Left handed products

theklanch

Senior Member
Messages
209
Why is there only one left handed item in the showcase?

  I have retracted the rest of my thoughts on this subject........

 
theklanch said:
Why is there only one left handed item in the showcase?

  I have retracted the rest of my thoughts on this subject........

because most people play right handed. why have a lot of stuff if selling it is a hard job.


if you want something special, do it by custom order.
 
Heh, I read what you said before... sounds like you smoked some good shit, to write a rant that good ;)
 
I saw it too, and I feel you man.. (A good 30 years ago my mom played guitar, she's left handed but had to learn on a right handed and gave up after a while because of it) It would be nice to see a few more left handies on the showcase, but custom orders are usually so very nice and they do take a little while. I'm glad you retracted the aformentioned, I was worried you'd be leaving the boards. This is the best forum I've ever been on.
 
Luke said:
I saw it too, and I feel you man.. (A good 30 years ago my mom played guitar, she's left handed but had to learn on a right handed and gave up after a while because of it) It would be nice to see a few more left handies on the showcase, but custom orders are usually so very nice and they do take a little while. I'm glad you retracted the aformentioned, I was worried you'd be leaving the boards. This is the best forum I've ever been on.

Nope I'm not leaving the board, but what I said that you had read, well, I think I'm gonna stick to that...........I happen to like this forum a lot bunch of cool cats here.  I will agree with you on this being the best forum that I have found also.  I have been a huge fan of Warmoth since the early 1990's.  Before Al Gore invented the internet, W had their printed catalog.  It just disappoints me that they care so little about our lefty needs.

Orpheo said:
theklanch said:
Why is there only one left handed item in the showcase?

  I have retracted the rest of my thoughts on this subject........

because most people play right handed. why have a lot of stuff if selling it is a hard job.


if you want something special, do it by custom order.

See that right there is te problem........  I understand that MOST people right handed, but the ratio of lefties to righties is one in six.  I would be happy to see one in 50 showcase guitars done up left handed.  And they wouldn't have a hard time selling them at all.  They might spend a little more time in inventory, but I can say with great certainty that the lefty stuff would eventually sell.  There is actually a pretty good number of leftys here on the board, I thought I would be one of 3 when I joined, but there are suprisingly a bunch of Lefty brothers here.  The problem with custom orders is the fudging wait time.  That was what my original rant was all about......
dbw said:
Heh, I read what you said before... sounds like you smoked some good shite, to write a rant that good ;)

DBW  unfortunately the exact opposite my main man.  I was waiting all day for the pusher man.  He finally showed up in the middle of the Simpsons....  So I'm stocked up for the week,  what you read was my temper and frustration getting the best of me.  I have a pretty hard time getting that pissed if I have puffed.  But if I haven't for a couple of days, look out!!!!!!!!  So y'all probably won't see a bunch of pissed off rants for a couple of days, I'll be good and Mello Yello, you know.  Speaking of getting mello, my watch says it's 4:20  (even though the clock on the wall says it's 10:30)  maybe I should put a new battery in my watch it always says it's 4:20, but you won't hear me complain!!
 
Orpheo said:
because most people play right handed. why have a lot of stuff if selling it is a hard job.


if you want something special, do it by custom order.

Okay, I did that.

Ordered in January. No status updates, no *real* ETA (8-12 weeks is a pretty big range there). But meanwhile, there are two recent threads about how FASTFASTFAST Warmoth is. Should us lefties really get the shaft because of the way we were born?

Yes, MOST guitarists are right-handed. Not all. Warmoth has more than one left-handed customer, I'm fairly sure...yet they have just one body in the showcase. It's a different situation than brick and mortar stores...having five or ten showcase bodies wouldn't cost them floorspace. And unless they're completely out of warehouse room, it wouldn't really cost them anything.

And if stocking lefty guitars is really THAT unprofitable how does www.southpawguitars.com stay in business? They've been around for years and years, selling only left-handed guitars. That means the market is out there.
 
Some Lefty Fender eye candy:  Sadly, not at Warmoth......

www.southpawguitars.com

stratcsgrp.jpg

 
exalted said:
But meanwhile, there are two recent threads about how FASTFASTFAST Warmoth is.

Perhaps you should order a completed but unfinished body off the showcase and simply tell them how you want them finished (which is exactly what I did and what my FASTFASTFAST thread was about). They told me 4-6 weeks JUST FOR FINISHING and then sent me a tracking number after 3. If I had been told 8-12 weeks and was sent a tracking number in 7 I would have stated the same FASTFASTFAST thread. Maybe you're seeing discrimination in your wait time when it's really just a different order. I doubt the guys at W are all "hey, it's a lefty order - make sure you sit on it a couple weeks before you start it"
 
First, I wasn't attacking you in my post. Your recommendation to buy an existing body and having it finished is an extremely good suggestion, and exactly what I would have done...

..if there had been more than ONE body on the showcase.

This is what the lefties have to choose from on the showcase:

lps52a.jpg


That's it. Literally.

You say they aren't sitting on left-handed orders, and I don't necessarily think that they are...BUT...I was told 8-12 weeks for my custom body and finish. You were told 4-6 weeks for your finish...does it take 8 weeks to cut the body? If they want to place a priority on getting showcase items out the door, awesome...but give us the same choice - short wait versus complete custom.

 
Anyone who has ANY experience running a business would be able to tell you that there are times when you have to make a decision that is good for business, but that is not understood by some of the people who patronize said business.  I seriously doubt that they (Warmoth) are simply discriminating against lefties.  I am equally sure that they have looked into the pros and cons of keeping more lefties on hand at all times, and that for whatever reason, it made good BUSINESS sense to do it the way they do it.  It's surely nothing personal.  I like to think of some businesses that I patronize as having a personal vested interest in what the hell I do, but the truth is that they are in business and need to try to maximize profits, or just go away.  Also......I have a pretty good feeling that lefties require them to use all different tooling and programs, and they maybe just have to do them in batches every once in a while.  Maybe right now is just between batches.  That last part is just a guess, but really taking personal offense at this seems a little silly to me. 
 
I don't take personal offense...I really just genuinely wish we had more choices.

I think this conundrum is shared throughout the entire industry and, in my perception, works thusly:

- Retailers only carry five or so left-handed guitars, none of which are interesting, unique, or 'must-have'. (see: black MIM fenders and sunburst Epipone LPs)
- Lefty guitarists rarely buy additional guitars because they can't find anything that interests them.
- Retailers think there isn't a business for lefties, so they continue to only carry five or so left-handed guitars.
- Continue ad nauseam

However, with Warmoth, again, there is no physical showroom. Having five to ten pre-cut left-handed bodies (finished or not) does not take up space preventing them from displaying a right-handed guitar that will sell more quickly.

I don't expect to change the entire industry, but I don't think Warmoth has to play the same game.
 
Maybe exalted is on to something here...  :sign13:  Gregg, you should put five lefty strats in the showcase and see how long they take to disappear.
 
dbw said:
Maybe exalted is on to something here...  :sign13:  Gregg, you should put five lefty strats in the showcase and see how long they take to disappear.
:sad:

 
exalted said:
However, with Warmoth, again, there is no physical showroom. Having five to ten pre-cut left-handed bodies (finished or not) does not take up space preventing them from displaying a right-handed guitar that will sell more quickly.

actually, in a way, they do. on the few tours that I have been on of the factory, they have a storing place for every single body that they have pre-made... and quite often times, they have surplus of what they can hold  :-\
 
Point taken, and that's fair enough.

But if they're going over what they can store, then what's another 9 guitars?
 
exalted said:
Point taken, and that's fair enough.

But if they're going over what they can store, then what's another 9 guitars?


+1,000,000

If Ken was left handed, we all know that there would be more lefty equipment. 

Ever notice that no warmoth employees will touch this subject with a ten foot pole?  I wonder why......  C'mon Gregg, give us a real answer to why y'all show no Lefty showcase love............
 
Kataar said:
exalted said:
However, with Warmoth, again, there is no physical showroom. Having five to ten pre-cut left-handed bodies (finished or not) does not take up space preventing them from displaying a right-handed guitar that will sell more quickly.

actually, in a way, they do. on the few tours that I have been on of the factory, they have a storing place for every single body that they have pre-made... and quite often times, they have surplus of what they can hold  :-\

Come on, man, they routinely have 250 finished and 250 unfinished strat models alone in stock on the showcase. I mean, it rarely happens these days, but someone's changed my mind on an internet discussion board. They could have 10 lefty strats and 10 finished lefty strats added to the inventory. They could keep 2 lefty models of everything else in the showcase and just replace as sold. It's no skin off my nose, cause I'm a righty, but if I were a lefty I believe I'd be legitimately pissed. Maybe I should start a warmoth lefty side business - you guys think I can register southpawguitars.NET  :laughing7:?
 
I don't understand the reluctance to stock lefty product; 10% of the population is lefthanded.  I remember looking up on the wall at a Sam Ash I visited a few years ago.  They had huge pictures of Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney, Kurt Cobain, and Jimi Hendrix on the wall, along with one, sad, MIM Strat.  I pointed out to the salesman that if all the lefties pictured in their store had walked in, three of us would have had to watch one of us try and play that thing.

Of our last six presidents, 2/3 have been lefthanded (Obama:"I'm lefthanded; get used to it").

With the advent of CNC routers, the need for lefty specific tooling is moot (Martin no longer up-charges for lefties, nor does Taylor).

Because we've had to adapt to a righthanded world, lefties are, on average, more intelligent and more creative than righties (DaVinci, for one).

If I have a gripe to deliver to Warmoth, it's about their new website.  It's no longer possible to search for lefty-specific product (there are formatting issues as well, but I hope that will be dealt with by their webmaster).

I've dropped about $18,000 on guitars,amps and related equipment over the last 3 years.  If Warmoth doesn't want a piece of that, to hell with 'em.

Jimmy at Southpaw Guitars is great to deal with, as is Dave at Dave's Guitars in Wisconsin.  George Gruhn has a selection of lefty guitars that pretty well matches my experience at Sam Ash (I informed them of this; they sent me to Jimmy).

I got into luthiery because of the paucity of lefty gear out there; I've done it myself in the past and I'll do it again if I have to.

Rock on, lefties...
 
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