I haven't ever seen left handed orchestra instruments.. Maybe that proves my point.

Regardless of which is harder (strumming versus fretting) it seems that in the long run it would be worth it in terms of available gear to play right handed.

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Custom Shop '59 Strat with John Cruz Master Design Pickups
Vibro King
Fulltone Clyde>Deja-Vibe>TS-808>TS-9>Boss Tuner

I'd say Fingerpicking and Complex Fretwork would be equally difficult. Of course I can only speculate, 'cause I've always been right handed, but I always put the "It's harder for me 'cause I'm left handed" argument in with the "My hands are too Big/Small" argument. They both have advantages and disandvantages that seem to cancel each other out.

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"Persistence Is The Father Of Invention"
-Crazy Old Man In Training

At the risk of making a prohibited commercial announcement, there is a store in San Antonio called Redbone Guitars that caters almost exclusively to the left-handed guitarist. I like going in there to see what they have (and they do have some beauties), but I have a hard time finding a right-handed guitar to play around with.

Interestingly enough, I am left-handed myself. When I start learning guitar about a year ago, I made a conscious decision to play right-handed. The dearth of lefty equipment was one of the factors that led to that decision.

The wisdom of my decision was confirmed to me during a recent visit to Houston. I hadn't taken my guitar on the trip, but I had occasion to play four different guitars owned by friends and family. All of these were right-handed instruments. If I had decided to learn left-handed, I would have missed out on these little jams.

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

You're definitely right. I'm left handed and played left handed guitars for the first few months starting out. Then, I switched to right hand because of the availability of guitars and the ones I wanted didn't come left handed. It took a bit getting used to, but I got the hang of it. If you were to give me a left handed guitar now, It would be very difficult for me to play. It's all about time and adaptation. There are a bunch of professional guitar players that are dominantly left handed, but play right handed guitars. The ones that have been playing left handed and are having difficult time finding the guitar that they want, I've been there and I feel for ya, man!

Dudes! I am not a lefty by trade, only when I use a screw driver. But I have a few friends that play left and I must say there is a plethora of good Fender lefty products where I live. On the shelf even! Just checK out Long & McQuade or Tom Lee web sites. Must be a Canadian thing, always left of centre.

Peace

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Let the Truth of love be lighted
Let the love of Truth shine clear
Sensibility - NEP

I don't get what it is about left handed guitarists. I am left handed and play a right handed guitar normally. I never even thought of picking up a lefty guitar, frankly. Wouldn't having more dexterity in your hand help with fretting? That is how I look at it.

I guess the question is whether having your dominant hand for fretting, or for attacking is preferable. Since I am a lefty, that has only played righty, I can't compare. Don't regret playing right handed at all, just some times wonder if i have handicapped my playing or not. I'll never know, because I have no intention of relearning again on a lefty guitar.

I'm getting rid of my Ibanez stock and making the transition to Fender. Of all the guitar manufacturer's out there, no one makes more lefties than Fender. And there's no other guitar you can mod as much as a Fender. No, it's not perfect. But they're about the best we're gonna get and that's mostly because of Jimi.

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Lefty
Stratocaster
Squier Strat
Peavey Delta Blues

I read the writing on the wall from Day 1 and learned to play righty. I still say it was the proper decision. You can play any guitar off the rack, you don't have to pay extra for a guitar (usually sight unseen) even if they do make it in a lefty version, you have more dexterity in your fingering hand; the list goes on and on. As a matter of fact, it is the only thing I do right handed to this day.

YMMV.

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You dig?

Yet another lefty here playing righty. I tried to switch back to left handed about two years ago but after years of playing it was far to weird to come to grips with. Like others have said though, learning to play right handed has given me an opportunity to play many a sweet guitar.

Oh, an to keep it on topic, there should be more lefties available, it is a sad thing when the market availability dictates how you play.

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94 Fender Strat MIM
08 MIM Fender Telecaster
Fender Pro 185
www.newdilemma.com

The music stores around here(Mt. Pearl and St. John's) have pretty good selections of lefty guitars and basses both electric and acoustic.Saturday I was in Reid Music and Long&McQuade and both stores had a good selection of Strats,Teles,P-Basses,J Basses,Les Pauls&SGs both Gibson and Eppys.My buddy Lew Skinner who until recently had a music store here is a lefty and he carried a large selection of lefty guitars.I have a lefty MIM Strat strung right to get the Jimi vibe,it's a bit of a stretch to access the upper frets but I've gotten used to it and I play it just about every day.I agree though that a lot of dealers don't stock a varied enough or large enough selection to serve left handed players.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

As stated earlier this is all about demand and not so much supply but manufacturing lines.

Back in the day when every guitar was a handcrafted unique piece of art, it was easier to make 2 rightys and then throw a lefty in the mix. In todays world of automated manufacturing lines, switching from a righty to a lefty means at the very least reprogramming the line and more than likely retooling a major part of it. These are both expensive and time consuming issues. Because of this, any increase in cost would be either handed straight down to the lefty player or spread out amongst all the players making the average guitar more expensive. Fair or not that is the reality and that is why we see far fewer options for lefty guitars. It would cost even more to duplicate the programming and tooling over an entire product offering than just a few select models.

For these same reasons you find fewer left handed golf clubs on the market and they are generally more expensive than their right handed counterparts.

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http://www.facebook.com/UCtheband
2012 American Standard Strat Charcoal Froast
2009 Standard Strat Sunburst Brown
Blues Junior Tweed NOS
2007 Line6 Spider Jam

I voted yes. Although I am a right handed player, you do not see much left handed guitars in the stores. If you do, they tend to be a little more expensive for the same brand/model.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

There is no point to this. There ARE left handed guitars. And as for Jimi... nobody held him back.