Hello fellow fender freaks.......

Here is my itch. I want to buy a left handed strat and replace the nut, so I can play it right hand. I would do this with a MIM strat. Keep cost down. My fear is I would do this and hate it. I own a Fender '60s Reverse Headstock Special Strat and love it. Has anyone done this or played a guitar that has had this done to it???

Thanks for you input.....

Peace...

You're not crazy, I've thought about doing that with a Squier. I've also thought about buying a lefty guitar and playing it upside down Albert King style do. (And I actually do that when no one's watching at guitar center. lol)

The controls feel kind of funny, you have to pick back towards the bridge. I normally pick towards the neck pickup, so it's kind of weird for me. If you're not sure about it try to find a lefty guitar somewhere and just see how it feels. And if you're still not sure, you might want to try to find a used one or an inexpensive Squier to try it on before you spend $500 on it just to decide you don't like it.

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There's a Company called Vintage (John Hornby Skewes and Trevor Wilkinson) who do a right handed strat (copy) but with a left handed headstock and pickups. You'll see it on their website. Look for the V6JMH Filmore model, from the "Re-issued" series.

The highly respected Trevor Wilkinson designed it to give a player some Hendrix flavour, feel and sound, but still lets you play the 'right' way round. Might suit you - cheaply priced and at least as good as a Squier Standard.

I've played one. Unusual sound with the reversed pickups and a nice player..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

I changed my lefty MIM Strat to a righty when I bought it-I do a lot of Hendrix covers. It was just a matter of popping out the nut and reversing it-no problem whatsoever.

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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.

The nut will be lightly glued in (hopefully) but depending on your nut it may be unsuitable.
When you reverse the nut you are actually using the side that faces the tuners.
On some nuts the slots are channeled and angled lower and wider here to prevent string binding. The break edge on the string side is the important side.

If this is the case swapping it around instead of going to a new nut may give you issues.

Another thing to consider is you may have to change the pots if you want them the same as a right handed guitar. The string tree wont work well for large strings also so take it out if you have to.

I've had a few lefty Strats which I converted to righty over the years. The upper frets were hard to get to and the volume/tone knobs' direction sometimes confused me but everything else, I adjusted to pretty much immediately. Granted, this was directly a Hendrix thing for me but truth be told, the novelty wears off rather quickly as it is much easier to play the appropriate handed Strat.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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You dig?

The nut in mine reversed without any issues.I found that flipping the lefty to right was essential for playing some Hendrix covers such as Maching Gun in particular.The part where Jimi does the hammer-ons on the 14th fret of the G string to get the air-raid siren type sound you really need the whammy bar up top so that you can rest your forearm on the whammy and depress it while you're doing your hammer-ons all while bending the G string with your fretting hand.That riff is a nightmare to get right but sounds really impressive when perfected.I guess that's why SRV used a left hand whammy on so many of his Strats because you need it configured that way to do 3rd Stone From The Sun also.

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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.

Swap the saddles too.

Quite silly IMHO. Hendrix didn't flip his Strat as a fashion statement.

I, too, have a Fender 60's Reverse Special Stratocaster....and I LOVE it!!
Now...more so than before.
I've totally re-built her.
The cheesy single ply pickguard...GONE.....in it's place a 3 ply VooDoo pickguard!
The pickups (HORRID!!)...GONE...in their place..DiMarzio Area 67(n&m) , DiMarzio Virtual Solo (br.)
Graph Tech String Saver saddles IN....

I also didn't like the 7.5" inch radius Maple neck...so....IN went a brand new American Special Lefty Rosewood neck! I like the reversed logo a LOT!!
And ...Yes ...I replaced the nut with a Graph Tech TUSQ.

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

Hello,

I would like to thank eveyone for there imput. I have another question. I under stand changing the nut and turning the knob's around but, change the saddles? Can some one explain that to me.

Thanks...

Because....IMHO....the stock saddles suck..............very cheaply made...

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

The saddles should be identical.
You don't have to change them around unless they have string wear or they have been slotted for those specific strings. If its an old guitar it might have worn in saddles.

However after the guitar is stringed you need still set the intonation on your saddles and set the string heights especially if you didn't swap the saddles around. This is time consuming and a good learning experience for those who haven't set intonation before. Otherwise take it to a tech.

OK....just bought the guitar of ebay.......


First the nut: Graphite, bone or what about a LRS roller nut or maybe a might mite??? I would hate to just put a replacement nut in when I have a chance to upgrade....

Help me out please....

A roller nut might be better for you if you intend to use the whammy a lot then again a well lubed bone nut will also work well as would a graphite.Personally I prefer bone,it's just what I'm used to.She's a beauty.

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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.