im thinking of doing the hendrix thing and getting a left handed strat and switching to righty. pros? cons?

Hi noahmulligan,

The tuners would operate backwards, unless the lefty uses the same as the righty, that might take some getting used to. You would have to change the nut, since the strings would be reversed, ie the high E where the low E was. You would have to rewire the pots, or get used to them working backwards. It might be difficult to get used to the knobs being on top of the strings instead of below them. The reliefs won't be in the right spot for ribs and forearm. It would probably be a unique sound with the pickups being designed for the strings being the other way, the same type of switch worked for Hendrix, except the opposite way, righty played lefty, so it might sound nice. I can barely play a righty Strat, right handed, I can't imagine doing what your considering. If you do go for it, please post your thoughts afterward.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

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Hi Noah,Welcome to the forum,I've changed 2 Lefty Strats over to right handed so far. I'm a card carrying Hendrix freak and have played in cover bands doing Hendrix covers. The most recent change over I did was a 2000 MIM Lefty-Black with a rosewood fretboard-a mirror image of the first Strat he used at Monterey.All I did was pop out the nut and flip it over-no problem-and change the intonation.Getting used to the tuners and controls isn't all that difficult.Having the whammy bar on top makes a big difference as you can rest your forearm on it while you pick a lead break ad get great vibrato effects just by shaking your wrist a bit as you pick.It's also handy when doing whammy dives while doing hammer-ons like Jimi did in the air raid siren sounds during the war scene lead break of Machine Gun.The biggest downside of it is access to the highest frets and it's a bit tricky to reach the high notes in songs like Voodoo Child(slight return) and Machine Gun etc.
All in all it's not too big a job and not hard to get accustomed too but it helps if you have extraordinarily long fingers like Jimi had.Good luck with it and let us know how it all works out.

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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.

Or you can make life easy....and go THIS route.
This is called the 60's Reverse Special.
It was available a few years ago and is MIM.
I had to 'gut it' and replace all the pickups to get it 'my way'. I also put in Graph Tech Straing Saver saddles.
It is a fantastic guitar....well made...aside from the pickups.............

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I refuse to have a battle of the wits with an unarmed man!

I'm a left handed player and have played right handed guitars switched to leftys. I really didn't like it.
I kept knocking the tone and volume switches when i played chords and couldn't get the hang of how different the neck felt.
Another problem is that if your playing sat down the shape of the body is really uncomfortable an your legs and chest. And also if your playing stood up you would need to change the strap nut onto the other side which would mean drilling into the body.

Good luck with whatever you try but personally i wouldn't

Ash

The Reverse Special doesn't really capture the true Hendrix vibe other than the reverse headstock and bridge pup angle.In flipping a lefty you allow for being able to use the vibrato and tone controls in the way Jimi did.Having the vibrato arm up top makes a Huge difference to your technique and really allows to capture the nuances of Jimi's whammy use-I would imagine that's why SRV had his whammy bars converted to lefty.As for knocking the controls while playing,avoiding them while strumming even agressively can be achieved over time.I can play my left/right quite comfortably now,after years at it but it only took a few weeks to become totally comfortable with it.The only thing that is either bit hard to adapt to is the string access at the higher frets of the fingerboard-it helps to have long fingers in that regard.

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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.

I was thinking on doing the same thing. I'd say go for it. I love the upside down big headstock and body. White with a maple neck - - yea.

you could do it but if i were you i would buy a used squier or mexican and do this