Would you like to convert a right-handed guitar to a left-handed guitar? This is an easy conversion to do, but you’ll need to do more than just change the strings. While I believe that it’s better to just buy a quality left-handed guitar, maybe you’ve found a right-handed guitar that you really like. Perhaps you’re a lefty just dabbling in guitar playing and not yet ready to make an investment in a left-handed guitar. Most left-handed guitar and bass players are faced with this dilemma.
When I was learning to play, I didn’t have a lot of money to invest in a high-quality guitar, so I went to the flea market and purchased the cheapest guitar I could find, a twenty-dollar acoustic. Even with its standard setup, the action was terrible because the neck was warped. The strings wouldn’t stay in tune. In short, the guitar sounded like a dying animal. But I converted it to a right-handed guitar by flipping the strings. I didn’t bother to change the nut or the bridge, and this was part of my problem.
Eventually I swallowed my pride and visited a music store. Their luthier looked at it and shook his head. He said it would cost a couple hundred dollars to make it sound really good, but for about forty he could make it serviceable. I went with the latter option. In addition to doing the work, he explained what needed to be done to convert a right-handed guitar to a left-handed guitar.
This works for acoustics, electrics, and electric basses. The materials required to convert a guitar are new strings, a tuner, and wood glue. You may also need a blank nut, a screw driver, sandpaper, and a truss rod adjuster. A string winder is a handy tool to have as well.
First you need to remove the old strings. Once the strings are off, remove the nut (the little thing at the top of the neck). You may need to pry this out with a flat screwdriver. Once it’s out, scrape out the crusty glue with a screwdriver or some sandpaper. Add a little bit of fresh glue to the nut and replace it with its direction reversed. The nut has a groove sized for each string, and if you don’t change it around, there will be play in the little strings and the big strings won’t seat properly.
If something happens in this step, for example the nut breaks or the angle causes the strings to sit too low to the fret board, you’ll need to file your own nut. You can have a guitar shop do this, or you can purchase a file and do it yourself. Plenty of video tutorials are available.
For electric guitars, you might want to reverse the directions of the pickups. To do this, usually you just need to unscrew the pick guard or pickup frames. Be careful not to lose the springs that allow for height adjustment. Once your glue dries, go ahead and install your new strings. To keep your nut from flying away, don’t tighten the strings to full tension until all six strings are on. Use your tuner to get close to the correct pitch. Stretch your strings a bit as you tighten them up.
After they’re installed, play for a while and give them time to go to their length. Once this happens, it’s time to set your intonation. Maybe you’ll be lucky and you won’t have to set it. To check intonation, you compare the pitch at the twelfth fret (octave) with the pitch of an open string. They should be the same.
On acoustic guitars, you may need to alter the bridge to ensure correct intonation. Sometimes this is just a matter of getting a blank and filing it down. If you are converting an expensive guitar (not recommended), take it to a luthier and let them do it.
For electric guitars and basses, this process is much easier. The string saddles are usually adjustable with a Phillips screwdriver. All you need to do is adjust them until the pitches of the twelfth fret and open string match. Always use a tuner for this process, and don’t forget to re-check the open-string tuning every time you make an adjustment to the string saddle.
That covers about everything you need to know about converting a righty guitar to a left-handed guitar. For more information about left-handed guitars, check out the resource box below.
By: Seth Baker About the Author:
Electric Guitars For Lefties
