Lefty Vintage Buyer Woes

[Lefty Addams]

I totally agree, why should we learn to play the other way. I hear yer brother ....

[dan1952]

I taught for about 15 years, had hundreds of students, and almost always ran into resistance when encouraging lefty students to learn on a right-handed guitar. I won't go into the list of reasons why I suggested this, but a lot of parents were outraged, thinking I was trying to change their little Snookums. I can only say that a short list of left-handed people who did fairly well playing right-handed guitars would include George Benson, Glen Campbell, Duane Allman, and B.B. King.
For someone who learned lefty, already plays, and can't find enough guitars to choose from, I can understand your frustration, but this only serves to reinforce my position: If one learns to play on a right-handed guitar, the options are much greater down the road. I'm not trying to convince anyone to change how they play, but for someone starting out, I see no reason to limit your options so drastically.

[StratBluesRock]

My bass player is left-handed, and he can play a righty upside down (ala Albert King) pretty well, but he usually plays regular lefty. I guess all lefties have to do this sometimes.

[Drubbing]

Originally Posted by dan1952

I'm not trying to convince anyone to change how they play, but for someone starting out, I see no reason to limit your options so drastically.

Making guitar even harder (or impossible) to learn, just because you won't be able to buy more than you can afford/play later on, is the sort of argument that can only fly on guitar forums.

[huckdeuceman]

I'm a lefty too! and have been trying for 10 years to buy a 56 lefty tele hangin on the wall at a pawnshop near me, and the seller won't budge on his $30.000 price, and this thing is toast!, way worse than what would be called relec'd, I don't see it ever leaving the wall at that price?, but yes, everytime
I buy a lefty guitar it is a extra $100.00 bill just because it is LEFTHANDED..
OH, the pain, the pain...

[Lefty Addams]

The market is getting better, Gibson only recently brought out the 2012 Standard and every finish is available in left handed guise, and their new Traditionals and 70s Tributes are all available in LH. Fender are not so good, with only five Telecasters and seven models of Stratocaster being made available for us lefties ...

[Drubbing]

Originally Posted by Lefty Addams

Fender are not so good, with only five Telecasters and seven models of Stratocaster being made available for us lefties ...

That includes the Squiers. Fender models only run to 6.

[otterhound]

Originally Posted by dan1952

I taught for about 15 years, had hundreds of students, and almost always ran into resistance when encouraging lefty students to learn on a right-handed guitar. I won't go into the list of reasons why I suggested this, but a lot of parents were outraged, thinking I was trying to change their little Snookums. I can only say that a short list of left-handed people who did fairly well playing right-handed guitars would include George Benson, Glen Campbell, Duane Allman, and B.B. King.
For someone who learned lefty, already plays, and can't find enough guitars to choose from, I can understand your frustration, but this only serves to reinforce my position: If one learns to play on a right-handed guitar, the options are much greater down the road. I'm not trying to convince anyone to change how they play, but for someone starting out, I see no reason to limit your options so drastically.

I'll give you a short list .
Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney .
Your position is rooted in the past and flawed .
Yes , you definitely are making the implication that playing lefty will result in a lifetime of frustration and dismay . At least have the intestinal fortitude to take a stand , for crying out loud . You just got done explaining how parents become outraged when you tried to " change their little Snookums " . That is downright condescending and I believe that an apology is in order .
The parents were absolutely correct and you are wrong .
Remember that you were working for them , not the other way around . You were being hired to teach the guitar and nothing else . But it does take guts to see the world from the viewpoint of others .
Have you ever considered how many potentially great players that your attitude may have ruined because of forcing them to play backwards may have limited their skills or caused them to give up in frustration because being forced to play backwards just didn't work ?
I am not angered by you because I do not know you , but I am angered by the arrogance that you so visibly display .
I have no problem finding lefty guitars . If I can't find it , I will build it , and I hope to make this world a better place for the left handed guitar player one guitar at a time !
Open your mind !
Go find some righty to attack . After all , there are sooo many of them .

[Drubbing]

Originally Posted by otterhound

I'll give you a short list .
Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney .
Your position is rooted in the past and flawed . .

Not only that, the only real argument he has for making them switch is so they can have wider range of guitars to choose from.

Having tried playing a guitar righty, I'd bet far more would give up in frustration and boredom before they even got to the vast choice of bright spangly things from which to choose. It's a terrible attitude from a teacher.

Would a tennis, golf or basketball coach attempt to stop a promising player from playing left handed?

[59TweedVibrolux]

Jimi , Sir Paul . lets not forget the Riff Meister Elliot Easton , Kurt Cobain
Tony Iommi , Albert King , Otis Rush , Dick Dale , Cesar Rosas, Billy Ray
Cyrus , Iggy Pop

I tried to play R/H but my fingers just wouldn't work as well as when playing
naturally L/H. If i had been forced to learn R/H I would have given up and
become a drummer

As was mentioned ..... if paid to teach , you teach without fear or favor.
Imagine how poorer we would have been if any of the above had given up
playing guitar........ well except for Billy Ray

[halcyon]

Originally Posted by Drubbing

Making guitar even harder (or impossible) to learn, just because you won't be able to buy more than you can afford/play later on, is the sort of argument that can only fly on guitar forums.

I am a lefty who chose to play lefty. I have a friend who is also a lefty and chose to play right-handed on both bass and guitar. It's not like it makes it significantly harder, it's just whatever you learn first. I use a computer mouse with my right hand, and it's normal because, well, I really don't want to get into the psychology behind the matter. Honestly, the only reason I play lefty is because I wanted to embrace my left-handedness when I started playing, but, logically, it makes no sense. I am very limited with guitars because of it, and if I started playing with the state of mind I now have, I'd probably learn right-handed.

[Drubbing]

Originally Posted by halcyon

I am a lefty who chose to play lefty. I have a friend who is also a lefty and chose to play right-handed on both bass and guitar. It's not like it makes it significantly harder, it's just whatever you learn first. I use a computer mouse with my right hand, and it's normal because, well, I really don't want to get into the psychology behind the matter.

I know all that - there are thing I do right handed, like play golf, use a mouse etc.

The point is, most lefties have some ambidexterity and you should go with whatever feels most natural. I disagree that everyone is starting from the same base when learning guitar. For some, it's near on impossible to flip. It would be for me.

A teacher should be letting a student make their own decision, not forcing one on them because of their own bias and opinions.

[halcyon]

Let's all just get along. This is a guitar forum. We love guitars. Come on.

[djalt]

+1

[trev333]

Count your lucky stars we have choice about the L/R matter...

my highschool friend ..a righty, one of the few with a yearning to play guitar back then.. whose back shed we hung in and learned CCR songs on his cheese cutter guitar and smoked ciggies... lost a forearm at 19...

he eventually flipped rightys over and learned those weird chords while picking with his stump rig... rather well...

I made him a lefty Strat.. and his lefty/righty/anyway playing son grabbed it...... so, I made him a Tele....

[otterhound]

Originally Posted by halcyon

Let's all just get along. This is a guitar forum. We love guitars. Come on.

Ah , a Rodney King moment .
We are all wired differently . There are those that are right handed and play lefty .
Promoting the natural inclinations of the student should be paramount .
There is still time to learn to play righty if you are still alive .
Being able to play from both sides would be a considerable advantage in the long run . There is no ultimate rule that prevents you .
Back to the beginning . The vintage lefty market is very limited and this is why I don't look that direction . Still , there are some very nice possibilities out there if you look long and hard enough .

[dan1952]

Originally Posted by Drubbing

I know all that - there are thing I do right handed, like play golf, use a mouse etc.

The point is, most lefties have some ambidexterity and you should go with whatever feels most natural. I disagree that everyone is starting from the same base when learning guitar. For some, it's near on impossible to flip. It would be for me.

A teacher should be letting a student make their own decision, not forcing one on them because of their own bias and opinions.

Contrary to the assumptions made by some folks on this forum, as a teacher who was dedicated to helping others learn to play the guitar, I never "forced" anyone to play a right-handed guitar. One of my main arguments in SUGGESTING that people try to learn on a righty guitar was always that, in my opinion, a lefty has a natural advantage because I have always felt that the left hand does the more complicated work. My observation has generally been that most anyone can perform the picking motion with either hand, while the precision required to correctly fret the guitar is much more difficult to master.
Furthermore, as a teacher I really did not care whether a student spent more money buying guitars in the future, but was more concerned that more opportunities to play other guitars, whether at church, a friend's house, in a guitar store, etc., would present themselves if the student learned to play on a guitar that would be set up like the ones they were most likely to encounter.
My position is not based on arrogance but on my years of experience with students, ranging in age from 5 to 82, including blind folks, one legally deaf person, and a couple of Down Syndrome kids. I frankly don't care if someone is right-handed, left-handed, amphibian, reptilian, or in the witness protection program...my goal has been to make music available to whomever wants to pursue it. To make any other assumption, based on the extremely limited knowledge one can glean from a guitar forum, is indeed the height of arrogance.
Peace, brother.

[bangcaster]

I was 17, someone handed me a right-handed guitar and I accepted. I held it upside down because that was the only thing that made any sense. Some people are LEFT HANDED, and nothing you or anyone else can say is going to change that. Deal with it and move on.

[trev333]

The bored kid reclining in the pics I posted above... my mates son... totally amazed me with his skills..

he can play rightys and leftys using the correct chord shapes either way.. and he can play either of them flipped with the funky upside down chord shapes ...

he's a freak... I've never seen anyone do that so effortlessly... some runs he does both type of chord shapes during the piece.. what ever suits him...

doubled handed... not unlike a multi linguist changing languages/words during a sentence and still carrying the same meanings to all...


i

[StratBluesRock]

Hendrix actually was able to play right-handed, but he found playing lefty more natural feeling.

Dan1952, I understand your argument, for sure, southpaws have far less options.

If I was lefty, I'd play lefty Teles and LPs, but my Strats would be flipped righties.