Best left-handed guitarists

[daven]

...so anyone known right handed guitarist trying to take advantage of playing left-handed then?

I'm pretty sure that Robin and Ali Campbell (brothers) from British band UB40 were both right handers but learned to play left handed.

[GuitarGeek]

...so anyone known right handed guitarist trying to take advantage of playing left-handed then?

Ernie Isley does. He plays both left and right handed style. I think he said he had a dream where he jammed with Jimi Hendrix, and Jimi was playing Ernie's guitar in the dream, telling him "left handed, right handed, it don't make no difference". So after that, Ernie committed himself to learning to play lefty style.

I remember Stevie Ray Vaughan talking about how he wanted to start playing guitars strung upside down because he was trying to get that Albert King vibe going. He said that Albert playing downstrokes where most guitarists would have do an upstroke made a big difference in his sound. He said that was why he played with that sort of "pecking" motion when he played solos, because he was trying to get that part of the sound happening, and he felt he might be able to get even closer if he sometimes played with the guitar strung upside down. But I don't think he ever got to do that, as the interview where he was talking about this happened just a few months before he died.

There's lots of left handed people who play guitar right handed...Mark Knopfler (his brother David, also), Rik Emmett, and Steve Morse all come to mind.

A few of my favorite lefty guitarists:
Doyle Bramhall II: strings his guitar upside down, Albert King style. I first became aware of him when he was played briefly in the Fabulous Thunderbirds, then he was in Arc Angels (which was sort of pop/rock/blues band, which got a lot of attention because they had SRV's rhythm section), but I really got into him after seeing him play with Roger Waters in the late 90's. After that, I got in his solo records. Jellycream and Welcome are both great albums. His first solo record is pretty good, but it's more of a singer/songwriter record. Interesting note: Doyle is (or was) married to Suzanna Melvoin, the twin sister of former Prince And The Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin (in fact, Wendy and Lisa Coleman figured prominently on Doyle's first two solo records, producing the first, and playing on both of them).

Coco Montoya: great blues guitarist who again plays with reversed strings. I first heard him playing on a mid 80's era John Mayall live album, but he eventually went out on his own as a bandleader. I only have a couple of his records, but they're really great. I read in Guitar Player where he talked about how on one of his records, he used a POD to record the guitar tracks "because I knew it'd piss off the purists". Listening to the record, though, I couldn't tell where he was using a real guitar amp, and where he was using the POD box.

Otis Rush: one of the ultimate Chicago blues guitarists (again, plays with the guitar strung upside down).

Albert King: Yeah, already mentioned, but dammit King Of The Blues Guitar and Live Wire/Blues Power are both fantastic albums.

Paul McCartney: sorry, but Paul totally wailed on Taxman, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band itself, The End and probably a bunch of other songs we don't know that's actually him playing the solos.

Elliott Easton: love his guitar work on The Cars record. Particularly love the solo on Since You're Gone, which was done entirely on one string and without picking a single note. I remember seeing a few pictures over the years of his guitar collection, which consists entirely of left handed instruments, including a lot of vintage axes. At one stage, he owned an early 60's Strat in burgundy mist (which is apparently rare enough as a right handed guitar, never mind lefty), with the original strings and tags and everything still on it. He said he finally sold it because he got tired of being it's custodian. I also remember Dean Zelinsky said one of the guitars he wished he hadn't let go was a custom V he made for Elliott which he ended up smashing onstage.

Marc Bonilla: I really only know him from the time I saw him play with that Keith Emerson guy at NEARfest, but I thought he did a great job, not just recreating stuff that Greg Lake had played on the original versions, but also adding his own thing to some of the songs. The E-bow thing he did at the beginning of Lucky Man, for instance, I thought was awesome.

[GuitarGeek]

Hendrix (who played lefty but with a right-handed guitar strung backwards) could play both left- and right-handed, according to Mitch Mitchell.

Actually, Jimi's guitars were usually strung like a conventional left handed guitar, ie with the high E closest to the floor. There's lots of video footage where you can see this. But it seems like he probably learned to play on a right handed guitar that wasn't restrung, so he could probably play with the guitar strung upside down, as well. I believe I read where Al Kooper also told of witnessing Jimi play the guitar right handed style while playing.

As far as having the dominant hand on the fingerboard, both Steve Morse and Rik Emmett have talked in interviews about how they feel that they're stronger players for this reason, than if they had proceeded playing southpaw style.

But I've also heard a lot of guitarists just can't get their head around playing "the wrong way". I've heard a lot of left handed guitarists say they tried to play right handed style, and couldn't deal with it. As soon as they flipped the guitar over (or got a left handed guitar), they made much faster progress. Apparently, there's "degrees" of ability to adapting under such circumstances, I imagine like how some left handed people adapt to writing with their right hand, where some can do it but others can't.

I suppose my experience doesn't count because I'm just an amateur musician, but my first guitar was a right handed instruments, and somehow I knew that the controls were supposed to be below the strings. I remember saying to my mom that I should have a left handed guitar, and she said, "Oh, it doesn't matter, you could play a right handed instrument". At the time, I didn't know about people like Otis Rush or Albert King (and I might not even have known about Jimi Hendrix) so it would have never occurred to me flip the guitar over and trying to play "upside down". I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

[GuitarGeek]

BTW, I recall reading about another guy...I think his name is Glenn Burtnick. He was the guy who replaced Tommy Shaw in the early 90's Styx configuration, then when Chuck Panozzo opted out of further touring with the band in the late 90's, he was brought back as a bassist. Anyhow, I recall reading an interview with him in a magazine in the mid 80's, before he became associated with Styx, and he talked about how much of a pain in the ass it was for him to even try out a new guitar. In the first place, he's left handed, but he also strings the guitars upside down. So even if there's a left handed example of whatever model he's interested in at a guitar store or whatever, it's strung "the wrong way around" for him.

I also remember Elliott Easton talking about how much of a pain it was getting a left handed version of whichever new model he was curious about. You'd have to pay extra to have the guitar built, wait an extra 9 months or whatever, and then you might not end up liking the guitar. I read one article where he said he tried to order an electric 12 string from a company that he chose to not identify. He said he went to the dealer in whichever city he was living in at the time, put down a deposit, waited like 8 or 9 months, and finally the guitar company told the store to "give the kid his money back", meaning they weren't interested in going to the trouble of making an (apparently) one off left handed guitar, but somehow it took them 9 months to figure out they didn't want to do it.

[WytchCrypt]

I can't believe I messed up in this thread. I listed Elliot Easton (who I still believe is fantastic and overlooked) but totally forgot about Tony Iommi. I'm changing my vote since besides being the guitarist who originally inspired me to pick up a guitar, his disability lead him to drastically downtune his guitar and start the whole new genre of doom metal or heavy metal or whatever you want to call those 1st Black Sabbath albums...ya, Elliot's a fine craftsman but Tony get's my vote

[Sterbus]

Mike Vennart, Oceansize (and who's Just released a wonderful solo album)

[Jefferson James]

...so anyone known right handed guitarist trying to take advantage of playing left-handed then?

I'm not sure I would go so far as to call myself a guitarist (although it's my primary instrument), but I am right-handed (for handwriting, using tools, masturbating, etc.) and play lefty guitars; I always felt it was natural that my dominant hand was doing the fret board work. Strumming and picking with my left hand comes way easier than trying to fret with it.

My friend Evie Sands plays lefty.

[Jefferson James]

Elliott Easton

Bought my first electric guitar (1980 Dean Baby V lefty, still have it) because Elliot was pictured with a Dean guitar on the back of the Panorama album (my favorite Cars album by far). I saw Elliot play with The New Cars (with Todd Rundgren fronting -- fantastic!) and was a bit bummed that every Cars guitar solo was exactly as on the albums. I understand how iconic and melodic Elliot's solos are so I wasn't expecting a shred fest, but I mean they were note-for-note, finger vibrato-for-finger vibrato. I would have enjoyed a little improvisation.

Name dropping again, but a friend of mine was in a band with Elliot and he's seen the lefty collection, and he says it's insane. He told me recently, "Once I reconstruct my friendship with Elliot, I'll see if I can get you a tour of his place."

Fingers on left hand crossed.

[trurl]

Elliot always struck me as having the same approach to solos as Tony Banks: I've thought about it, I've worked it out, it's composed and dammit that's what I'm playing. No improv there *lol*

[WytchCrypt]

Elliot always struck me as having the same approach to solos as Tony Banks: I've thought about it, I've worked it out, it's composed and dammit that's what I'm playing. No improv there *lol*

Ya, I think his finest composed solo is on "Tonight She Comes"...it's like to play anything else would just sound wrong

[GuitarGeek]

Elliot always struck me as having the same approach to solos as Tony Banks: I've thought about it, I've worked it out, it's composed and dammit that's what I'm playing. No improv there *lol*

I remember reading an interview with where he said that he did sometimes stretch out onstage, sort jamming a bit on the ride outs of some of the songs, he'd wail for a bit, then hit a familiar lick that would cue the rest of the band back into the coda to end the song. He then said that once the band started getting more into using sequencers, that ability went away, because you can't look at the sequencer and say "gimme another 12 bars" or whatever.

I imagine with The New Cars, either they were still shackled down to the MIDI sequencer clock, or maybe he'd just gotten into the logic that the audience wants to hear the classic songs the way they know them from the records. Makes me think of what Alex Lifeson once said about seeing Cream, and thinking, "You mean you guys can't play it like it is on the record". Or Rik Emmett saying that you can do whatever you want to the arrangement of a song onstage, but you don't want the audience to say "That's not the song I know from the record".

[Firth]

that would make sense

I suppose that lefties learning the right-handed are numerous... Statistically left handers are roughly 15-20% of the population , so you'd have to guess that there'd be the same %age amongst guitarists... and yet, we are not able to name many



indeed... maybe also that left-handed guitars are more expensive (made in little quantities so scale economies are not as good)

10% of females and 11% of males prefer the sinister hand.

[Firth]

Now we know why lefties are rare. It's because right handed dominance represents the balance of cooperative to competitive in society. However the ratio varies amongst sports and perhaps vocations. Competitive vocations would tend towards 50/50.

http://m.livescience.com/19968-study...ties-rare.html

[Onomatopoeic]

Actually, there are a LOT of people who are left handed that play the geetar so-called "right handed."

Along with the Frippster in this category is Mark Knopfler.

Left handed guitars are more expensive than right handed guitars and it's sometimes impossible to find a hard shell case for certain left handed guitars.

[ronmac]

I always chuckle at these threads. They always start with good intentions, but the "best" invariably turns into "every."

[Progbear]

I always chuckle at these threads. They always start with good intentions, but the "best" invariably turns into "every."

True. But there aren't many, you must admit.

In that vein, how about Audrey Swinburne from Mother Superior?

[GuitarGeek]

Actually, there are a LOT of people who are left handed that play the geetar so-called "right handed."

Along with the Frippster in this category is Mark Knopfler.
.

Yes, this was mentioned earlier in the thread. Mark's brother David is also left handed, so is Rik Emmett, Steve Morse, and probably a bunch of others I can't think of right now.

[Firth]

There have been left handers that have been persecuted over history and therefore lefties are the most "in the closet" group.

[No Pride]

Count me as another lefty who plays guitar righty. I only took guitar lessons from age 10 - 12 and unfortunately I never had a good teacher, but my first lesson was the most valuable one; that's when my teacher told me that I was holding the guitar upside down.

But many of us lefties are a weird bunch in that we (or at least several that I know, including myself) do some things righty. I throw, bat and bowl righty, but I write and eat lefty. I think God screwed up the wiring in our brains.

Back to topic: Jimi was my first choice, of course. But I'm glad to see the love for Elliot Easton. I was a moderate Cars fan at best, but I loved his solos! Every time I heard a new Cars tune on the radio, I waited, hoping there was going to be a guitar solo. More often than not, there was.

[Firth]

Lefties exist because even though societies pressured us for conformance, we had traits which were extraordinary and needed for societies survival. It could be in the future, with democracy and less filtering for conformance that the ratio evens out.

[WytchCrypt]

Count me as another lefty who plays guitar righty. I only took guitar lessons from age 10 - 12 and unfortunately I never had a good teacher, but my first lesson was the most valuable one; that's when my teacher told me that I was holding the guitar upside down.

But many of us lefties are a weird bunch in that we (or at least several that I know, including myself) do some things righty. I throw, bat and bowl righty, but I write and eat lefty. I think God screwed up the wiring in our brains.

I have a weird one for you...I throw a baseball with my right hand but a football with my left...probably would have been burned at the stake a few hundred years ago. True story, back in the early 60's I remember one of my cousins was a natural lefty and as an infant when he'd reach for things with his left hand, my good Catholic Auntie would slap his hand and make him use his right (because of course, the left is the devil's hand)

[Firth]

At least they didn't put a patch over your left eye, which is what a lady said her parents did.

[trurl]

I do everything righty, except for one thing.

[WytchCrypt]

At least they didn't put a patch over your left eye, which is what a lady said her parents did.

Ya, people definitely do odd and often cruel things to each other in the name of belief

[Supersonic Scientist]

But many of us lefties are a weird bunch in that we (or at least several that I know, including myself) do some things righty. I throw, bat and bowl righty, but I write and eat lefty. I think God screwed up the wiring in our brains.

This is me to a tee. I do everything righty EXCEPT write, eat & shoot pool..