Question for Left-Handed Guitarists and Bassists

[RobT]

I recently purchased the Steve Hackett CD/DVD set of Genesis Revisited: Live at Hammersmith and have been enjoying it, especially the video. I noticed that the bass player Lee Pomeroy, has his left-handed Rickenbacker 4001 strung upside down, i.e. the low E where you would normally find the D. His six string electric guitar as well and I assume his double neck bass and twelve string. The only other person I ha seen do this was the bass player with Blackfield. I am left-handed, but learned to play right-handed. I am trying to imagine what chording must be like with the instruments strung like this. Do any of you do it? Do you run into chords you have to alter in some way to play them? Not knocking it, just difficult for me to wrap my head around it, thanks!

[bob_32_116]

there is something sinister about being left-handed.

[No Pride]

Jimmy Haslip (Yellowjackets, Holdsworth/Pasqua Band) strings his bass like that too. And if I'm not mistaken, Albert King played lefty and had his guitar strung upside down. I have no idea what that's like; I'm lefty but learned to play righty too. My best guitar lesson was my very first, when my teacher told me I was holding the guitar upside down.

[RobT]

there is something sinister about being left-handed.

You have no idea

[trurl]

I've always wondered with it would feel like to buy a left-handed guitar and flip it and string it upside-down and play it righty. Would probably be a trip!

[Dean Watson]

Being a lefty guitar player sucks! You go into a music store with hundreds of beautiful guitars, and maybe, just maybe, there's 1 lefty guitar. That's why I built 3 of my own.

[Zeuhlmate]

Danish jazz guitarist Uffe Steen has allways done this.
Easily to spot here, thickest string downwards:



Here with a band

[Yves]

Doyle Bramhall III is a lefty guitarist that does not re-string. Isn't that the way Jimi played?

[Zeuhlmate]

Jimi played a right hand guitar and re-strung
I think Ricthie Blackmore had a period where he did the opposite.

[No Pride]

Jimi played a right hand guitar and re-strung

According to one biography I read, Jimi could turn that guitar over and play it righty too. His dad thought anything lefty was "of the devil," so if he heard his dad coming towards the room where he was practicing, he'd turn it over. The book didn't say what he did about writing, eating, etc.

Speaking of that, most lefties I know, including myself do some things righty. I eat and write lefty, but I throw, bat and bowl righty. I think our brains were wired wrong.

[trurl]

Well, yes, your brains are wired to be evil.

[Yves]

What's the old saying?

If the left side of your brain controls your right side and right side of your brain controls your left side, then only left-handed people are in their right minds.

[trurl]

They do say left-handed people, being right brained, tend towards being creative. I'm kind of ambi-brained I think. Creative but analytical.

[Rarebird]

According to one biography I read, Jimi could turn that guitar over and play it righty too. His dad thought anything lefty was "of the devil," so if he heard his dad coming towards the room where he was practicing, he'd turn it over. The book didn't say what he did about writing, eating, etc.

Speaking of that, most lefties I know, including myself do some things righty. I eat and write lefty, but I throw, bat and bowl righty. I think our brains were wired wrong.

I only thing i do righty, is writing, because I was forced to do this at school.
If I play air-guitar or air-bass, I play lefthanded. With a real bass, I do it right-handed.

[Mister Triscuits]

Being a lefty guitar player sucks! You go into a music store with hundreds of beautiful guitars, and maybe, just maybe, there's 1 lefty guitar. That's why I built 3 of my own.

My advice to lefty guitarists starting out is simply learn to play righty to begin with. It's not at all necessary to use your dominant hand for picking and your weak hand for fretting; it works just as well the other way around. Look at Robert Fripp: he's done pretty well as a lefty playing in right-handed position. And he was even in the same band with another one, John Wetton.

[No Pride]

My advice to lefty guitarists starting out is simply learn to play righty to begin with. It's not at all necessary to use your dominant hand for picking and your weak hand for fretting; it works just as well the other way around.

Yeah. I don't believe that one hand plays a more important role than the other when it comes to guitar. Of course, your advice is only good for someone who has zero experience with a guitar, but wants to learn how to play. Once you've started out lefty, I think you're basically stuck with it. Though I'm glad that I learned how to play righty, I don't think playing lefty is a bad thing by any means. It would've been a disadvantage when I started out in the mid '60s because left handed guitars were pretty rare, but these days it's not hard to get a hold of a good lefty guitar.

[nosebone]

If your righty, do you whip up a batch with lefty?

[Progbear]

I’ve always strung mine with the bass strings at the top. Being a left-handed guitarist is frustrating enough, no need to complicate the situation with a whole different set of fingerings/chord shapes!

[Mikhael]

I'm a lefty, and I don't restring my guitars backwards. I really don't see a need to, since my most dexterious hand, my left one, is on the fingerboard where it belongs...

[Jacob Holm-Lupo]

Lefty here too, but I have always played righty. There never seemed much point to play lefty. Too much hassle.

True story: I wanted to take a few guitar lessons when I was in my early teens. I'd never played before. The guitar teacher sat down with me for a few minutes, noticed I was a lefty, and said: "You're a lefty, you can never play guitar." Then he sent me on my way. After that I didn't pick up the guitar for another 4-5 years, until I finally got over it and realized he was a dick and a moron. Hence my relatively late start playing guitar - started at 17. Thanks, teacher ...

[The Dark Elf]

Worse than the dearth of left-handed guitars is the utter lack of left-handed forks.

[Mister Triscuits]

The guitar teacher sat down with me for a few minutes, noticed I was a lefty, and said: "You're a lefty, you can never play guitar."

Wow. Anybody who would say that is a complete dunce. I once met a guy who learned to play guitar even though he had no arms at all. He played with his feet. Glad you were able, despite what that knucklehead told you, to overcome the terrible disability of being left handed!

[Rarebird]

Wow. Anybody who would say that is a complete dunce. I once met a guy who learned to play guitar even though he had no arms at all. He played with his feet. Glad you were able, despite what that knucklehead told you, to overcome the terrible disability of being left handed!

Reminds me on the autobiography of Thomas Quasthoff, who was refused at some conservatory, because he wasn't physical able to play an instrument. Just being able to sing wasn't enough, he had to play an instrument as well.

[StevegSr]

Mark Knopfler is a lefty who plays righty. (True.) So if he can do it, so can you!

[Mikhael]

I've never seen a lefty piano. Or a lefty tuba. I never saw a lefty guitar when I first started playing; I didn't know there were such things (Started when I was 7). I think I'm actually better off.