I’m a lefty and I play left handed because that was just what felt natural to me. I am glad we are living in an age where there is a decent variety of lefty guitars out there.
@@xdboi9196 You can check Reverb because there's always quite a few lefty Vs (Gibson has a history of making lefty Vs every few years, unlike Explorers).
@@gabrieltalkington6389 Solar has only two lefty models. You have your choice of black, black, black or black for colors. None are V's. Piss off Ola, I'll spend my money elsewhere.
@@gabrieltalkington6389 There are some V's available, Dean is making them for sure. Solar just is not going to do anything much for lefties. Heard Ola say that himself. Other than that you have to take your chances on the used market.
Max. Totally disagree with this. Of course you can “force” a lefty to write or play lefty, but it is a difficult process and in most cases people won’t be as good as if they used their natural hands. For every successful converted guitarist, there are a hundred of lefties who gave up the guitar cause some idiot forced them to play right. People should do what they feel is natural. Long live Hendrix and Cobain!
Agreed 100% and notice it's ALWAYS a right-handed person making these claims. Some people are able to pull it off. That doesn't mean the other lefties are somehow failing at learning with a right-handed guitar. It's personal to your dexterity and preference.
@@hughmoss9884 There are reversed keyboard pianos. The hands in piano have the same motions for both left and right while the actions on a guitar are markedly different.
@@hughmoss9884 I'm not sure if you're somehow thinking that is an apples for apples comparison. It's not remotely the same. I'm a fluent pianist for over 40 years now. Both hands perform the exact same motions to press down the keys. Huge difference when one hand has to fret strings and the other has to manage picking techniques.
@@JoelWalker1229 , i was going to say this. The fretting hand is fine trying to play right handed. Picking and strumming is the part that completely falls a part for me when trying to play right handed.
@@fullbridgerectifier1593 the clock on his arm didn't give it away straight away? (-: i know, it's not uncommon to wear an armwatch on the 'wrong' hand, but when his intro image with the saab rolled around i saw. my suspicious mind confirmed.
Eric Olson Same here. I believe it’s down to the extent that you’re lefty. Some people are more so than others. I’m right at the left hand side of the spectrum. I can’t coordinate my right hand for picking and strumming.
@@TheWinterwraith That's what it comes down to - I think my left hand could work the fretboard without a problem, but my right arm strums like a dead fish.
Yup same for me. The thing that a lot of people overlook is that - just because certain lefties are able to play right-handed does not mean it's possible for all lefties. Some people are adamant that this is true and they're simply wrong. The person has to have a certain level of natural ambidexterity for their picking hand which would be their offhand in that scenario. I would be thrilled to have that ability since it opens all of those awesome guitar choices out there. But, even though I do have some specific ambidextrous aspects with other things, I did start out trying to force myself to play right-handed and it was on a solid quality Fender MIM strat that was setup well. So, I know it was my own limitations that hindered me from learning right-handed and not the instrument. Some southpaws are just meant to play their natural left-handed stance and that's okay.
i quit playing guitar when i was 14 because i went for lessons using right handed guitar and the best way to describe the experience was like writing a long essay using your non dominant hand.. i felt like i just had no talent for guitars even though i was really passionate about it. fast forward 11 years, now at 25, i’m getting a left handed guitar and i’m so excited to learn it all over again the way it feels natural for me! :)
I never had a problem playing right handed. I like having my dominant hand on the fretboard side. I never had trouble playing leads. I would have a bigger problem playing left handed in lessons, and to turn everything around in my head. I did struggle with rhythm for a while. Picking didn't feel awkward to me though. Maybe I just lack rhythm.
I'm a leftie and learning comlpicated strumming took me some time to master playing while playing a right handed guitar. One day just to experiment I tried flipping the guitar and was shocked that it took me about an hour with my left hand to learn what had taken me two weeks with my right.
I experienced this just this week (I'm left-handed playing right-handed guitars for a decade or so now). I flipped my guitar and while of course my right hand struggled a lot with the neck my left hand felt super natural with picking. Now I'm seriously thinking about re-stringing my guitar left-handed and learning guitar from scratch lmao.
@@guitarampmodeling8698 Its the same case with PC gaming with a left handed mouse. People who are left handed should really try doing most things with dominant hand.
I'm right-handed with almost everything except playing guitar. Before I started, I held both a right-handed and a left-handed. The left just felt natural to me. I don't think I'd ever be able to play right-handed. Can't imagine trying to control the neck with my left hand.
You made the same mistake every right handed guitarist makes because they never tried learning with the wrong hand. Your dominant hand is used for rhythm for a reason. Not just on guitar but most instruments, the large dexterous rhythmic movements are done by the dominant hand and the simpler movements are done by the non-dominant hand. In the case of guitar, the picking hand is actually doing the more complicated movements but you don't realize it because it's you're so used to using your dominant hand and it's not as flashy as the fretting hand. Your dominant hand is the hand you've spent your entire life keeping a rhythm with and the muscles are better trained. An hour or so of guitar practice everyday is never going to get you to that same level and you're just creating an obstacle because first you have to learn to stop yourself from trying to keep the picking rhythm with what is now your fretting hand. Arguably, you'll always be worse at rhythm because at least from the studies I've seen that aren't behind a paywall, it physically doesn't seem to be possible to train your timing in your non-dominant hand to the same level as your dominant hand or at least not in the time period the studies took place though it does get close. How ambidextrous you are is another factor. Some left handed people are more ambidextrous than others and prefer their right hand for some tasks so they don't have as much of an issue learning with the right hand but that doesn't apply to every left handed person. From my own experience trying to learn right handed for a week, trying to strum with my right hand with any kind of rhythm was impossible and my right hand kept following whatever my left hand was doing or just outright stopping when I tried to fret something. When I flipped over the guitar and tried it left handed, I blew past all the progress I made in a week. I still wasn't good since I was a beginner but all those issues I had went away instantly. I ended up with a preference for flipped right handed guitars so it worked out.
Correct. I have to play left handed, but I write with my right hand, I bat right handed, I kick right footed, but I throw left handed. Playing guitar right handed was never an option for me. The dexterity does not exist in my left hand to finger chords and the right cannot strum or pick. Simple as that.
ViviSectia amen 🙏 brother i agree with you sometimes it isn’t a choice you have to go with what’s natural,for me playing lefty was the the most naturally thing to do,i knew that my right hand 🖐 didn’t have the dexterity to play chords or fret notes 🎶🎼 i’d be struggling to learn anything but as soon as i started playing left handed i learned all the basics in about a month, i just had to restring whatever guitars 🎸 i was using,so happy 😃 taylor & martin offers many models left handed
@Jesse Tragedie Thats BADASS Sir! Myself... a Jackson JS-32L equipped with an Original Floyd F-1000 (From Germany), Top of line (Pots, Switches, and Wiring), Gold hardware Locking Tuners, Jason Becker "Perpetual Burn" pup for the Bridge/ Seymour Duncan JB pup in the Neck. Turned a $350-$400 AXE into a $1,300 DEMON! Shred on my fellow LEFTY!!! 🤘🤘🤘
@Jesse Tragedie Here's the thing My good Friend!... its NOT the Jason Becker "PUP" that creates the tone!... its the MIDDLE Position of the 3-way toggle that creates a "1 OF A KIND SOUND" i have NEVER HEARD b4!!! Combining the "Jazz-Neck PUP, with this Obscure Becker PUP" makes me wonder what OTHER neck position PUPS sound like combined.
Finally some love for us lefties. My 2 favorite brands Fender and Squier don't make all models available lefty 😕 they would sell many more than they already do if they did.
My first guitar 18 months ago was a Squier. That was the only left handed guitar they had at Guitar Center when I first started taking lessons. Then my dad bought me the Wolf that Guitar Max reviewed after that.
I bought my boyfriend a used Mexican Fender Strat a couple months ago. I think it's a 2015, if memory serves. Fender absolutely makes left handed guitars. So does Squire, for that matter. He was looking at a left Squire Telly before I found the Strat.
@@RC-bs6eb Yes I know they both make lefties, many of them are not available lefty. I collect electric guitars and know which company make specific models.
I actually learned how to play Lefty after 20 years of playing right handed. My brother (on the spectrum) was wanting to learn how to play, but was kind of discouraged, I think, from how fast I learned everything vs how he was struggling with it. So, in solidarity, I got a left handed guitar at a pawn shop and struggled with him til we could both play highway to hell.
Your story is way more endearing than mine but I also switched after 20 years. Lefties if you're reading this: Switch to left-handed as soon as possible. Doesn't matter how good you are right-handed. I learned both ways to conclusively figure this out. I played right-handed for 20 years. And not to brag, but I got good, better than most people ever do, mostly due to heaps of practice. I enjoyed the whole "local legend" thing, being considered one of the best in my area and who everyone says can make it. All that jazz. I was happy. In fact I thought everyone had it backward and that I had an advantage due to fretting with my dominant hand. I topped out way before I wanted to though. By my peak I could play most of pieces like Paul Gilbert's Curse of Castle Dragon but it felt really difficult. At a certain point I just couldn't improve, even practicing 8 hours per day. Suddenly I decided to learn left-handed just to know. Probably the hardest thing I ever did. It's harder than learning the first time because there's less sense of joy in learning stuff you can already do anyway. The first year was a bit hellish. During the second year something began to click and it felt like being on guitar steroids. I was improving so quickly. In about two and a half years I was better than I was after 20 years of right-handed playing. It messed with me big time. I'm still rapidly improving. Now I have to look back and ask myself where I could be now if I had done this for 20 years. For all I know, given my constant practice I would be one of the best players around right now. Is what it is though. Don't let guys like Batio confuse you. They are proof that you can shred your balls off playing the wrong way, not that you have the same potential either way. Batio himself has even said he thinks he would have been better left-handed now. He discovered this dabbling with it as he infamously has but could never force himself to totally relearn. Also notice that he has an incredibly awkward picking technique. The super rooted nature of it allows him to reach those speeds but also kills his control over dynamics. Like I said, I could shred the other way too, but getting where I was in 20 years in two years isn't nothing. At the end of the day there's a reason right-handed guitars are made the way they are, and left-handed people need the same playing field to reach max potential. At the end of the day if you want to know what the difference is like, it's that playing the wrong way feels like a series of tricks. Sweeping is a trick. Alternate picking is this matter of synchronizing two hands, etc. Playing the correct way all that goes out the window. You just feel like you play the damn notes. Haha. And you gradually play them faster and faster. And it always feels really easy to do with less chance of messing up. I never could have known this before, but now I've realized playing the wrong way feels a lot like playing the right way while drunk. And yes I can still do it. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I didn't want to be all talk so I just put in the work to answer this old question once and for all. Night and day difference. Before anyone says it just feels wrong, duh. You're a beginner that way. People forget how difficult the beginning was. It took over a year for it not to feel weird so much as picking up the neck of the guitar with the other hand at all.
I started left handed on acoustic years ago and actually tried switching to right handed without success. It felt terrible and not worth the pain of starting over. During the pandemic I decided to give electrics a try. I've had some luck with lefty electrics, but as with acoustics I have to say - The Discrimination against left handed people is real - limited choice and sometime small details fall short - basically makers don't really give a shit. Sometimes the lefty guitars brands are fully thought out and other brands not. My first lefty electric guitar was Fender Strat and overall a nice guitar except they put right handed knobs on the tone and volume pots so the numbers didn't correspond properly to up and down - same with the Fender Telecaster. They are not the only ones to do this. However some lefty guitars like Gibson and PRS actually put left-handed pots in - they go all out. The cheaper guitars are all probably going to use right handed knobs on lefty guitars. I think Rickenbacker is a good example of the Worst lefty guitar maker - the "R" on a lefty is upside down. How shitty is that? 100% I'm not sure why right handed people expect left handed people to switch to play right handed. It's discrimination even if you don't intend for it to be.
I'm right handed in almost every aspect in my life. That said, playing the guitar "left handed" felt more natural to me. As a kid, I would instinctly hold a guitar the "left handed" way and be corrected to hold it the other way.
I am a lefty that started guitar because of Tony Iommi, love his music and I never once thought about playing righty. I mostly play SGs and the are fairly easy to come by. My next guitar however will be a Schecter KM6 MK3 Keith Merro Standard. I am going to put John Birch pickups in it and DOOM until I drop 😈
So thé point is go Against your nature and play like à righty cause There are more guitars ?!!!! NO we are and we will remain lefty cause.... Thats what we are!! No matter the market ! Michaël batio couldn t find lefty guitars thats why Hé changed! Those days are over !! We can live together guys !! 😇😘
Lefties if you're reading this: Switch to left-handed as soon as possible. Doesn't matter how good you are right-handed. I learned both ways to conclusively figure this out. I played right-handed for 20 years. And not to brag, but I got good, better than most people ever do, mostly due to heaps of practice. I enjoyed the whole "local legend" thing, being considered one of the best in my area and who everyone says can make it. All that jazz. I was happy. In fact I thought everyone had it backward and that I had an advantage due to fretting with my dominant hand. I topped out way before I wanted to though. By my peak I could play most of pieces like Paul Gilbert's Curse of Castle Dragon but it felt really difficult. At a certain point I just couldn't improve, even practicing 8 hours per day. Suddenly I decided to learn left-handed just to know. Probably the hardest thing I ever did. It's harder than learning the first time because there's less sense of joy in learning stuff you can already do anyway. The first year was a bit hellish. During the second year something began to click and it felt like being on guitar steroids. I was improving so quickly. In about two and a half years I was better than I was after 20 years of right-handed playing. It messed with me big time. I'm still rapidly improving. Now I have to look back and ask myself where I could be now if I had done this for 20 years. For all I know, given my constant practice I would be one of the best players around right now. Is what it is though. Don't let guys like Batio confuse you. They are proof that you can shred your balls off playing the wrong way, not that you have the same potential either way. Batio himself has even said he thinks he would have been better left-handed now. He discovered this dabbling with it as he infamously has but could never force himself to totally relearn. Also notice that he has an incredibly awkward picking technique. The super rooted nature of it allows him to reach those speeds but also kills his control over dynamics. Like I said, I could shred the other way too, but getting where I was in 20 years in two years isn't nothing. At the end of the day there's a reason right-handed guitars are made the way they are, and left-handed people need the same playing field to reach max potential. At the end of the day if you want to know what the difference is like, it's that playing the wrong way feels like a series of tricks. Sweeping is a trick. Alternate picking is this matter of synchronizing two hands, etc. Playing the correct way all that goes out the window. You just feel like you play the damn notes. Haha. And you gradually play them faster and faster. And it always feels really easy to do with less chance of messing up. I never could have known this before, but now I've realized playing the wrong way feels a lot like playing the right way while drunk. And yes I can still do it. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I didn't want to be all talk so I just put in the work to answer this old question once and for all. Night and day difference. Before anyone says it just feels wrong, duh. You're a beginner that way. People forget how difficult the beginning was. It took over a year for it not to feel weird so much as picking up the neck of the guitar with the other hand at all.
As someone who tried to learn right handed, I can attest that it’s not as simple as choosing. The guitar teacher I had saw me struggling and one week he brought an unstrung guitar with no pickguard and asked me to pick it up. I immediately held it left handed. He suggested that my mom get me (I was 8 years old) a left handed guitar and I was able to learn in a perfect mirror image with him and I excelled way more quickly. 34 years later, and I still can’t play righty. I just picked up the ukulele and was going to learn righty, but had the same problem. All of my rhythm is in my left hand. So, it might be a choice for some lefties, but not all. And for those of us who need to play left handed, I am ever grateful for companies that make them (and even more thankful for the companies that don’t up-charge). After seeing your review on the Wolf TC1, I wanted to grab that lefty on their site, but it was gone by the time I was ready to buy. Bummer. Just ordered a Starshine (Zuwei) that looks like a classic ES-345 (with a varitone). That would cost me about $10k from the Gibson custom shop. This one is $500. lol
Being left handed and always have played left handed .I never succumbed to the pressure to switch to righty. I have played a few right handed guitars upside down and will tell you it was difficult but not it as a right handed player trying one of my guitars. When I started I had to buy a right handed and have it converted. I have a Fender Standard Strat that is killer and had a Gibson Les Paul Studio lefty that was smooth as glass. Too bad I had bills to pay and it was sacrificed. I play a Martin D-16GTL , beautiful. And the 1st decent guitar I got and still have was a 1983 Takamine G330(when they made them in Japan). Had a luthier set it up for lefty and still play it today. It was difficult coming up but perseverance won out. I have a 1966 Tele Star converted to lefty I got when I was 14. I'm saying yes, it still is hard for true lefties. But, there are better choices and avenues available now than when I came up.I am now 67 and still rockin'!
Oh wow! Thank you so much!!!! You are so right! My Wolfe is great! I love ESP! I have an ESP Arrow I got for my bday last year that ESP directly helped with. There is a good choice in left guitars but no one really stocks them. I can almost never go into a store and try it out. By the way, I hear all the time I am playing my guitar wrong because people don't understand that I am a lefty. Thank you again so much! You made my day! Back to practicing I go!
I’m a lefty who plays left handed because my brain wouldn’t allow me to learn right handed 20 years ago, another good company for lefties is Gordon Smith but they are £800 - £2000 depending on what options you choose, every guitar can be configured as a lefty all made in the UK great instruments.
Don't forget Harley Benton! They have quite a few lefty models! A funny aside about lefty players, there's also Eric Gales, a born righty who plays left-handed - but DOESN'T flip the strings. He learned how to play a right-handed guitar as a lefty with NO modifications. :)
I'm a lefty and totally left side dominant. When I first picked up a guitar at around 7 or 8yo, I held it left handed and started messing around. I was told to turn it around and play, but to me it felt like trying to ride a bicycle backwards with my feet on the handle bars, face on the seat and hands on the pedals. I tried for weeks, then gave up and strung it left handed. I still tell ALL students of mine to LEARN RIGHT HANDED and if they can, Great. The world hasn't changed enough for us lefties.
Oh, Taylor makes lefties the same price point as their rights and if I'm not mistaken, you can get any model in a lefty. I have an acoustic Taylor 310ce and an electric T3b. Some others I have are a Japanese lefty Fender Strat, a Jackson Dinky with Floyd Rose trem, Voyage Air acoustic folding travel lefty, and a Rogue acoustic (beater) lefty that surprisingly has great intonation and no buzzes.
Max, I've played guitar (for my own entertainment) for more than 50 years. I'm left-handed. I started music education playing keyboard ( Hammond A103 organ) when I was about 10 years old. I started teaching myself guitar, at about 13 years old. My older brother played the guitar, so there was always a right-handed guitar in the house. My experience playing keyboard, your left hand is your rhythm hand. Strumming with the left hand seemed more natural to me. I learned to play a right-handed guitar upside down, and played that way until last year. The Covid 19 shutdown seemed like the perfect time to learn to play an actual left-handed guitar. I'm an old dog, the new tricks aren't coming easily.
Many many times I have tamper with the thought of switching to a right handed instrument and learned all over again just to play at guitar story with all the guitars I can find but then I remember I don't like people touching my instruments so I get over it pretty quickly.
DO IT. Lefties if you're reading this: Switch to left-handed as soon as possible. Doesn't matter how good you are right-handed. I learned both ways to conclusively figure this out. I played right-handed for 20 years. And not to brag, but I got good, better than most people ever do, mostly due to heaps of practice. I enjoyed the whole "local legend" thing, being considered one of the best in my area and who everyone says can make it. All that jazz. I was happy. In fact I thought everyone had it backward and that I had an advantage due to fretting with my dominant hand. I topped out way before I wanted to though. By my peak I could play most of pieces like Paul Gilbert's Curse of Castle Dragon but it felt really difficult. At a certain point I just couldn't improve, even practicing 8 hours per day. Suddenly I decided to learn left-handed just to know. Probably the hardest thing I ever did. It's harder than learning the first time because there's less sense of joy in learning stuff you can already do anyway. The first year was a bit hellish. During the second year something began to click and it felt like being on guitar steroids. I was improving so quickly. In about two and a half years I was better than I was after 20 years of right-handed playing. It messed with me big time. I'm still rapidly improving. Now I have to look back and ask myself where I could be now if I had done this for 20 years. For all I know, given my constant practice I would be one of the best players around right now. Is what it is though. Don't let guys like Batio confuse you. They are proof that you can shred your balls off playing the wrong way, not that you have the same potential either way. Batio himself has even said he thinks he would have been better left-handed now. He discovered this dabbling with it as he infamously has but could never force himself to totally relearn. Also notice that he has an incredibly awkward picking technique. The super rooted nature of it allows him to reach those speeds but also kills his control over dynamics. Like I said, I could shred the other way too, but getting where I was in 20 years in two years isn't nothing. At the end of the day there's a reason right-handed guitars are made the way they are, and left-handed people need the same playing field to reach max potential. At the end of the day if you want to know what the difference is like, it's that playing the wrong way feels like a series of tricks. Sweeping is a trick. Alternate picking is this matter of synchronizing two hands, etc. Playing the correct way all that goes out the window. You just feel like you play the damn notes. Haha. And you gradually play them faster and faster. And it always feels really easy to do with less chance of messing up. I never could have known this before, but now I've realized playing the wrong way feels a lot like playing the right way while drunk. And yes I can still do it. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I didn't want to be all talk so I just put in the work to answer this old question once and for all. Night and day difference. Before anyone says it just feels wrong, duh. You're a beginner that way. People forget how difficult the beginning was. It took over a year for it not to feel weird so much as picking up the neck of the guitar with the other hand at all.
I'm a lefty, and I started playing as lefty because I would naturally get the picks with my left hand. It was OK until I started playing some fast metal stuff, were my picking hand would "choke". My guitar teacher said he had seen this before with another lefty, and it stopped when he switched to righty. I did this experiment and played as righty for 1 or 2 years. I did learned things faster, and hadn't that choking problem, which made me play metal way better. But I had difficult remembering the songs I learned, which I never had problems as lefty, and especially with any song with any swing in the picking hand, cause I couldn't feel the groovy as righty. In resume, I went back to be a lefty because I'm more a Classic Rock player than a Metal player, which requires more feeling and groovy, things I'm better as lefty. If I kept as a extreme Metal player, continue as a righty would be better. And the "feel the song" issue also made me come back to be a lefty, that's what made me want to learn guitar, and I kinda lost that as righty, maybe because my brain has this feeling more developed in one side than the other. As a righty things were definitely more mechanic.
Damn, dawg, you learned how to play both right AND left handed guitars? That's fucking amazing! I'm hoping to get there some day but, as of right now, it feels a lot like trying to run up and touch the horizon line lol. So far, I can strum the open D, Em, E, A, and Am chords left handed pretty consistently. I've been trying for like 2 months 😂. I honestly thought I'd pick it up A LOT faster because I was truly ambidextrous growing up--you know, as in both hands could do everything equally well. I'm still that way to a large extent, but these days my handwriting from my left hand is very noticeably worse than from my right. Sucks I wasn't able to just automatically play both ways :(
@@RC-bs6eb it wasn't as fast as you liked ou predicted, but things are going faster than when you started, right? I think it's because learning guitar has 2 major points, the mental and the physical. When you switch sides, you keep much of the mental knowledge, the tricks, the excercises, the does and don'ts, and that makes things faster. It was that way for me at least, I already knew how to improve some points by my experiences with the other hand. But them there is the physical/mechanical side, which I think is slow no matter what. You have to build things slowly, step by step, limited by what you body can do, despite your brain being miles ahead. And that feeling of "I know what and how to do it, but my body can't do it and can't do almost nothing that I tell it to do" is what makes you feel like things are slow. Like when you are in the gym and takes 2 weeks to increase your exercise by 1 repetition, 2 complete weeks for a single step that mentally seems so close, so simple, you can visualize it so easil. But I tell ya, even with this problem, your physical progress is probably faster than you think. During my switching phase I was really frustrated I couldn't play some musics as righty that I considered pretty easy as lefty, till a friend of mine saw me playing those musics and told me "you can already play that as righty in that short time????"
Tiago, left and right sidedness is much more complex in humans than many people think. That is why generalisations such as such and such a person writes with their left hand yet plays guitar with their right hand, therefore everyone should only learn guitar right handed - are not correct for many people.
I am left-handed and learned to play left-handed. I actually recently bought the Schecter Reaper FR6 lefty as my first "big boy" guitar after playing a cheaper Ibanez for 4 years. I initially tried to learn right-handed but I already had the feel and comfort of lefty from playing guitar hero left handed for so many years. I am happy to see so many brands making not only lefty's but adding signatures and color options other than black and white. Although I would like to see an expansion of the hardware market for things like lefty tuners, nuts and bridges.
I’m a lefty and just watched your video. Let me just say a few things. First, yes I wish I woulda learned righty right away. Technically I did, I played a righty guitar upside down for like three years before I finally figured out to change the nut and make it actually a lefty guitar which comes with its own set of problems, ie knobs out of reach or bumped continuously while playing, output jack location ie you need a 90’ plug usually, especially when the jack is on the front. Finally when I got a real actual lefty, (now granted this is way back before the influx of cheap, decent quality China products, and I paid a premium for a low quality guitar relatively speaking. Nowadays things are better for us “right challenged players” with selection and quality. The higher end guitars are still sorta special order ie fender, Gibson and are still more expensive but worth it IMO. Now I gave you the woes of lefty now let me offer a few of the upsides if the lefty world. First off for learning from or teaching to if you are righty and learn from or teach a lefty it is a mirror image that makes movements and fingering much easier to decipher. You mentioned the symmetry of the stage presence with your lefty bassist, another pro. Now thes last three or four are total examples of why lefty guitarists are not only important but crucial to the rock world!!! 1 Jimi Hendrix. 2 Toni Iommi. 3 curt kobain. 4 paul Mcartney. MIC DROP. try guitar without any of these guys? No thanks. I’ve made my point. How about a tee shirt 2 x cuz ima big guy too. That’d be cool and let me know you read your comments. Love your channel watch a lot!!
I’m left handed, and play poorly both ways. Historically, left handed guitars were hard to find, and either the cheapest, or most expensive options. It’s nice to see that changing.
It's not a matter of choice. I'm left handed and I feel more comfortable that way. It was natural for me holding the guitar with the right hand and and the pick in the left one.
My best friend is left handed and he’s been playing a right handed guitar for over 10 years. He chose to play right handed since it was more comfortable for him.
Max you forgot about Thomann. Fellow lefty guitarist they have a great selection of left handed guitars available. I’m waiting for my 3 Harley Benton guitars to arrive with a 1x12 cab that cost $600 roughly with shipping. Your video took me down a Thomann rabbit hole of quality affordable guitars. Thanks max!
I started playing Right-handed originally, but I switched to Left after a few months, and I was able to readjust in less than a week, and it felt a lot more natural for me.
I'm a left handed guitarist who's thankful for those companies that offer left handed guitars. Although I write with my right hand, at the age of 15 I picked up a guitar and held it left handed. It just felt correct to me. Now at the age of 51, trying to relearn guitar is out of the question. (^_^)
I am left handed and I also play lefty so I really appreciate this video! There are a lot of choices so its nice to know which companies cater a little more to leftys. I have a sawtooth and firefly 338. It took me forever to find the 338 in lefty. Love this...ty.
Getting a left handed model has always been a struggle. Im used to the lack of availability of brabds and models. Charvel and EVH also make a few lefty models for the shredders out there. Ibanez used to make a lot of left handed guitars but the range they offer has decreased in recent years. I should know, I'm still waiting for lefty JS and S series models to be released again.
I know what you mean, dude. We ended up having to shop around for a lefty mid to high range guitar for my boyfriend--his first guitar--a few months ago. During the pandemic and the accompanying lockdown. Yeah, super fun. I DO NOT like spending anything over a couple hundred dollars on an instrument without first holding it and inspecting it at close range, ya know? Well, that wasn't an option, like, at all. I was sweating bullets and bordering on full blown paranoia until the damn thing arrived and I was able to verify it's condition and that it's not a counterfeit. Then I turned around and ordered a used Gibson online because I found one for the right price 🙄. Jfc, that one was even harder on me because of the higher price tag lmao but it all worked out, thank goodness. Before anyone asks why I insisted on at least a midrange model for a beginner, it pretty much boils down to my own laziness. Cheap "beginner" guitars have a tendency to not be especially playable right out of the box and need a full setup + sometimes fret work. They're more likely to have tuning issues + other assorted headaches. Guess who would be the one having to fix all that shit? Not him....
Fast Sloth - try Jackson bro. I’ve bought 2 online. A RR and a soloist. I bought my son, who’s a righty, a JS 11. $149! All of them came straight out of the box, in tune and ready to play. Great guitars. Hope this helps.
@@stuckie3916 Jackson literally has 7 models available, and 3 are entry level (JS), 2 are mid-range (X), and 2 are the actual good import line (Pro). Hope you like black... ESP/LTD and Schecter are the way to go for mid-high range import stuff if you're into rock/metal styles, and Kiesel is S-tier if you want a semi-custom build for the price of a Fender USA.
Kylie McInnes - all about your preference I guess. I prefer the sound and feel of Jackson’s. Not to mention the look of them. I’ve always loved the headstock of Jackson’s. To each his own I suppose.
When my parents took me to get my first guitar back in 2000, I’ll never forget how the guy at my local music store told us that I should learn how to play right handed. I literally tried and couldn’t get my coordination in place to do anything correctly. Eventually I got myself a left handed guitar and then everything was as smooth as butter. I applaud the other natural lefty’s that were able to learn to play right handed, but I just couldn’t get a handle on it.
The decision to play either left or right handed is an individual decision. There are various degrees of hand orientation. Some who are extremely left handed can only play left handed while others can adapt to playing right handed. Most all major guitar manufacturers make left handed instruments with some limiting models and/or features.
I'm a right-handed person who injured a tendon in my left hand so I was forced to relearn guitar left handed. It was a goddamn shame Luckily the schecter sls was the exact guitar I wanted anyway.
I’m left handed and when I first picked up a friends right handed guitar I instantly flipped it over. It felt so natural for me. I saw a video explaining why lefties want to play that way and it was because you want to hold a pick in the same hand you hold a pencil. When I bought my first guitar I switched the strings around and started learning to play through the Alfred and Hal Leonard books. After 6 months I started taking lessons and the first thing my instructor told me was that I wasn’t that good and I should switch to right handed playing because left handed guitars were hard to find when I started playing in the 70’s. It took me another 6 months for it to start to feel natural for me. It was worth it in the long run because I play mostly finger style now and use my nails for a brighter sound. The nails on my left hand don’t grow well and constantly split, but my right hand nails grow perfect. I will say that if left handed guitars were more readily available back then I would have told my instructor to stuff it.
I just started playing.. left-handed. In fact I made mine. This one you see. I tried to learn before right-handed, but gave up. Now I'm having a great time learning, but with my left- handed guitar that I made. Thanks for all the info on companies that make good quality lefty stuff.
I'm left handed, and my dad's right handed, we both play left handed guitar, and right handed bass. I have a strat & acoustic (and soon a les paul), my dad has a 1996 Jagstang, which I've adopted as my own, and he also has a Fender Jazzmaster, which we share. We can also play the only 2 right handed acoustics in the house (kind-of). The reason I play Left handed, is not only because I'm naturally left handed, but the first time I played guitar, which was my dad's Jagstang in Left Handed, this trained those specific hands to those roles, so when my dad took my to Guitar Center to help me pick out my first guitar (sunburst strat), and he had me tryout both a Left-Handed & a Right-Handed, and because of my first few playing experiences, I chose left handed, due to it being more comfortable.
I started playing right handed guitar upside down so I play lefty and have some nice left handed guitars now days so I was born to play lefty Rock On!!
I'm righty who had to learn to play Lefty because I was shot 5 times and one round struck my left hand. After my left hand was damaged I couldn't work the fret with my left hand. I can tell you it has been a long road but after several years I can play guitar left handed, although I truly believe I won't be as good as if I could play righty because I'm missing the natural smooth rhythm of my right hand.
I’m the most left handed person that’s ever lived. I went into a guitar shop in 1994, picked up a right handed Strat, and couldn’t even hold it without almost dropping it. The salesman said to flip it around like Jimi. It felt sooo much better! I’ve been playing lefty guitars ever since.
I tried learning how to play righty three times. Once as an early teen, again as an older teen, then again as a young adult. Each time it was awkward and frustrating and I could not progress. Once I'd joined the working world and had some scratch, I went to a local guitar shop and tried to noodle with a righty. This was my third attempt. The proprietor was an affable guy. He was chatting me up and I mentioned that trying to play righty was so awkward for me. He told me he was a lefty, too, and that he couldn't pick up righty, either, but there he was selling nearly nothing but them. He had a couple lefties, but they were too expensive for me, so he actually sold me an acoustic that he had at home, using his shop warranty to get it replaced by the manufacturer. I still have that guitar, today, and holding it felt so natural, with none of the awkwardness of holding a righty. I'm certainly not a great guitarist, but I'm decent, and I never would have gotten even that far, otherwise. I know that this is the internet and that no one really cares, but thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
I can play both left and right handed guitar . The switch was really really weird at first but easy. it took me 3 months to relearn what took me 3 years to learn to play on guitar. So it’s not that bad of a switch but you’ll have to play it everyday to get comfortable.
I'm a lefty guitar player who learned to play using a right-handed guitar upside down. I own several left-handed guitars, but I changed the nuts to right-handed ones so I could install the strings in the upside down pattern that I learned and still use after many years. I do use bar chords heavily, but that is most comfortable for me. My favorite guitar is a right-handed Dean Frana electric acoustic which I flip as that model is a double cut and allows me to easily reach the higher frets. My other electrics are all Harley Bentons which I have modified by upgrading the nuts, pickups and tuners.
I am glad someone mentioned Kiesel. While not a budget guitar, they can be an affordable US made guitar and most of their guitars can be built left handed.
00:49 I've been arguing that point for years and I really believe it. Both hands do important things and I'm not buying this "picking is the same as writing" argument. The earliest guitar inventor could have oriented the instrument the other way from the start and no one would be the wiser.
I'm right handed and didn't know I was playing with the "wrong hand" until someone pointed it out. I said "oh", flipped it on my lap, and played easily right handed. I still play left because it's easier on my broke wrist but yknow. Thanks Hendrix!
Man, I'm glad you addressed this often overlooked issue! It's the same for many things. I'm right handed and I've been a beer league hockey goalie for 15 or 20 years. Goalies learn to shoot left because of how the standard equipment was made years ago. When I play any other position I have to use a lefty stick even though I'm right handed because I never learned to shoot with a righty stick and it's near impossible to learn now.
I first started out playing right-handed, 4 decades ago. I did it for 6 years. My fretting hand was fine. Picking, especially alternate picking, was just not coming along. My right hand just always felt so uncoordinated. It was almost like it was some sort of birth defect. It didn't matter how much I practiced. It just wasn't happening. 6 years into playing right-handed, I walked into a music store and saw a left-handed guitar. I said to myself, "I need to see what that feels like." I started trem-picking on one note, and it was faster than I could ever pick right-handed. It just felt more natural. So I sold my right-handed Charvel and ordered a left-handed Charvel. It was very difficult to start over, but I knew I had to. 4 decades later, I'm still playing left-handed and never looked back. So not every left hander can just pull off playing right-handed well.
I'm a lefty and played for over 15 years and been playing right handed for about a year now just for fun, it was really hard in the beginning, my finger tips were so soft and had zero control, but I can say that my finger tips on my left hand are harder now and I have ok control, still really hard but I'm better than I was when I started, a very interesting experience, you become a little more aware of your normal playing style as well; when you try to learn to play the other way you realise how damn hard it is to play guitar and I think we all tend to forget that.
No we don't choose to play left handed, I tried right handed and my coordination was hopeless but as soon as I turned the guitar the other way around and played it left handed it felt a lot easier and more natural even with the strings upside down. I read that Paul McCartney struggled to play right handed until he saw a picture of Slim Whitman playing left handed and realised that you could play it that way. There are different degrees of left and right handedness so it varies from person to person. Some players get used to playing right handed guitars upside down and have left handed guitars strung right handed - Albert King, Otis Rush, Dick Dale etc Eric Gales is a right hander who plays left handed I've met a couple of guitarists who were ambidextrous and could play equally well left or right handed, but that's rare. According to Wikipedia, Dave Kilminster, who played with Roger Waters and Keith Emerson, is left-handed, but after damaging his right wrist in a go-kart accident started playing guitar right-handed. He has since said he is ambidextrous. Getting hold of left handed guitars is difficult. Even if a manufacturer like Schecter makes them left handed it's rare to find more than a few lefties in any guitar shop, so trying before you buy isn't an option and we often have to order them off the internet and hope we get on with the feel of the neck etc. And of course they're more expensive and seem to be made in batches so may not be available despite being listed on the maker's website. And you'd better like black paint
I got an old beater acoustic from a pawn shop as a kid. It was right handed, and I didn't even know guitars were oriented for certain hands. I was always frustrated with it and gave up, until I was 16 and received a left handed Epiphone SG for my birthday. It was like flipping on a light switch, and I've been playing ever since. It's kind of a bummer that a good number of the models I am interested aren't available left-handed, and they are almost always at least $100 more than the right-handed variant but I'm still satisfied being able to play. Thanks for the video!
One of the advantages of being a lefty is that if your teacher is in front of you, you are a mirror image of each other. I can only imagine what right handed learners see when they learn from a right handed teacher. Everything is opposite. The downside is that chord shapes in books are normally written for right handed people. You have to do a bit of a mental flip when reading them but you get used to it.
Hey Max, thanks for the exposure on a subject that often gets ignored, brushed off, marginalized or even treated with passive hostility... Saying that though, marginalizing behavior is really the far less appealing aspect of the guitar industry by comparison. It's sad really that even in our daily lives as a species, humans often look at even the most trivial and mundane "differences" in people's traits almost with an air of "undesirability". Talk about progress! If the guitar industry made 12% of all inventory left handed, no one who played lefty, either voluntarily or not... Would ever complain about the stagnant repetitive nature of the left handed sections of our local and online shops. I am a left handed player. I was born with birth defects that caused underdeveloped bones, tendons, and muscles in my hands and feet. I'm not ever really sure if I was born lefty or not but due to my birth defects I definitely had to adapt as I grew up to do most dominant handed things with my left hand. This also includes how I must make the most of what each of my hands can or can't do when it comes to the manipulation of a guitar and it's strings.
Max, I am a left handed player, been subscribed along time with you. The world of left handed guitars is not an easy one. Schecter seems to have the best selection. Always wanted a left handed SG Gibson custom, but I don't want to shell out my soul to own it. It always felt natural to me to play left handed. Keep up the good work.
I have a twin, he is a righty and I’m a lefty. When we were young and started on guitar, we both got a righty as our first guitar. I tried for 6 months as a righty and it never felt right, meanwhile my right handed twin was advancing faster than me. I strung my guitar upside down and have played lefty ever since, that was about 37 years ago. All my guitars since then have been a factory built lefty. I have a couple of very nice Martins and a couple of very nice Taylors, plus a custom built lefty Mandolin. There is plenty to choose from in left handed format, I don’t feel cheated in the least. Don’t feel pressured to learn as a righty, I think it could hinder the learning curve for you, at least it did for me.
I am right handed. In elementary school a music teacher brought guitars to class. I could not get the "feel" of a "normal" guitar. Watching me struggle, the music teacher handed me a "Backwards" guitar specifically built for lefties, which felt very natural to hold. For a person just learning to play, I say hold BOTH styles, and see which one feels more natural to hold. Just re-stringing a normal guitar is a poor solution due to the design - like strap connector would be on the bottom of most guitars for lefties.
I play ambidextrously, my brain is hardwired to use both sides. So when I started playing guitar I tried to just play right handed at first. But literally a month into playing guitar I bought my first left handed acoustic and I’ve learned both sides for the past 11 years (off and on). I’m not the greatest guitarist but both ways feel one in the same to me and it’s an ability I’ll never give up.
A lot of us lefties tend to be ambidextrous as we have to use the right hand for various reasons. A lot of lefties are discouraged from using their left hand for certain activities including eating food. I was made to use my right hand to write. But when i picked up a guitar for the first time, a right handed guitar, I naturally held it in the left hand position to the amusement of my friend who owned it.
I have 25 left handed guitars options is not a problem. There are 'less' but more than enough to get what you want and need if your not worried about the colour variety with each model. Also right handers would be playing lefty guitars if it was that simple to choose how to learn or if it made logical sense. But the orientation of a 'right handed guitar' is named that way for a reason, so the dominant hand picks, not frets.
I didn't know this until I switched but playing righthanded was making my dyslexia worse . I played rightedhanded for 15yrs before I switched to lefty and I can't get across just how much of a difference it made. I got way better really fast. Once I got the finger strength built up in my righthand enough for fretting I was able to run through scales, understood phrasing and could pay attention to more of the fretboard just for starters. Things that I'd been trying to do for years but couldn't suddenly became way easier for me and when I pick up rightedhanded guitars now I'm actually better then when I actually play as righthander. It also changed the way I hear music too.
I met a guy who was gigging in a bar on Kauai, Hawaii that played a right handed guitar left handed without switching the strings! Can't remember his name, but he was awesome!
Self-taught myself to play right handed, but had a catastrophic injury and reconstructive surgery to my left (fretting) hand. Now I've switched the strings on all my guitars and teaching myself to play Lefty...It's hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be (perhaps my ambidexterity is a big benefit in this instance). Still very early in my journey, but going well so far.....The hardest thing so far is my stumming/picking left hand versus fretting with my right hand...
Telling lefties they shouldn’t or can’t to be left handed is offensive. People who are forced to play right handed because they can’t find left handed guitars suffer from limited finger picking techniques. Sure picking is far simpler and fretting is easy to switch sides but complex finger picking is nearly impossible. Telling left handed people just be right handed is as offensive as forcing others to change things they are born as to accommodate the norm.
I started out as a right -handed guitarist, but switched to left -handed because my synchronization was better and my nervous system didn't feel like I was chewing on aluminum foil.
Hey Max, I'm 16, I'm naturally left handed, but I was taught to write with my right hand (but I sometimes write with my left hand, which I prefer) and I started out playing right handed, and a good year into playing guitar I decided to switch to left-handed and that was around 7 months ago now. It was very difficult but now I've completely converted to left-handed and i'm happy because it feels a lot more natural, I feel more confident in how I look when I play, and my movements feel a lot more fluid, if that makes sense, but anyway, great video!
Im a lefty, but was given a right handed guitar when i was about 10, so over the years i’ve played with the strings upside down, never come across a single issue in regards to playing certain types of music on it. I either get a lefty guitar and swap the strings around, and or just pick up a right handed guitar, and play it as normal, the biggest issue is the knobs pressing against your arm. Cannot complain.
As a lefty I grew up playing a black guitar. That was the only thing I could get at the time. I love that there are a few companies that include us lefties. But honestly, there needs to be MORE companies that have lefty models. Thanks for making this video. Lefties RULE!!!!
I'm a lefty, started playing right-handed, but it didn't feel right, so I switched to left-handed and it feels so much better now. Switching is actually not so hard, cause your brain already knows what to do. It's just muscle memory learning.
On an extended note. I’m learning right handed guitar and as you said it is extremely difficult but practice and hard work pays off. At least all the theory stays the same and the notes don’t move
I owned a right handed Gibson for 12 years. Rarely played it. Other than doing simple 'licks' when it came to rhythm it always felt off. 5 months ago I bought a left handed guitar and it is literally night and day for me. I am exponentially better right now. There is something about keeping rhythm with your off hand that I could never get.
As for someone who successfully switched, I read that Paul McCartney struggled learning to play until he saw a photo of Slim Whitman and learned playing lefty was a thing. I'd say he's been pretty successful since switching. 😁
Reversed background!! I'm loving it. I'm lefthanded and i have try to play righthanded when i was learning, it was impossible, it didn't feel natural to me. Excellent vídeo dude
Yes. I am a true lefty all of the way, but I first started playing right handed guitar. It was a very slow train wreck! I played that thing for a year straight and was able to play decently at first. But somewhere down the line the awkwardness of me using my RECESSIVE right hand to pick my strings and my dominant left hand to fret my notes, so one day I decided to try out a lefty guitar at a music store and it was a perfect fit! I bought that guitar and found out that it was very easy for me to translate all that I had learned playing righty on my guitar was easily duplicated by me on a lefty guitar! It was just amazing how fast, natural and easy I was able to reach the same level of proficiency playing a lefty guitar in about a month or two as I did playing righty for about two years prior. That is when I stopped playing righty and went all of the way lefty! And I now will only play lefty guitars and basses and I recommend that all supposed lefties just try out a lefty guitar before they even buy a righty so that they don't waste too much time playing a righty guitar that is all wrong for them! Anyways, great video. Keep up this great work! Maybe you will inspire many major guitar makers to start making sure that atleast 2-5% of each line of their righty guitars are made with an option for the customer to choose a lefty if he or she so desired. I know of several people who would love for that to happen, me included! 🤣😂🤣 Adios! 😁
I started out as a Hendrix Jr. when it came to playing guitar, I was actually recommended to get a left handed guitar so I didn't develop that habit. I play rhythm completely left handed and haven't gone backwards since.
For some odd reason I have always played a left-handed air-bass when listening to music. Odd because I’m a right-handed guitarist. I’ve transitioned pretty nicely!:-)
Not every lefty wants to learn on a right-handed guitar. (We already have to use so many right-handed tools, which aren't adequate for us lefties (example: can openers, scissors, knives, etc...)) Not offering left-handed guitars to left-handed players is like not offering left-handed golf clubs or hockey sticks. It's a matter of respecting people and clients. So if 10% of people are left-handed, we can accurately say that 10% of guitar players are lefties. But studies show that left-handed people are more creatively inclined. So as of these studies, we can assume that there are more than 10% of guitar players that are lefties. Product availability should reflect this reality. I find it insulting to see big brands like Fender and Gibson have almost no interest in providing a variety of lefties, with a variety of configurations and colors.
When I was gigging my only guitar was a left handed ESP H207. Not the right guitar for the type of music I was playing, but I made it work. I now have a Squire Telecaster ,Fender Acoustic, Epiphone Les Paul, and two different Gretsch Lefty's, 2622 semi hollow, and Electromatic, basically their Les Paul. I also have an Ibanez Bass. Gretsch is the most high quality, out of the box they work as intended and sound great. Can't wait to play them live. The les Paul has a lot of cool bells and whistles if they're wired correctly. The telecaster sounds good if you upgrade the pickups and rewire and shield so you're not picking up AM radio signals. I love hearing a Preacher through my amp, it's the best. My worst guitar is the Ibanez bass, I've had nothing but trouble with it since I bought it. Which brings me to a very important point, if you buy a guitar from Guitar Center ask them if they will set it up for free. Another point if you're a left handed guitar player, learn how to set up a guitar , because techs are usually annoyed when they have to work on one, and it will save you money in the long run. In closing Gretsch make the best quality Lefty's for the price, and if you buy something new from a retailer ask for a setup.
I am right handed and play an EVH. My girlfriend loves my guitar and would like to learn and is left handed. Based on your review of the Jackson JS32, I ordered her one in LH. The colors were limited, but I think she will love it.
I’m a lefty and I play left handed because that was just what felt natural to me. I am glad we are living in an age where there is a decent variety of lefty guitars out there.
There is literally no left handed guitar i want a flying V left handed and i cannot find one
@@xdboi9196 You can check Reverb because there's always quite a few lefty Vs (Gibson has a history of making lefty Vs every few years, unlike Explorers).
@@xdboi9196 Check out solar guitars or Jackson Rhoades series
@@gabrieltalkington6389 Solar has only two lefty models. You have your choice of black, black, black or black for colors. None are V's. Piss off Ola, I'll spend my money elsewhere.
@@gabrieltalkington6389 There are some V's available, Dean is making them for sure. Solar just is not going to do anything much for lefties. Heard Ola say that himself. Other than that you have to take your chances on the used market.
Max. Totally disagree with this. Of course you can “force” a lefty to write or play lefty, but it is a difficult process and in most cases people won’t be as good as if they used their natural hands. For every successful converted guitarist, there are a hundred of lefties who gave up the guitar cause some idiot forced them to play right. People should do what they feel is natural. Long live Hendrix and Cobain!
Agreed 100% and notice it's ALWAYS a right-handed person making these claims. Some people are able to pull it off. That doesn't mean the other lefties are somehow failing at learning with a right-handed guitar. It's personal to your dexterity and preference.
So are you saying that a keyboard needs to be reversed ? Because a lefty pianist still has to play....right-handed. Are are there no lefty pianists ?
@@hughmoss9884 There are reversed keyboard pianos. The hands in piano have the same motions for both left and right while the actions on a guitar are markedly different.
@@hughmoss9884 I'm not sure if you're somehow thinking that is an apples for apples comparison. It's not remotely the same. I'm a fluent pianist for over 40 years now. Both hands perform the exact same motions to press down the keys. Huge difference when one hand has to fret strings and the other has to manage picking techniques.
@@JoelWalker1229 , i was going to say this. The fretting hand is fine trying to play right handed. Picking and strumming is the part that completely falls a part for me when trying to play right handed.
It's not a choice, I was born this way. 😂
That is for sure!
me too
Ditto.
I'm critically left handed
I ordered an electric guitar it’s coming today its gonna be right handed and I’m left handed.
Im very new to it. Any tips??
I like how you reversed the background image so all the guitars are lefty.
500IQ edit
I think he reversed the entire video, when he says "I'm right handed" he shows his left hand (or right hand if the video is reversed).
@@fullbridgerectifier1593 the clock on his arm didn't give it away straight away? (-:
i know, it's not uncommon to wear an armwatch on the 'wrong' hand, but when his intro image with the saab rolled around i saw. my suspicious mind confirmed.
Everything is flipped
I wish the intro was flipped as well.
It's not always about choosing - I'm a lefty who plays lefty because my right hand simply cannot strum or pick.
Eric Olson Same here. I believe it’s down to the extent that you’re lefty. Some people are more so than others. I’m right at the left hand side of the spectrum. I can’t coordinate my right hand for picking and strumming.
Same here man 👍
@@TheWinterwraith That's what it comes down to - I think my left hand could work the fretboard without a problem, but my right arm strums like a dead fish.
Yup same for me. The thing that a lot of people overlook is that - just because certain lefties are able to play right-handed does not mean it's possible for all lefties. Some people are adamant that this is true and they're simply wrong. The person has to have a certain level of natural ambidexterity for their picking hand which would be their offhand in that scenario.
I would be thrilled to have that ability since it opens all of those awesome guitar choices out there. But, even though I do have some specific ambidextrous aspects with other things, I did start out trying to force myself to play right-handed and it was on a solid quality Fender MIM strat that was setup well. So, I know it was my own limitations that hindered me from learning right-handed and not the instrument. Some southpaws are just meant to play their natural left-handed stance and that's okay.
Joel, very true - well said.
i quit playing guitar when i was 14 because i went for lessons using right handed guitar and the best way to describe the experience was like writing a long essay using your non dominant hand.. i felt like i just had no talent for guitars even though i was really passionate about it. fast forward 11 years, now at 25, i’m getting a left handed guitar and i’m so excited to learn it all over again the way it feels natural for me! :)
I don't play guitar, just came here to see if left handed folks can play them ( I am right handed BTW). What brand of guitar did you get?
I never had a problem playing right handed. I like having my dominant hand on the fretboard side. I never had trouble playing leads. I would have a bigger problem playing left handed in lessons, and to turn everything around in my head. I did struggle with rhythm for a while. Picking didn't feel awkward to me though. Maybe I just lack rhythm.
I'm a leftie and learning comlpicated strumming took me some time to master playing while playing a right handed guitar. One day just to experiment I tried flipping the guitar and was shocked that it took me about an hour with my left hand to learn what had taken me two weeks with my right.
I experienced this just this week (I'm left-handed playing right-handed guitars for a decade or so now). I flipped my guitar and while of course my right hand struggled a lot with the neck my left hand felt super natural with picking. Now I'm seriously thinking about re-stringing my guitar left-handed and learning guitar from scratch lmao.
I also did start with right but switching to left boosted my learning speed gigantic
@@guitarampmodeling8698 Its the same case with PC gaming with a left handed mouse.
People who are left handed should really try doing most things with dominant hand.
I'm right-handed with almost everything except playing guitar. Before I started, I held both a right-handed and a left-handed. The left just felt natural to me. I don't think I'd ever be able to play right-handed. Can't imagine trying to control the neck with my left hand.
Same
Same here.
I'm right handed but play leftie. It just felt natural when i started playing to fret with my dominant hand.
Ditto! I am the same like you! I have been playing now for 40 years!
im ambidextrous but couldn't play a right handed guitar for sht. Picked up a left handed one and learned like 10x faster.
Same!!!!!!!!!
You made the same mistake every right handed guitarist makes because they never tried learning with the wrong hand. Your dominant hand is used for rhythm for a reason. Not just on guitar but most instruments, the large dexterous rhythmic movements are done by the dominant hand and the simpler movements are done by the non-dominant hand. In the case of guitar, the picking hand is actually doing the more complicated movements but you don't realize it because it's you're so used to using your dominant hand and it's not as flashy as the fretting hand.
Your dominant hand is the hand you've spent your entire life keeping a rhythm with and the muscles are better trained. An hour or so of guitar practice everyday is never going to get you to that same level and you're just creating an obstacle because first you have to learn to stop yourself from trying to keep the picking rhythm with what is now your fretting hand. Arguably, you'll always be worse at rhythm because at least from the studies I've seen that aren't behind a paywall, it physically doesn't seem to be possible to train your timing in your non-dominant hand to the same level as your dominant hand or at least not in the time period the studies took place though it does get close.
How ambidextrous you are is another factor. Some left handed people are more ambidextrous than others and prefer their right hand for some tasks so they don't have as much of an issue learning with the right hand but that doesn't apply to every left handed person. From my own experience trying to learn right handed for a week, trying to strum with my right hand with any kind of rhythm was impossible and my right hand kept following whatever my left hand was doing or just outright stopping when I tried to fret something. When I flipped over the guitar and tried it left handed, I blew past all the progress I made in a week. I still wasn't good since I was a beginner but all those issues I had went away instantly. I ended up with a preference for flipped right handed guitars so it worked out.
100% correct
Correct. I have to play left handed, but I write with my right hand, I bat right handed, I kick right footed, but I throw left handed. Playing guitar right handed was never an option for me. The dexterity does not exist in my left hand to finger chords and the right cannot strum or pick. Simple as that.
I'm a lefty that plays right handed. Completely overlooked the ambidextrous aspect. Lol
Agreed
ViviSectia amen 🙏 brother i agree with you sometimes it isn’t a choice you have to go with what’s natural,for me playing lefty was the the most naturally thing to do,i knew that my right hand 🖐 didn’t have the dexterity to play chords or fret notes 🎶🎼 i’d be struggling to learn anything but as soon as i started playing left handed i learned all the basics in about a month, i just had to restring whatever guitars 🎸 i was using,so happy 😃 taylor & martin offers many models left handed
I am a LEFTY and my Lefty Jackson Rhoads is modified and armed like a TANK!! 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
@Jesse Tragedie Thats BADASS Sir! Myself... a Jackson JS-32L equipped with an Original Floyd F-1000 (From Germany), Top of line (Pots, Switches, and Wiring), Gold hardware Locking Tuners, Jason Becker "Perpetual Burn" pup for the Bridge/ Seymour Duncan JB pup in the Neck. Turned a $350-$400 AXE into a $1,300 DEMON! Shred on my fellow LEFTY!!! 🤘🤘🤘
@Jesse Tragedie Here's the thing My good Friend!... its NOT the Jason Becker "PUP" that creates the tone!... its the MIDDLE Position of the 3-way toggle that creates a "1 OF A KIND SOUND" i have NEVER HEARD b4!!! Combining the "Jazz-Neck PUP, with this Obscure Becker PUP" makes me wonder what OTHER neck position PUPS sound like combined.
@Jesse Tragedie Wowsers! That sounds KILLERRRRR! Let me know how it sounds man. I subscribed 2 ur channel so make sure U do a thorough Demo.
I tried to play a writehanded lcan not. Now l play the wrong way
Finally some love for us lefties. My 2 favorite brands Fender and Squier don't make all models available lefty 😕 they would sell many more than they already do if they did.
My first guitar 18 months ago was a Squier. That was the only left handed guitar they had at Guitar Center when I first started taking lessons. Then my dad bought me the Wolf that Guitar Max reviewed after that.
I am a lefty and bought the Wolf WLP and I love it.
I bought my boyfriend a used Mexican Fender Strat a couple months ago. I think it's a 2015, if memory serves. Fender absolutely makes left handed guitars. So does Squire, for that matter. He was looking at a left Squire Telly before I found the Strat.
@@RC-bs6eb Yes I know they both make lefties, many of them are not available lefty. I collect electric guitars and know which company make specific models.
@@HelenaHarris I've bought many left handed guitars from Guitar Center. They will order the one you like and get it within a week.
I’m right handed and I play left handed, it’s what ever feels natural to you
This is it. I'm right handed left eye dominant and I shoot, play pool, and play guitar left handed. Pretty much everything else is righty.
“So if you’re a fan of Paul Gilbert, Ibanez is for you!”
Steve Vai: am I a joke to you?
**Joe Satriani has joined the chat**
Lot of class players 😆
LMAO
Paul Gilbert, Nita Strauss, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Kiko Loureiro, and so many more amazing players use Ibanez.
I think so
I actually learned how to play Lefty after 20 years of playing right handed.
My brother (on the spectrum) was wanting to learn how to play, but was kind of discouraged, I think, from how fast I learned everything vs how he was struggling with it. So, in solidarity, I got a left handed guitar at a pawn shop and struggled with him til we could both play highway to hell.
Your story is way more endearing than mine but I also switched after 20 years.
Lefties if you're reading this: Switch to left-handed as soon as possible. Doesn't matter how good you are right-handed. I learned both ways to conclusively figure this out.
I played right-handed for 20 years. And not to brag, but I got good, better than most people ever do, mostly due to heaps of practice. I enjoyed the whole "local legend" thing, being considered one of the best in my area and who everyone says can make it. All that jazz. I was happy. In fact I thought everyone had it backward and that I had an advantage due to fretting with my dominant hand. I topped out way before I wanted to though. By my peak I could play most of pieces like Paul Gilbert's Curse of Castle Dragon but it felt really difficult. At a certain point I just couldn't improve, even practicing 8 hours per day.
Suddenly I decided to learn left-handed just to know. Probably the hardest thing I ever did. It's harder than learning the first time because there's less sense of joy in learning stuff you can already do anyway. The first year was a bit hellish. During the second year something began to click and it felt like being on guitar steroids. I was improving so quickly. In about two and a half years I was better than I was after 20 years of right-handed playing. It messed with me big time. I'm still rapidly improving. Now I have to look back and ask myself where I could be now if I had done this for 20 years. For all I know, given my constant practice I would be one of the best players around right now. Is what it is though.
Don't let guys like Batio confuse you. They are proof that you can shred your balls off playing the wrong way, not that you have the same potential either way. Batio himself has even said he thinks he would have been better left-handed now. He discovered this dabbling with it as he infamously has but could never force himself to totally relearn. Also notice that he has an incredibly awkward picking technique. The super rooted nature of it allows him to reach those speeds but also kills his control over dynamics.
Like I said, I could shred the other way too, but getting where I was in 20 years in two years isn't nothing. At the end of the day there's a reason right-handed guitars are made the way they are, and left-handed people need the same playing field to reach max potential.
At the end of the day if you want to know what the difference is like, it's that playing the wrong way feels like a series of tricks. Sweeping is a trick. Alternate picking is this matter of synchronizing two hands, etc. Playing the correct way all that goes out the window. You just feel like you play the damn notes. Haha. And you gradually play them faster and faster. And it always feels really easy to do with less chance of messing up. I never could have known this before, but now I've realized playing the wrong way feels a lot like playing the right way while drunk. And yes I can still do it. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I didn't want to be all talk so I just put in the work to answer this old question once and for all. Night and day difference.
Before anyone says it just feels wrong, duh. You're a beginner that way. People forget how difficult the beginning was. It took over a year for it not to feel weird so much as picking up the neck of the guitar with the other hand at all.
I started left handed on acoustic years ago and actually tried switching to right handed without success. It felt terrible and not worth the pain of starting over. During the pandemic I decided to give electrics a try. I've had some luck with lefty electrics, but as with acoustics I have to say - The Discrimination against left handed people is real - limited choice and sometime small details fall short - basically makers don't really give a shit. Sometimes the lefty guitars brands are fully thought out and other brands not. My first lefty electric guitar was Fender Strat and overall a nice guitar except they put right handed knobs on the tone and volume pots so the numbers didn't correspond properly to up and down - same with the Fender Telecaster. They are not the only ones to do this. However some lefty guitars like Gibson and PRS actually put left-handed pots in - they go all out. The cheaper guitars are all probably going to use right handed knobs on lefty guitars. I think Rickenbacker is a good example of the Worst lefty guitar maker - the "R" on a lefty is upside down. How shitty is that? 100%
I'm not sure why right handed people expect left handed people to switch to play right handed. It's discrimination even if you don't intend for it to be.
I'm right handed in almost every aspect in my life. That said, playing the guitar "left handed" felt more natural to me.
As a kid, I would instinctly hold a guitar the "left handed" way and be corrected to hold it the other way.
I am a lefty that started guitar because of Tony Iommi, love his music and I never once thought about playing righty. I mostly play SGs and the are fairly easy to come by. My next guitar however will be a Schecter KM6 MK3 Keith Merro Standard. I am going to put John Birch pickups in it and DOOM until I drop 😈
So thé point is go Against your nature and play like à righty cause There are more guitars ?!!!! NO we are and we will remain lefty cause.... Thats what we are!! No matter the market !
Michaël batio couldn t find lefty guitars thats why Hé changed! Those days are over !! We can live together guys !! 😇😘
Lefties if you're reading this: Switch to left-handed as soon as possible. Doesn't matter how good you are right-handed. I learned both ways to conclusively figure this out.
I played right-handed for 20 years. And not to brag, but I got good, better than most people ever do, mostly due to heaps of practice. I enjoyed the whole "local legend" thing, being considered one of the best in my area and who everyone says can make it. All that jazz. I was happy. In fact I thought everyone had it backward and that I had an advantage due to fretting with my dominant hand. I topped out way before I wanted to though. By my peak I could play most of pieces like Paul Gilbert's Curse of Castle Dragon but it felt really difficult. At a certain point I just couldn't improve, even practicing 8 hours per day.
Suddenly I decided to learn left-handed just to know. Probably the hardest thing I ever did. It's harder than learning the first time because there's less sense of joy in learning stuff you can already do anyway. The first year was a bit hellish. During the second year something began to click and it felt like being on guitar steroids. I was improving so quickly. In about two and a half years I was better than I was after 20 years of right-handed playing. It messed with me big time. I'm still rapidly improving. Now I have to look back and ask myself where I could be now if I had done this for 20 years. For all I know, given my constant practice I would be one of the best players around right now. Is what it is though.
Don't let guys like Batio confuse you. They are proof that you can shred your balls off playing the wrong way, not that you have the same potential either way. Batio himself has even said he thinks he would have been better left-handed now. He discovered this dabbling with it as he infamously has but could never force himself to totally relearn. Also notice that he has an incredibly awkward picking technique. The super rooted nature of it allows him to reach those speeds but also kills his control over dynamics.
Like I said, I could shred the other way too, but getting where I was in 20 years in two years isn't nothing. At the end of the day there's a reason right-handed guitars are made the way they are, and left-handed people need the same playing field to reach max potential.
At the end of the day if you want to know what the difference is like, it's that playing the wrong way feels like a series of tricks. Sweeping is a trick. Alternate picking is this matter of synchronizing two hands, etc. Playing the correct way all that goes out the window. You just feel like you play the damn notes. Haha. And you gradually play them faster and faster. And it always feels really easy to do with less chance of messing up. I never could have known this before, but now I've realized playing the wrong way feels a lot like playing the right way while drunk. And yes I can still do it. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I didn't want to be all talk so I just put in the work to answer this old question once and for all. Night and day difference.
Before anyone says it just feels wrong, duh. You're a beginner that way. People forget how difficult the beginning was. It took over a year for it not to feel weird so much as picking up the neck of the guitar with the other hand at all.
As someone who tried to learn right handed, I can attest that it’s not as simple as choosing. The guitar teacher I had saw me struggling and one week he brought an unstrung guitar with no pickguard and asked me to pick it up. I immediately held it left handed. He suggested that my mom get me (I was 8 years old) a left handed guitar and I was able to learn in a perfect mirror image with him and I excelled way more quickly. 34 years later, and I still can’t play righty. I just picked up the ukulele and was going to learn righty, but had the same problem. All of my rhythm is in my left hand. So, it might be a choice for some lefties, but not all. And for those of us who need to play left handed, I am ever grateful for companies that make them (and even more thankful for the companies that don’t up-charge).
After seeing your review on the Wolf TC1, I wanted to grab that lefty on their site, but it was gone by the time I was ready to buy. Bummer.
Just ordered a Starshine (Zuwei) that looks like a classic ES-345 (with a varitone). That would cost me about $10k from the Gibson custom shop. This one is $500. lol
Being left handed and always have played left handed .I never succumbed to the pressure to switch to righty. I have played a few right handed guitars upside down and will tell you it was difficult but not it as a right handed player trying one of my guitars. When I started I had to buy a right handed and have it converted. I have a Fender Standard Strat that is killer and had a Gibson Les Paul Studio lefty that was smooth as glass. Too bad I had bills to pay and it was sacrificed. I play a Martin D-16GTL , beautiful. And the 1st decent guitar I got and still have was a 1983 Takamine G330(when they made them in Japan). Had a luthier set it up for lefty and still play it today. It was difficult coming up but perseverance won out. I have a 1966 Tele Star converted to lefty I got when I was 14. I'm saying yes, it still is hard for true lefties. But, there are better choices and avenues available now than when I came up.I am now 67 and still rockin'!
Oh wow! Thank you so much!!!! You are so right! My Wolfe is great! I love ESP! I have an ESP Arrow I got for my bday last year that ESP directly helped with. There is a good choice in left guitars but no one really stocks them. I can almost never go into a store and try it out. By the way, I hear all the time I am playing my guitar wrong because people don't understand that I am a lefty. Thank you again so much! You made my day! Back to practicing I go!
You're very welcome! Good luck with your channel and rock on!
I am a left handed person, but i play guitar right handed.
Thats the way it gives you so many options that lefty’s don’t get
Good for you
Me too. I also taught my best friend who is left handed how to play (right handed)
Same
Gimme your old lefty's then
I’m a lefty who plays left handed because my brain wouldn’t allow me to learn right handed 20 years ago, another good company for lefties is Gordon Smith but they are £800 - £2000 depending on what options you choose, every guitar can be configured as a lefty all made in the UK great instruments.
Instant click.. a leftie!
Don't forget Harley Benton! They have quite a few lefty models! A funny aside about lefty players, there's also Eric Gales, a born righty who plays left-handed - but DOESN'T flip the strings. He learned how to play a right-handed guitar as a lefty with NO modifications. :)
I'm a lefty and totally left side dominant. When I first picked up a guitar at around 7 or 8yo, I held it left handed and started messing around. I was told to turn it around and play, but to me it felt like trying to ride a bicycle backwards with my feet on the handle bars, face on the seat and hands on the pedals. I tried for weeks, then gave up and strung it left handed. I still tell ALL students of mine to LEARN RIGHT HANDED and if they can, Great. The world hasn't changed enough for us lefties.
Oh, Taylor makes lefties the same price point as their rights and if I'm not mistaken, you can get any model in a lefty. I have an acoustic Taylor 310ce and an electric T3b. Some others I have are a Japanese lefty Fender Strat, a Jackson Dinky with Floyd Rose trem, Voyage Air acoustic folding travel lefty, and a Rogue acoustic (beater) lefty that surprisingly has great intonation and no buzzes.
Max,
I've played guitar (for my own entertainment) for more than 50 years. I'm left-handed. I started music education playing keyboard ( Hammond A103 organ) when I was about 10 years old. I started teaching myself guitar, at about 13 years old. My older brother played the guitar, so there was always a right-handed guitar in the house. My experience playing keyboard, your left hand is your rhythm hand. Strumming with the left hand seemed more natural to me. I learned to play a right-handed guitar upside down, and played that way until last year. The Covid 19 shutdown seemed like the perfect time to learn to play an actual left-handed guitar. I'm an old dog, the new tricks aren't coming easily.
Patience is a virtue my friend. It'll come.
Many many times I have tamper with the thought of switching to a right handed instrument and learned all over again just to play at guitar story with all the guitars I can find but then I remember I don't like people touching my instruments so I get over it pretty quickly.
DO IT.
Lefties if you're reading this: Switch to left-handed as soon as possible. Doesn't matter how good you are right-handed. I learned both ways to conclusively figure this out.
I played right-handed for 20 years. And not to brag, but I got good, better than most people ever do, mostly due to heaps of practice. I enjoyed the whole "local legend" thing, being considered one of the best in my area and who everyone says can make it. All that jazz. I was happy. In fact I thought everyone had it backward and that I had an advantage due to fretting with my dominant hand. I topped out way before I wanted to though. By my peak I could play most of pieces like Paul Gilbert's Curse of Castle Dragon but it felt really difficult. At a certain point I just couldn't improve, even practicing 8 hours per day.
Suddenly I decided to learn left-handed just to know. Probably the hardest thing I ever did. It's harder than learning the first time because there's less sense of joy in learning stuff you can already do anyway. The first year was a bit hellish. During the second year something began to click and it felt like being on guitar steroids. I was improving so quickly. In about two and a half years I was better than I was after 20 years of right-handed playing. It messed with me big time. I'm still rapidly improving. Now I have to look back and ask myself where I could be now if I had done this for 20 years. For all I know, given my constant practice I would be one of the best players around right now. Is what it is though.
Don't let guys like Batio confuse you. They are proof that you can shred your balls off playing the wrong way, not that you have the same potential either way. Batio himself has even said he thinks he would have been better left-handed now. He discovered this dabbling with it as he infamously has but could never force himself to totally relearn. Also notice that he has an incredibly awkward picking technique. The super rooted nature of it allows him to reach those speeds but also kills his control over dynamics.
Like I said, I could shred the other way too, but getting where I was in 20 years in two years isn't nothing. At the end of the day there's a reason right-handed guitars are made the way they are, and left-handed people need the same playing field to reach max potential.
At the end of the day if you want to know what the difference is like, it's that playing the wrong way feels like a series of tricks. Sweeping is a trick. Alternate picking is this matter of synchronizing two hands, etc. Playing the correct way all that goes out the window. You just feel like you play the damn notes. Haha. And you gradually play them faster and faster. And it always feels really easy to do with less chance of messing up. I never could have known this before, but now I've realized playing the wrong way feels a lot like playing the right way while drunk. And yes I can still do it. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I didn't want to be all talk so I just put in the work to answer this old question once and for all. Night and day difference.
Before anyone says it just feels wrong, duh. You're a beginner that way. People forget how difficult the beginning was. It took over a year for it not to feel weird so much as picking up the neck of the guitar with the other hand at all.
I'm a lefty, and I started playing as lefty because I would naturally get the picks with my left hand.
It was OK until I started playing some fast metal stuff, were my picking hand would "choke". My guitar teacher said he had seen this before with another lefty, and it stopped when he switched to righty.
I did this experiment and played as righty for 1 or 2 years. I did learned things faster, and hadn't that choking problem, which made me play metal way better. But I had difficult remembering the songs I learned, which I never had problems as lefty, and especially with any song with any swing in the picking hand, cause I couldn't feel the groovy as righty.
In resume, I went back to be a lefty because I'm more a Classic Rock player than a Metal player, which requires more feeling and groovy, things I'm better as lefty. If I kept as a extreme Metal player, continue as a righty would be better. And the "feel the song" issue also made me come back to be a lefty, that's what made me want to learn guitar, and I kinda lost that as righty, maybe because my brain has this feeling more developed in one side than the other. As a righty things were definitely more mechanic.
Interesting post mate
Damn, dawg, you learned how to play both right AND left handed guitars? That's fucking amazing! I'm hoping to get there some day but, as of right now, it feels a lot like trying to run up and touch the horizon line lol. So far, I can strum the open D, Em, E, A, and Am chords left handed pretty consistently. I've been trying for like 2 months 😂. I honestly thought I'd pick it up A LOT faster because I was truly ambidextrous growing up--you know, as in both hands could do everything equally well. I'm still that way to a large extent, but these days my handwriting from my left hand is very noticeably worse than from my right. Sucks I wasn't able to just automatically play both ways :(
@@RC-bs6eb it wasn't as fast as you liked ou predicted, but things are going faster than when you started, right? I think it's because learning guitar has 2 major points, the mental and the physical. When you switch sides, you keep much of the mental knowledge, the tricks, the excercises, the does and don'ts, and that makes things faster. It was that way for me at least, I already knew how to improve some points by my experiences with the other hand. But them there is the physical/mechanical side, which I think is slow no matter what. You have to build things slowly, step by step, limited by what you body can do, despite your brain being miles ahead. And that feeling of "I know what and how to do it, but my body can't do it and can't do almost nothing that I tell it to do" is what makes you feel like things are slow. Like when you are in the gym and takes 2 weeks to increase your exercise by 1 repetition, 2 complete weeks for a single step that mentally seems so close, so simple, you can visualize it so easil. But I tell ya, even with this problem, your physical progress is probably faster than you think. During my switching phase I was really frustrated I couldn't play some musics as righty that I considered pretty easy as lefty, till a friend of mine saw me playing those musics and told me "you can already play that as righty in that short time????"
That's awesome that you're able to tackle both stances!
Tiago, left and right sidedness is much more complex in humans than many people think. That is why generalisations such as such and such a person writes with their left hand yet plays guitar with their right hand, therefore everyone should only learn guitar right handed - are not correct for many people.
I am left-handed and learned to play left-handed. I actually recently bought the Schecter Reaper FR6 lefty as my first "big boy" guitar after playing a cheaper Ibanez for 4 years. I initially tried to learn right-handed but I already had the feel and comfort of lefty from playing guitar hero left handed for so many years. I am happy to see so many brands making not only lefty's but adding signatures and color options other than black and white. Although I would like to see an expansion of the hardware market for things like lefty tuners, nuts and bridges.
Correction: Michael Angelo Batio is four-handed.
I think the most iconic left hand guitar player is no other than Jimmy Hendrix
and he played a right handed guitar upside down
@@phililpb Dick Dale did too
IcedVengence yea but dick dale switched the strings around; high e was his first string. Jimi had it normally strung
Also Paul Raymond
I’m a lefty and just watched your video. Let me just say a few things. First, yes I wish I woulda learned righty right away. Technically I did, I played a righty guitar upside down for like three years before I finally figured out to change the nut and make it actually a lefty guitar which comes with its own set of problems, ie knobs out of reach or bumped continuously while playing, output jack location ie you need a 90’ plug usually, especially when the jack is on the front. Finally when I got a real actual lefty, (now granted this is way back before the influx of cheap, decent quality China products, and I paid a premium for a low quality guitar relatively speaking. Nowadays things are better for us “right challenged players” with selection and quality. The higher end guitars are still sorta special order ie fender, Gibson and are still more expensive but worth it IMO. Now I gave you the woes of lefty now let me offer a few of the upsides if the lefty world. First off for learning from or teaching to if you are righty and learn from or teach a lefty it is a mirror image that makes movements and fingering much easier to decipher. You mentioned the symmetry of the stage presence with your lefty bassist, another pro. Now thes last three or four are total examples of why lefty guitarists are not only important but crucial to the rock world!!! 1 Jimi Hendrix. 2 Toni Iommi. 3 curt kobain. 4 paul Mcartney. MIC DROP. try guitar without any of these guys? No thanks. I’ve made my point. How about a tee shirt 2 x cuz ima big guy too. That’d be cool and let me know you read your comments. Love your channel watch a lot!!
I’m left handed, and play poorly both ways. Historically, left handed guitars were hard to find, and either the cheapest, or most expensive options. It’s nice to see that changing.
It's not a matter of choice. I'm left handed and I feel more comfortable that way. It was natural for me holding the guitar with the right hand and and the pick in the left one.
My best friend is left handed and he’s been playing a right handed guitar for over 10 years. He chose to play right handed since it was more comfortable for him.
Max you forgot about Thomann. Fellow lefty guitarist they have a great selection of left handed guitars available. I’m waiting for my 3 Harley Benton guitars to arrive with a 1x12 cab that cost $600 roughly with shipping. Your video took me down a Thomann rabbit hole of quality affordable guitars. Thanks max!
Yes. I was surprised he didn't mention them.
I got a 100 dollar thomann. Great guitar because playing it didn't feel weird
Wow they have amazing stock of lefty guitars! Even having it shipped to Canada for 50 Euro is worth it!!! They have ESP lefty's in stock.
I started playing Right-handed originally, but I switched to Left after a few months, and I was able to readjust in less than a week, and it felt a lot more natural for me.
I'm a left handed guitarist who's thankful for those companies that offer left handed guitars. Although I write with my right hand, at the age of 15 I picked up a guitar and held it left handed. It just felt correct to me. Now at the age of 51, trying to relearn guitar is out of the question. (^_^)
Same here left handed but write with my right hand.
I am left handed and I also play lefty so I really appreciate this video! There are a lot of choices so its nice to know which companies cater a little more to leftys. I have a sawtooth and firefly 338. It took me forever to find the 338 in lefty. Love this...ty.
Getting a left handed model has always been a struggle. Im used to the lack of availability of brabds and models. Charvel and EVH also make a few lefty models for the shredders out there.
Ibanez used to make a lot of left handed guitars but the range they offer has decreased in recent years. I should know, I'm still waiting for lefty JS and S series models to be released again.
I know what you mean, dude. We ended up having to shop around for a lefty mid to high range guitar for my boyfriend--his first guitar--a few months ago. During the pandemic and the accompanying lockdown. Yeah, super fun. I DO NOT like spending anything over a couple hundred dollars on an instrument without first holding it and inspecting it at close range, ya know? Well, that wasn't an option, like, at all. I was sweating bullets and bordering on full blown paranoia until the damn thing arrived and I was able to verify it's condition and that it's not a counterfeit. Then I turned around and ordered a used Gibson online because I found one for the right price 🙄. Jfc, that one was even harder on me because of the higher price tag lmao but it all worked out, thank goodness.
Before anyone asks why I insisted on at least a midrange model for a beginner, it pretty much boils down to my own laziness. Cheap "beginner" guitars have a tendency to not be especially playable right out of the box and need a full setup + sometimes fret work. They're more likely to have tuning issues + other assorted headaches. Guess who would be the one having to fix all that shit? Not him....
Jackson makes a wide range of lefty’s. I’ve got 2.
Fast Sloth - try Jackson bro. I’ve bought 2 online. A RR and a soloist. I bought my son, who’s a righty, a JS 11. $149! All of them came straight out of the box, in tune and ready to play. Great guitars. Hope this helps.
@@stuckie3916 Jackson literally has 7 models available, and 3 are entry level (JS), 2 are mid-range (X), and 2 are the actual good import line (Pro). Hope you like black...
ESP/LTD and Schecter are the way to go for mid-high range import stuff if you're into rock/metal styles, and Kiesel is S-tier if you want a semi-custom build for the price of a Fender USA.
Kylie McInnes - all about your preference I guess. I prefer the sound and feel of Jackson’s. Not to mention the look of them. I’ve always loved the headstock of Jackson’s. To each his own I suppose.
When my parents took me to get my first guitar back in 2000, I’ll never forget how the guy at my local music store told us that I should learn how to play right handed. I literally tried and couldn’t get my coordination in place to do anything correctly. Eventually I got myself a left handed guitar and then everything was as smooth as butter. I applaud the other natural lefty’s that were able to learn to play right handed, but I just couldn’t get a handle on it.
The decision to play either left or right handed is an individual decision. There are various degrees of hand orientation. Some who are extremely left handed can only play left handed while others can adapt to playing right handed. Most all major guitar manufacturers make left handed instruments with some limiting models and/or features.
I'm a right-handed person who injured a tendon in my left hand so I was forced to relearn guitar left handed. It was a goddamn shame
Luckily the schecter sls was the exact guitar I wanted anyway.
What about Kiesel guitars every guitar and bass they make can be made in left handed...
And no up-charge. And you can pick ALL THE OPTIONS.
thanks! didn't know that. Im stunted by them.
I’m left handed and when I first picked up a friends right handed guitar I instantly flipped it over. It felt so natural for me. I saw a video explaining why lefties want to play that way and it was because you want to hold a pick in the same hand you hold a pencil. When I bought my first guitar I switched the strings around and started learning to play through the Alfred and Hal Leonard books. After 6 months I started taking lessons and the first thing my instructor told me was that I wasn’t that good and I should switch to right handed playing because left handed guitars were hard to find when I started playing in the 70’s. It took me another 6 months for it to start to feel natural for me. It was worth it in the long run because I play mostly finger style now and use my nails for a brighter sound. The nails on my left hand don’t grow well and constantly split, but my right hand nails grow perfect. I will say that if left handed guitars were more readily available back then I would have told my instructor to stuff it.
I just started playing.. left-handed. In fact I made mine. This one you see. I tried to learn before right-handed, but gave up. Now I'm having a great time learning, but with my left- handed guitar that I made. Thanks for all the info on companies that make good quality lefty stuff.
Nice guitar from what I can see of it.
I've played lefty for about 11 years. Biggest mistake I've made is learning guitar lefty
How come? Because of having less options of guitars?
Why is it the biggest mistake you have made?
And yet the Fender 'Hendrix' model doesn't seem to be available as a lefty.......
Because he used a righty ;D
@@toadetteremotewithwiimotio3330 exactly, you buy the righty and flip it.
I'm left handed, and my dad's right handed, we both play left handed guitar, and right handed bass. I have a strat & acoustic (and soon a les paul), my dad has a 1996 Jagstang, which I've adopted as my own, and he also has a Fender Jazzmaster, which we share. We can also play the only 2 right handed acoustics in the house (kind-of). The reason I play Left handed, is not only because I'm naturally left handed, but the first time I played guitar, which was my dad's Jagstang in Left Handed, this trained those specific hands to those roles, so when my dad took my to Guitar Center to help me pick out my first guitar (sunburst strat), and he had me tryout both a Left-Handed & a Right-Handed, and because of my first few playing experiences, I chose left handed, due to it being more comfortable.
I started playing right handed guitar upside down so I play lefty and have some nice left handed guitars now days so I was born to play lefty Rock On!!
They're also right handed guitars for people in Australia
Schecter and LTD are the best leftie brands... and of course Kiesel!
Yeah I've played some amazing lefty schecters. But I've never found a good Ltd one in my local area
I'm righty who had to learn to play Lefty because I was shot 5 times and one round struck my left hand. After my left hand was damaged I couldn't work the fret with my left hand.
I can tell you it has been a long road but after several years I can play guitar left handed, although I truly believe I won't be as good as if I could play righty because I'm missing the natural smooth rhythm of my right hand.
I’m the most left handed person that’s ever lived. I went into a guitar shop in 1994, picked up a right handed Strat, and couldn’t even hold it without almost dropping it. The salesman said to flip it around like Jimi. It felt sooo much better! I’ve been playing lefty guitars ever since.
So I just played the "OK Guys" drinking game..... I'm smashed...
Righty lefty. Lefty Righty it's all good.
Rondo Guitars and Harley Benton seem to cover lefty's well too.
I tried learning how to play righty three times. Once as an early teen, again as an older teen, then again as a young adult. Each time it was awkward and frustrating and I could not progress. Once I'd joined the working world and had some scratch, I went to a local guitar shop and tried to noodle with a righty. This was my third attempt. The proprietor was an affable guy. He was chatting me up and I mentioned that trying to play righty was so awkward for me. He told me he was a lefty, too, and that he couldn't pick up righty, either, but there he was selling nearly nothing but them. He had a couple lefties, but they were too expensive for me, so he actually sold me an acoustic that he had at home, using his shop warranty to get it replaced by the manufacturer. I still have that guitar, today, and holding it felt so natural, with none of the awkwardness of holding a righty. I'm certainly not a great guitarist, but I'm decent, and I never would have gotten even that far, otherwise. I know that this is the internet and that no one really cares, but thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
I can play both left and right handed guitar . The switch was really really weird at first but easy. it took me 3 months to relearn what took me 3 years to learn to play on guitar. So it’s not that bad of a switch but you’ll have to play it everyday to get comfortable.
I'm a lefty guitar player who learned to play using a right-handed guitar upside down. I own several left-handed guitars, but I changed the nuts to right-handed ones so I could install the strings in the upside down pattern that I learned and still use after many years. I do use bar chords heavily, but that is most comfortable for me. My favorite guitar is a right-handed Dean Frana electric acoustic which I flip as that model is a double cut and allows me to easily reach the higher frets. My other electrics are all Harley Bentons which I have modified by upgrading the nuts, pickups and tuners.
I am glad someone mentioned Kiesel. While not a budget guitar, they can be an affordable US made guitar and most of their guitars can be built left handed.
00:49 I've been arguing that point for years and I really believe it. Both hands do important things and I'm not buying this "picking is the same as writing" argument. The earliest guitar inventor could have oriented the instrument the other way from the start and no one would be the wiser.
I'm right handed and didn't know I was playing with the "wrong hand" until someone pointed it out. I said "oh", flipped it on my lap, and played easily right handed. I still play left because it's easier on my broke wrist but yknow. Thanks Hendrix!
Man, I'm glad you addressed this often overlooked issue! It's the same for many things. I'm right handed and I've been a beer league hockey goalie for 15 or 20 years. Goalies learn to shoot left because of how the standard equipment was made years ago. When I play any other position I have to use a lefty stick even though I'm right handed because I never learned to shoot with a righty stick and it's near impossible to learn now.
I first started out playing right-handed, 4 decades ago. I did it for 6 years. My fretting hand was fine. Picking, especially alternate picking, was just not coming along. My right hand just always felt so uncoordinated. It was almost like it was some sort of birth defect. It didn't matter how much I practiced. It just wasn't happening. 6 years into playing right-handed, I walked into a music store and saw a left-handed guitar. I said to myself, "I need to see what that feels like." I started trem-picking on one note, and it was faster than I could ever pick right-handed. It just felt more natural. So I sold my right-handed Charvel and ordered a left-handed Charvel. It was very difficult to start over, but I knew I had to. 4 decades later, I'm still playing left-handed and never looked back. So not every left hander can just pull off playing right-handed well.
Nice shoutout to Helena Harris. Very cool of you to do Max. And another great video, of course.
I'm a lefty and played for over 15 years and been playing right handed for about a year now just for fun, it was really hard in the beginning, my finger tips were so soft and had zero control, but I can say that my finger tips on my left hand are harder now and I have ok control, still really hard but I'm better than I was when I started, a very interesting experience, you become a little more aware of your normal playing style as well; when you try to learn to play the other way you realise how damn hard it is to play guitar and I think we all tend to forget that.
thank you for this video as a lefty player I appreciate that you take the time to talk about us thanks again! sebastian from winnipeg canada
No we don't choose to play left handed, I tried right handed and my coordination was hopeless but as soon as I turned the guitar the other way around and played it left handed it felt a lot easier and more natural even with the strings upside down. I read that Paul McCartney struggled to play right handed until he saw a picture of Slim Whitman playing left handed and realised that you could play it that way.
There are different degrees of left and right handedness so it varies from person to person. Some players get used to playing right handed guitars upside down and have left handed guitars strung right handed - Albert King, Otis Rush, Dick Dale etc
Eric Gales is a right hander who plays left handed
I've met a couple of guitarists who were ambidextrous and could play equally well left or right handed, but that's rare.
According to Wikipedia, Dave Kilminster, who played with Roger Waters and Keith Emerson, is left-handed, but after damaging his right wrist in a go-kart accident started playing guitar right-handed. He has since said he is ambidextrous.
Getting hold of left handed guitars is difficult. Even if a manufacturer like Schecter makes them left handed it's rare to find more than a few lefties in any guitar shop, so trying before you buy isn't an option and we often have to order them off the internet and hope we get on with the feel of the neck etc. And of course they're more expensive and seem to be made in batches so may not be available despite being listed on the maker's website. And you'd better like black paint
I got an old beater acoustic from a pawn shop as a kid. It was right handed, and I didn't even know guitars were oriented for certain hands. I was always frustrated with it and gave up, until I was 16 and received a left handed Epiphone SG for my birthday. It was like flipping on a light switch, and I've been playing ever since. It's kind of a bummer that a good number of the models I am interested aren't available left-handed, and they are almost always at least $100 more than the right-handed variant but I'm still satisfied being able to play. Thanks for the video!
One of the advantages of being a lefty is that if your teacher is in front of you, you are a mirror image of each other. I can only imagine what right handed learners see when they learn from a right handed teacher. Everything is opposite. The downside is that chord shapes in books are normally written for right handed people. You have to do a bit of a mental flip when reading them but you get used to it.
Hey Max, thanks for the exposure on a subject that often gets ignored, brushed off, marginalized or even treated with passive hostility... Saying that though, marginalizing behavior is really the far less appealing aspect of the guitar industry by comparison. It's sad really that even in our daily lives as a species, humans often look at even the most trivial and mundane "differences" in people's traits almost with an air of "undesirability". Talk about progress! If the guitar industry made 12% of all inventory left handed, no one who played lefty, either voluntarily or not... Would ever complain about the stagnant repetitive nature of the left handed sections of our local and online shops.
I am a left handed player. I was born with birth defects that caused underdeveloped bones, tendons, and muscles in my hands and feet. I'm not ever really sure if I was born lefty or not but due to my birth defects I definitely had to adapt as I grew up to do most dominant handed things with my left hand. This also includes how I must make the most of what each of my hands can or can't do when it comes to the manipulation of a guitar and it's strings.
Max, I am a left handed player, been subscribed along time with you. The world of left handed guitars is not an easy one. Schecter seems to have the best selection. Always wanted a left handed SG Gibson custom, but I don't want to shell out my soul to own it. It always felt natural to me to play left handed. Keep up the good work.
I have a twin, he is a righty and I’m a lefty. When we were young and started on guitar, we both got a righty as our first guitar. I tried for 6 months as a righty and it never felt right, meanwhile my right handed twin was advancing faster than me. I strung my guitar upside down and have played lefty ever since, that was about 37 years ago. All my guitars since then have been a factory built lefty. I have a couple of very nice Martins and a couple of very nice Taylors, plus a custom built lefty Mandolin. There is plenty to choose from in left handed format, I don’t feel cheated in the least. Don’t feel pressured to learn as a righty, I think it could hinder the learning curve for you, at least it did for me.
As a lefty, my first instructor asked me what motivated me to play left handed, and I said "The same thing that motivates you to play right handed." 😅
I am right handed. In elementary school a music teacher brought guitars to class. I could not get the "feel" of a "normal" guitar. Watching me struggle, the music teacher handed me a "Backwards" guitar specifically built for lefties, which felt very natural to hold. For a person just learning to play, I say hold BOTH styles, and see which one feels more natural to hold. Just re-stringing a normal guitar is a poor solution due to the design - like strap connector would be on the bottom of most guitars for lefties.
I play ambidextrously, my brain is hardwired to use both sides. So when I started playing guitar I tried to just play right handed at first. But literally a month into playing guitar I bought my first left handed acoustic and I’ve learned both sides for the past 11 years (off and on). I’m not the greatest guitarist but both ways feel one in the same to me and it’s an ability I’ll never give up.
A lot of us lefties tend to be ambidextrous as we have to use the right hand for various reasons. A lot of lefties are discouraged from using their left hand for certain activities including eating food. I was made to use my right hand to write. But when i picked up a guitar for the first time, a right handed guitar, I naturally held it in the left hand position to the amusement of my friend who owned it.
I have 25 left handed guitars options is not a problem.
There are 'less' but more than enough to get what you want and need if your not worried about the colour variety with each model.
Also right handers would be playing lefty guitars if it was that simple to choose how to learn or if it made logical sense. But the orientation of a 'right handed guitar' is named that way for a reason, so the dominant hand picks, not frets.
I didn't know this until I switched but playing righthanded was making my dyslexia worse . I played rightedhanded for 15yrs before I switched to lefty and I can't get across just how much of a difference it made. I got way better really fast. Once I got the finger strength built up in my righthand enough for fretting I was able to run through scales, understood phrasing and could pay attention to more of the fretboard just for starters. Things that I'd been trying to do for years but couldn't suddenly became way easier for me and when I pick up rightedhanded guitars now I'm actually better then when I actually play as righthander. It also changed the way I hear music too.
I met a guy who was gigging in a bar on Kauai, Hawaii that played a right handed guitar left handed without switching the strings! Can't remember his name, but he was awesome!
Self-taught myself to play right handed, but had a catastrophic injury and reconstructive surgery to my left (fretting) hand. Now I've switched the strings on all my guitars and teaching myself to play Lefty...It's hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be (perhaps my ambidexterity is a big benefit in this instance). Still very early in my journey, but going well so far.....The hardest thing so far is my stumming/picking left hand versus fretting with my right hand...
Telling lefties they shouldn’t or can’t to be left handed is offensive. People who are forced to play right handed because they can’t find left handed guitars suffer from limited finger picking techniques. Sure picking is far simpler and fretting is easy to switch sides but complex finger picking is nearly impossible. Telling left handed people just be right handed is as offensive as forcing others to change things they are born as to accommodate the norm.
I started out as a right -handed guitarist, but switched to left -handed because my synchronization was better and my nervous system didn't feel like I was chewing on aluminum foil.
Hey Max, I'm 16, I'm naturally left handed, but I was taught to write with my right hand (but I sometimes write with my left hand, which I prefer) and I started out playing right handed, and a good year into playing guitar I decided to switch to left-handed and that was around 7 months ago now. It was very difficult but now I've completely converted to left-handed and i'm happy because it feels a lot more natural, I feel more confident in how I look when I play, and my movements feel a lot more fluid, if that makes sense, but anyway, great video!
Im a lefty, but was given a right handed guitar when i was about 10, so over the years i’ve played with the strings upside down, never come across a single issue in regards to playing certain types of music on it. I either get a lefty guitar and swap the strings around, and or just pick up a right handed guitar, and play it as normal, the biggest issue is the knobs pressing against your arm. Cannot complain.
As a lefty I grew up playing a black guitar. That was the only thing I could get at the time. I love that there are a few companies that include us lefties. But honestly, there needs to be MORE companies that have lefty models. Thanks for making this video. Lefties RULE!!!!
I'm a lefty, started playing right-handed, but it didn't feel right, so I switched to left-handed and it feels so much better now. Switching is actually not so hard, cause your brain already knows what to do. It's just muscle memory learning.
On an extended note. I’m learning right handed guitar and as you said it is extremely difficult but practice and hard work pays off. At least all the theory stays the same and the notes don’t move
I owned a right handed Gibson for 12 years. Rarely played it. Other than doing simple 'licks' when it came to rhythm it always felt off. 5 months ago I bought a left handed guitar and it is literally night and day for me. I am exponentially better right now.
There is something about keeping rhythm with your off hand that I could never get.
As for someone who successfully switched, I read that Paul McCartney struggled learning to play until he saw a photo of Slim Whitman and learned playing lefty was a thing. I'd say he's been pretty successful since switching. 😁
Reversed background!! I'm loving it. I'm lefthanded and i have try to play righthanded when i was learning, it was impossible, it didn't feel natural to me. Excellent vídeo dude
Yes. I am a true lefty all of the way, but I first started playing right handed guitar. It was a very slow train wreck! I played that thing for a year straight and was able to play decently at first. But somewhere down the line the awkwardness of me using my RECESSIVE right hand to pick my strings and my dominant left hand to fret my notes, so one day I decided to try out a lefty guitar at a music store and it was a perfect fit! I bought that guitar and found out that it was very easy for me to translate all that I had learned playing righty on my guitar was easily duplicated by me on a lefty guitar! It was just amazing how fast, natural and easy I was able to reach the same level of proficiency playing a lefty guitar in about a month or two as I did playing righty for about two years prior. That is when I stopped playing righty and went all of the way lefty! And I now will only play lefty guitars and basses and I recommend that all supposed lefties just try out a lefty guitar before they even buy a righty so that they don't waste too much time playing a righty guitar that is all wrong for them! Anyways, great video. Keep up this great work! Maybe you will inspire many major guitar makers to start making sure that atleast 2-5% of each line of their righty guitars are made with an option for the customer to choose a lefty if he or she so desired. I know of several people who would love for that to happen, me included! 🤣😂🤣 Adios! 😁
I started out as a Hendrix Jr. when it came to playing guitar, I was actually recommended to get a left handed guitar so I didn't develop that habit. I play rhythm completely left handed and haven't gone backwards since.
For some odd reason I have always played a left-handed air-bass when listening to music. Odd because I’m a right-handed guitarist. I’ve transitioned pretty nicely!:-)
Not every lefty wants to learn on a right-handed guitar.
(We already have to use so many right-handed tools, which aren't adequate for us lefties (example: can openers, scissors, knives, etc...))
Not offering left-handed guitars to left-handed players is like not offering left-handed golf clubs or hockey sticks. It's a matter of respecting people and clients.
So if 10% of people are left-handed, we can accurately say that 10% of guitar players are lefties.
But studies show that left-handed people are more creatively inclined. So as of these studies, we can assume that there are more than 10% of guitar players that are lefties.
Product availability should reflect this reality.
I find it insulting to see big brands like Fender and Gibson have almost no interest in providing a variety of lefties, with a variety of configurations and colors.
When I was gigging my only guitar was a left handed ESP H207. Not the right guitar for the type of music I was playing, but I made it work. I now have a Squire Telecaster ,Fender Acoustic, Epiphone Les Paul, and two different Gretsch Lefty's, 2622 semi hollow, and Electromatic, basically their Les Paul. I also have an Ibanez Bass. Gretsch is the most high quality, out of the box they work as intended and sound great. Can't wait to play them live. The les Paul has a lot of cool bells and whistles if they're wired correctly. The telecaster sounds good if you upgrade the pickups and rewire and shield so you're not picking up AM radio signals. I love hearing a Preacher through my amp, it's the best. My worst guitar is the Ibanez bass, I've had nothing but trouble with it since I bought it. Which brings me to a very important point, if you buy a guitar from Guitar Center ask them if they will set it up for free. Another point if you're a left handed guitar player, learn how to set up a guitar , because techs are usually annoyed when they have to work on one, and it will save you money in the long run. In closing Gretsch make the best quality Lefty's for the price, and if you buy something new from a retailer ask for a setup.
I am right handed and play an EVH. My girlfriend loves my guitar and would like to learn and is left handed. Based on your review of the Jackson JS32, I ordered her one in LH. The colors were limited, but I think she will love it.