Any Righties play left-handed, or lefties play right-handed?

[Dan025]

As they say, lefties are in their right mind...

Which explains why we rule the galaxy.

not really, you are fretting with your right hand. Which means using the left side of your brain.... :glasses9:

i dont think that saying was meant for guitar players.

 

[DangerousR6]

Albert King is another lefty who played a right handed guitar without re-stringing.  He could bend those high strings three steps, because he would yank down on them, and there was plenty of fretboard to hold his note.  He was, by all accounts, a very powerful guy. Somewhat related to this.....all of the top chefs in the world train themselves to be able to do critical kitchen activities with both hands, in case they injure themselves.  Knife skills are very important to these guys, and being able to do what they do with both hands keep them running their kitchens.  An aside to this....I myself try to do this when I'm at work, and I have discovered something interesting.  I can use a whisk with my right hand like nobodys business, but I just can't get the motion right with my left.....UNLESSS, I cross my hands like you sometimes see drummers doing.  If I cross my left hand under my right, so that the bowl I'm whisking in is on my right side, I can whisk both bowls at the same time.  Oh brain, you are so weird.

I've seen first hand someone lefty, play my right handed guitars upside down... It's mind boggling... :icon_scratch:

 

[Dan025]

the guy from "the entrance band" plays a right handed guitar strung righty upside down. but if you ask me it is his bass player that makes the band, paz lenchantin, most notably of "a perfect circle" but now i'm off topic

 

[Funky Phil]

I'm left handed...I play guitar right handed.
My first instrument was violin, so I guess the transition to right handed guitar was easier?

 

[PitchShifter]

Interesting, it does seem much more common than I expected. Super Turbo made a good point about rifles and how there could be a comfort issue when someone first picks up the guitar, which others have mentioned. Also seems to be more right-handed guitars around to be picked up!

The guy from Doves plays bass upside down on a normally strung bass.

 

[stubhead]

I'm a left-handed writer & eater, who plays guitar in a standard righty way because it feels normal. Both Robert Fripp and Steve Morse are the same, and weakness in picking technique is not exactly what I think of first, there... It's a fascinating subject (to me) going back to prenatal brain development, early imprintng etc. At several points in history, left-handed people were considered to be either retarded or brain-damaged, but I feel that way about YOU-all, sometimes.... :evil4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9My61NJTxo

(don't blame him for the tone, dude, that the vid's practice amp)

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

I am right hand dominant, and do most things right handed.  I learned to play badminton and ping pong lefty after a shoulder injury to my right arm.  Now I can play badminton or ping pong with racquets/paddles in both hands simultaneously.  Sometimes we play with two balls at once too. 

But I can't do anything like that with a guitar, where I remain right hand dominant. 

And yes, I realize that the wording of certain parts of this post open me up to ridicule.

 

[OzziePete]

I play guitar right handed, swing golf clubs, cricket bats, baseball bats etc. right handed & shoot rifles in the right hand stance too.

When I first started playing as a kid I mucked around trying to play left handed but it felt 100 times more uncomfortable than trying to play right handed.

There's a good clip on You Tube with McCartney at Abbey Road showing how music was made 'back in his day' sort of session, and he did explain how he was a dominant lefty but had to learn how to play a right handed guitar upside down, as often there wasn't a lefty around for him to show things or play. Hendrix did the same thing, and I am guessing thast there's a lot of lefties who have learnt to adapt a right handed guitar out of neccessity. Right handed players get it easy by comparison.

My brother-in-law, who gave me my first guitar (he's to blame!), writes left handed, works with tools left handed, and shoots left handed, but prefers to swing golf clubs etc and play guitars, right handed, as there's an extra cost for the left handed versions usually, and the choice isn't as varied. I believe at the best of his golf playing he was off a registered 10 or 12 handicap, so playing right handed didn't seem to impede his ability to do alright.

I suspect there's a lot of lefties who learnt ot play the guitar right handed and stuck with it, particularly when there was not a lot of left handed guitars around, say in the 50s and 60s (when my brother-in-law was playing) or the left handed guitars cost a fortune to get - if you could find one.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Ibanez makes no lefties.  Scratch that, they have a lefty model that is starter pack level.  A lefty player friend of mine called them, and said money is no object, can you make me a lefty.  No.

 

[RmB303]

I'm another righty who now plays lefty due to an injury on my left hand.
Played as a righty from age 10 to 24, (now 37), and been playing as a lefty for just over a year now.

I think my fretting hand is improving faster than it did when I was learning as a righty, but my picking is definitely taking longer to develop, and my strumming truly sucks!

 

[DangerousR6]

I've often thought of getting a left handed guitar, just to see if I could learn to play lefty... :dontknow:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Before going through the trouble, just re-string an existing one.  A nut is cheaper than a guitar.

 

[stubhead]

Like I said, I'm a lefty playing normal righty, but I can play left-handed OK. If I wanted to do a gimmick thing with it I could develop that, but there's so much more interesting musical things to work on than gimmicks - learn some Coltrane licks, now there's a gimmick.

 

[DangerousR6]

Before going through the trouble, just re-string an existing one.  A nut is cheaper than a guitar.

I could just re-string one with a floyd, would be easy to switch around and wouldn't be any harm to the guitar.... :dontknow:

 

[OzziePete]

Ibanez makes no lefties.  Scratch that, they have a lefty model that is starter pack level.  A lefty player friend of mine called them, and said money is no object, can you make me a lefty.  No.

Wow. ???  No lefties from Ibanez at all! I read - I think it was on the Fenderforum years ago - that lefty guitar and bass sales would amount to about 10% of total sales so it is a minority of the market. But to abitrarily decide to exclude that market from your sales is kinda denying marklet coverage a bit. Maybe the costs of re tooling/ adjustment of machining etc. is not worth the effort? :dontknow:

 

[kboman]

Omar Rodriguez Lopez from Mars Volta (a lefty) has an Ibanez signature model which I think is "also availiable right handed"

 

[TexxasJam]

I'm a righty who plays lefty...due to an injury to my left-hand. 

I'm another righty who now plays lefty due to an injury on my left hand.
Played as a righty from age 10 to 24, (now 37), and been playing as a lefty for just over a year now.

I think my fretting hand is improving faster than it did when I was learning as a righty, but my picking is definitely taking longer to develop, and my strumming truly sucks!

Fretting for me came pretty easy, the picking and strumming involved a lot more practice. But then again I was a beginning guitarist so I was starting out cold. My brain had to get retrained after all those years playing "air guitar" right-handed.

 

[TexxasJam]

I'm a left-handed writer & eater, who plays guitar in a standard righty way because it feels normal. Both Robert Fripp and Steve Morse are the same, and weakness in picking technique is not exactly what I think of first, there... It's a fascinating subject (to me) going back to prenatal brain development, early imprintng etc. At several points in history, left-handed people were considered to be either retarded or brain-damaged, but I feel that way about YOU-all, sometimes.... :evil4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9My61NJTxo

(don't blame him for the tone, dude, that the vid's practice amp)

Mark Knopfler is also a lefty that plays righty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Knopfler

 

[Maltozombie]

Mark Knopfler is also a lefty that plays righty.

Billy Corgan also....if anyone cares lol  :laughing7:

i've tried it, but it just didn't work for me, but alas, i'm a righty, i had come along too far on the regular ebb and flow to try to change it up.

but there is definitely a certain charm and attack the these lefties playing right handed guitars have

"you aren't like other people, you do what you want to do"

and all the more power to ya  :headbang:

 

[blue313]

Wow, a three page lefty thread without Dick Dale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNqnlRxg9tU