turning a righty into a lefty

[madog99]

question for you in the know . What's involved in changing a right hand acoustic into a lefty . Kid at work is a wizz on the electric but has no acoustic and he's a lefty .I thought I would look around for a beater and swap it upside down ? too simple I'll bet .
thanks

[Lester B. Flat]

It would be more of a challenge on an acoustic because the bridge is usually glued on without adjustable saddles and can't be easily reversed like many electrics. This will create intonation problems. There are acoustics, maybe an archtop, that have removeable bridges or adjustable saddles.

[Gilliangirl]

I was under the impression that this would not really be possible because the bracing is such that the guitar is braced for treble strings on the treble side and bass on the bass side. Not only that, in addition to the saddle, wouldn't you need to replace the nut as well? On both mine the nut is cut/compensated for bass and treble string accomodation. By the time you do all that, it might not be worth it.

(I'm not really 'one in the know', tho'... LOL)

[Michelle]

I'm left-handed but have no acoustic, (not un-plugged yet). I have a doc at home that covers this and I will post on the weekend if I can find it, but basically here's how it goes... (I've never done this BTW)

Remove the saddle, that bone strip on the bridge.

Find a pice of mahogany or whatever, cut to match and fill that slot, glue, plane, sand until flush, some kind of finish, tung oil or something. (This is where having worthless guitars are good for materials and parts)

Using a dremel router and jig, cut a new slot opposite the old one.

Replace/re-cut/reverse saddle, replace nut.

Do something about the pickguard or not, guitars look really weird with two pickguards and they don't come off easy.

I have heard that the sound might not be right as you pointed out Gillian and that may be true for some instruments, but most newer guitars are symmetrical in their bracing so it wouldn't matter. Or so I've read, I'm no expert.

Lots of L-H acoustics out there though.

Never mix alcohol with dremels!

Michelle

[madog99]

Well thanks for the detail's Michelle . I like the guy , he shows up evey day and works pretty good (once his morning buzz wears off a bit ) but I don't like him that much !!! I did see a guy in a bar once playing a Norman strung upside down and it was great . I knew it wasn't just a simple switheroo of the strings . Oh well , he will have to do with out . thanks for the replies folks.
John

[Michelle]

I want to do this someday on an old beater first, anyway, you're welcome maddog!
Here's the link to that doc:

http://www.guitarrepairshop.com/repairlefty.html

Easy huh?
SeeYa!

[CountryMouse]

I'm left-handed and I play right. I think I'd be a lot faster picking if I had bought a lefty guitar.

Jimi Hendrix played his Strat upside down, but I think I'd just buy a left handed guitar if I was your friend.

[xuthal]

It's not at all that complicated if you are just going to buy a beater,all you have to do is reverse the saddle and file down the nut,and put on the strings of course.I did this with my first guitar(untill my mom broke it)and it worked fine.I wouldnt try this on an expensive guitar though,as stated before the bracing is set up for right handed players and the tension will eventually wreck the guitar,good for a beater though.Nowdays when i look for an acoustic i always go for a lefty.:rockon: