did lend his tale a bit of credibility. It's up to you what you believe of course! 🙂

Very few people are totally left or right sided dominant, most of us have a mix of right and left handed traits.

[spamcan61]

15 hours ago, DIW said:

You have a choice - you can play a right-handed guitar 'upside-down' i.e. with lower E string at the bottom and high E at the top, or have a left-handed guitar where the low E is at the top like on a right-hander. If you start with a budget guitar where the bridge runs straight across the sound box you can easily re-string it left handed. However most guitars have the bridge at a very slight angle, and sometimes a slight offset for the B string. If one of these is restrung left handed then there will be a slight discrepancy in the low E string to A string registration. So for a better guitar, get one made for left-handers, or choose an upside-down right hander (think Jimi Hendrix here!).

 

I was watching a video of Albert King on Youtube the other day and noticed he was playing his usual right handed guitar upside down with Top E at the top so to speak, I don't recall many guitarists doing it this way; Eric Gales is the only other one that comes to mind. (Not that I dedicate my life to watching blues guitarists on Youtube ;-) Never could work out how Hendrix et al sorted out the intonation when re-stringing an upside down right handed guitar so that Bottom E was back at the top.

 

Talking of Hendrix, I saw a rock band many many moons ago where the lead guitarist was obviously a Hendrix fanboi, he was right handed, playing a white left handed Strat upside down. Also on Youtube I saw an interview with Ronnie Wood (IIRC) , who shared a flat with Hendrix for a while, he pointed out Hendrix could play left or right handed . 'made ya sick' he muttered  

Edited March 10, 2023 by spamcan61

[Graham108]

16 hours ago, didcot said:

 I'm a dab hand at air guitar

Aren't we all! But I'm a bit confused by your question and some of the answers. Surely a left-handed person playing a guitar left-handed will be the same as a right-handed person playing a guitar right-handed - albeit in a mirror. As long as the strings top-to-bottom are E A D G B E the chord diagram should be the same - you can get them quite easily - https://www.google.com/search?q=left+handed+guitar+chords&rlz=1C1CHBF_enGB1040GB1040&oq=left+handed+guitar&aqs=chrome.3.69i57j0i512l5j69i60l2.7506j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

If you look at a right-handed guitar the scratch guard will be under the strings - so you may need a purpose-made left-handed guitar or one with two scratch guards.

[spamcan61]

13 minutes ago, Graham108 said:

Aren't we all! But I'm a bit confused by your question and some of the answers. Surely a left-handed person playing a guitar left-handed will be the same as a right-handed person playing a guitar right-handed - albeit in a mirror. As long as the strings top-to-bottom are E A D G B E the chord diagram should be the same - you can get them quite easily

Trouble is, as DIW points out, the strings aren't of exactly equal length, so when you re-string a right handed guitar so that Top E is back at the bottom then the intonation will likely be wrong unless you can adjust the bridge to compensate.. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by spamcan61

[ejstubbs]

2 hours ago, spamcan61 said:

when you re-string a right handed guitar so that Top E is back at the bottom then the intonation will likely be wrong unless you can adjust the bridge to compensate.

 

That's pretty straightforward with a Stratocaster (per the Hendrix reference earlier) which has independently adjustable saddles for all six strings on a bridge which sits perpendicular to the neck (as outlined by DIW in post #2).  Trickier on something like a Les Paul on which, although it does have an adjustable saddle for each string, the saddles are mounted in an angled bridge.  Maybe that's why Albert King just played his right-handed Flying V upside-down?  (It's probably a fairly straightforward job for a luthier to switch the angle of the bridge on a solid bodied guitar with a separate tailpiece like the LP, but maybe a bit too much of a DIY task for someone who's more interested in just playing the thing and can manage perfectly well with the strings in the "wrong" place.)

[Free At Last]

Not forgetting that the nut needs to be recut/replaced when stringing the opposite way round.

[57xx]

There are stacks of  left handed guitars out there, so any theoretical "issues" about intonation are a moot point. You can get practically any style of guitar in either hands these days.

 

Here's one example of listings:

https://www.gear4music.com/Electric_Guitars/Left_Handed_Guitars.html

[ejstubbs]

8 minutes ago, Free At Last said:

Not forgetting that the nut needs to be recut/replaced when stringing the opposite way round.

 

Beat me to it!  I was about to edit my post to mention that point.

[spikey]

I know the OP won't want to know this, but our local hospice charity shop had a very decent-looking black Squier Strat left-hander in the window last week reduced from £50 to £35.  Just out of curiosity, I asked why the reduction, and was told that somebody had pointed out that it was LH ...

[spamcan61]

11 minutes ago, ejstubbs said:

 

Beat me to it!  I was about to edit my post to mention that point.

Methinks that if I one is starting from scratch it might be less hassle to learn all the chords 'upside diwn' and play like Albert King.

[57xx]

4 hours ago, spamcan61 said:

Never could work out how Hendrix et al sorted out the intonation when re-stringing an upside down right handed guitar so that Bottom E was back at the top.

 

Very easily. All the string saddles on a Strat have the same range of adjustment, so you simply change the intonation accordingly. Even on an LP style guitar, the angle of the adjustomatic bridge is so slight that I reckon there is still enough range on the saddles to cater for swapping hands. But as said above, I can't see the point when you can spend from £100 up to whatever you want and buy a proper left hander. Save fiddling with your nuts too. 🙂

Edited March 10, 2023 by 57xx

[57xx]

21 hours ago, didcot said:

I've been wanting to have a go at playing electric guitar for years. I'm a dab hand at air guitar, but would really like to be able to play some rock. I had a dabble about 30 years ago with little success. I'm left handed and just couldn't get to grips right handed.

I'm not that outgoing or confident, so want to teach myself rather than go for lessons. 

I played Trumpet at school, but have forgotten the basics of reading music. 

So are there any other left handers out there that can point me in the right direction in terms of learning materials and suitable non expensive guitar?

 

What sort of "rock" are you looking at? What's your budget and do you have any thoughts on the style of guitar you are after? I'm sure the collective minds here will be able to give you some pointers for you to pick from.

[didcot]

Thanks for all the replies. 

 

So on the rock front, Def Leppard and newly discovered Ghost. Spillways by Ghost and Joe Elliott from DL is a cracking song. Not just DL, but that kind of genre. 

 

I've seen LH guitars and practice amps for around the £150 mark. I'm reluctant to spend more than £200 just in case I'm totally hopeless.

 

It's just where to start with all the books and guides I'm struggling with.

 

 

 

[57xx]

I'd be looking at a LP style with humbuckers then. 

I don't have any first hand experience of the cheaper brands on the G4M link earlier, but I have bought a £120 bass from Thomann in Germany and it is superb! It was just before all the Brexit stuff kicked in so no idea how much you'd get stung on import duty now, but their prices are all inc VAT and delivery.

 

e.g.  Harley Benton SC-400LH SBK Classic Se Bundle – Thomann UK

 

Just found this - VAT and import duty all included :)

Information for non-EU countries – Thomann UK

 

I've bought a lot of stuff (guitars, pedals, amps) off them over the years and they have been exceptional.