The Squier brand is owned by Fender and gives players with a smaller budget the chance to own more affordable versions of Fender guitars and basses. These instruments are largely made in Asian countries and due to the ever-increasing quality of modern production techniques, these guys can often go toe to toe with their more expensive Fender siblings.

There are no new left handed squier guitars or basses this year, however all of the models from previous years are retained.   We’ve had the same range for at least a couple of years now, so it would be nice to see Squier add some fresh lefties later on this year – fingers crossed!

Left Handed Squier Guitars and Basses 2014

1. Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster
2. Classic Vibe 50s Stratocaster
3. Classic Vibe 60s Stratocaster
4. Affinity Telecaster
5. Standard Stratocaster
6. Affinity Stratocaster
7. Vintage Modified Jazz Bass
8. Vintage Modified 70s Jazz Bass

Squier Website

The Squier website is now nestled within the main Fender site.  Although the site is browsable through different categories there is presently no left handed section.  Each left handed Squier guitar and bass is clearly listed on the site, but it would be nice to add the option of a shortcut to save trawling through every available model.

For more information:
Squier Guitars Website

Over the past few years PRS has taken to producing small numbers of limited run left handed guitars, and 2014 is no different. This year the Maryland crew has seen fit to release a special run of left handed Custom 22s and Custom 24s which you may already be able to find in stores.

Each model is strictly limited in numbers and is available in one of four different colors – Aquableux, Blood Orange, Obsidian and Violet.

Left Handed PRS Guitars 2014

Check out the image above to see all of the available guitars – on the left are the Custom 24s and on the right the Custom 22s.

The 2014 left handed PRS Custom 24 consists of a Regular shape mahogany neck with 24 fret rosewood fretboard, featuring ‘old school’ bird inlays made from abalone. The mahogany body is capped with a gorgeous ’10 Top’ figured maple top. The classic PRS 59 and 09 pickup combination can be controlled via the 5-way Blade selector switch, volume and push/pull tone knobs.

The 2014 left handed PRS Custom 22 features a Wide Fat mahogany neck with 22 fret rosewood fingerboard, adorned with ‘old school’ abalone bird inlays. The mahogany body is finished off with a stunning ’10 Top’ figured maple top. The excellent PRS 57 and 08 pickups can be commanded via the 3-way selector switch, volume and tone knobs.

PRS Guitars Website

The PRS website has no left handed section, but the left handed guitars are clearly listed in the ‘Special Editions’ category.

For more information:
PRS Guitars Website

Schecter has long been known as one of the most lefty friendly mainstream guitar companies around, and this year is not going to see that image change.  2014 has seen Schecter launching their brand new website which quite frankly puts most other brand sites to shame.  And most importantly, the choice of left handed guitars is bigger and more wide-ranging than ever!

The new and improved Schecter website incorporates a ‘Guitar Finder’ tool which allows you to apply filters in order to find the models that fit your exacting specifications.  It currently allows us to search by model series, number of strings and price range amongst other criteria.  However, most importantly it also allows us to browse guitars by dexterity!  It is a truly excellent resource which really streamlines the process of finding your ideal next guitar.  Take note guitar companies of the world!

The Guitar Finder tool coupled with the sheer number of models available left handed renders an article listing every single guitar a little redundant (and impossibly huge!).  For that reason I encourage you to check out the outstanding Schecter website and make use of their excellent tool to discover which of their guitars are right for you.

Left Handed Schecter Guitars

The image above shows a small selection of models available.

According to their Guitar Finder Schecter currently offers 81 of its complete range of 281 guitars left handed as well as a whopping 24 of their line up of 78 basses!  Unfortunately along with this increased choice comes an increase in price of roughly 10%  for left handed models, but personally I’d much rather take that option over settling for a smaller selection of models at right handed prices.

Left Handed Schecter Bass Guitars

The image above shows a small selection of models available.

Whatever style of music you play Schecter has you covered, but just in case you don’t find exactly what you need there’s always Schecter’s Custom Shop.

For more information:
Schecter Guitars Website

Reverend Guitars is an American guitar company, founded in 1996 by guitar and amp technician Joe Naylor.  The company is widely known for their unconventional construction methods and retro designs.

One trait of Reverend that I really respect is that they do seem to refresh their lefty line-up every single year.  They may only offer a small number of left handed guitars, but we do get new models each year which is really nice to see (take note Fender!). 2014 sees the Manta Ray and Double Agent models being introduced as southpaw versions.

Left Handed Reverend Guitars 2014

Manta Ray

Warm and lively, with the acoustic richness and overtones of a full size semi-hollow. P-90?s add a raw upper-mid edge and percussive attack to the recipe. The 1-3/4 inch thick body is slim and manageable and the flat top has a clean, fresh look. Solid wood construction is featured throughout, with no plywood. The back, sides and center block are produced from one slab of Korina which is routed from the top, and then capped with a solid maple flat top. Excellent sustain and attack are coupled with substantial resonance, for a complex and responsive tone.

Double Agent

Have you ever wanted the power and girth of a bridge humbucker, and the sweet/bluesy tone of a neck P-90 in one axe? Then this is your guitar. The two pickups complement each other perfectly, allowing you to switch seamlessly between two different tonal characters without losing volume or punch. And combined, they offer up a unique balls-meets-twang tone unlike anything else.

Reverend Website

The Reverend website employs a clearly separate section for left handed guitars at the bottom of their guitar page – you can’t really ask for much more than that.  Each individual product page is packed full of informative specification listings and plenty of high quality photos of the guitars.  Reverend have really ticked all of the boxes.

For more information:
Reverend Guitars Website

You requested it, so here it is – a definitive guide to the manufacturers who offer left handed 8-string guitars! Extended range guitars can really help add an extra dimension to your playing and will undoubtedly help to expand your musical vocabulary.  Help us to grow the list by suggesting any missing brands in the comments section.

There is a large number of left handed 8-string guitars out there; a handful from the big names and quite a few from the smaller brands and independant luthiers. It would be incredibly tedious and long-winded to list every single guitar available, so a list of brands has been provided with the neccessary website links. All of these companies will supply you with a left handed 8-string guitar, either from stock or via custom order.

Several years ago I published an article which showcased some of the absolute worst guitar related tattoos I could dredge from the bowels of the interwebs. So I thought it would be fun to flip things around and try to dig up some guitar tattoos which didn’t make me want to hurt myself.

And…it wasn’t easy! Perhaps I am just too picky, but I found it a surprising challenge to uncover more than a handful of guitar tattoos which warranted a second glance.  There are a huge number of people out there with ink which has clearly been applied by a skilled artist, but the addition of a guitar into the mix has just completely ruined the piece. In general, guitars just don’t seem to translate well as tattoo art.

However, I did manage to source 20 which in my opinion are pretty respectable (or at least have a great concept to be developed). For example, to me the first tattoo seems a bit bold on its own – but it could look great as an element within a larger sleeve. See what you think…

Guitar Tattoos Don’t Always Look Terrible

Click the images to enlarge (opens in a new window).

Did any of these catch your eye, or have you seen better?  Leave a comment below.

Also be sure to check out 14 TERRIBLE GUITAR TATTOOS

Four years ago today, on June 18th 2010 I published the very first article here on LeftyFretz – 9 Advantages of Playing Guitar Left Handed. How time flies! As a thank you for your continued support over the years, how does a fourth Birthday giveaway sound?

We’re giving away a funky little TC Electronic Ditto Looper pedal to one lucky winner!  Instead of the usual entry via social media route, the competition will be hosted on our forum. This should hopefully mean that a genuine reader will win rather than one of the million competition junkies on Facebook who’ve more than likely never heard of us before. Plus the chances of you actually winning will be greatly increased

The Prize

How To Enter

Make 10 posts on the LeftyFretz Forum by the end of this month.  That’s it.  Simple!

Please do not spam the forum with useless posts.  You do not need to create 10 THREADS, just single posts to show that you are a real person. Posts must be made between today and June 30th to be eligible.

Worldwide competition. The winner will be chosen via random number generator on July 1st 2014.

So what are you waiting for?  You’ll find a link to the forum in the menu bar at the top of the page. Good luck.

Dean Zelinsky is a legendary guitar designer/builder and the founder of Dean Guitars which he formed in 1976.  In 2008, Zelinsky parted ways with Dean Guitars to form DBZ Guitars and served as company CEO.  He departed DBZ in February 2012 to form Dean Zelinsky Private Label Guitars citing he needs a company where he has 100% control.

Left Handed Dean Zelinsky Private Label Guitars

From left to right: Tagliare Custom, Tagliare Standard, StrettaVita Custom, StrettaVita BT Custom, StrettaVita BT, Zenyatta Custom

The image above shows a selection of left handed models, however they are all available in a variety of different colors – hit up the DZPL website for full details!

Most Dean Zelinsky Private Label guitars are available left handed, with some being offered with the famous Z-Glide reduced friction neck. The Z-Glide guitar neck is achieved by precisely engraving a carefully tested pattern into the back of the neck which reduces surface area by 70% and putting a bit of air between you and your guitar…your hand only comes in contact with 30% of the neck.  The Z-Glide was also designed to trap moisture and sweat.  The result is an ultra fast neck with a consistent, silky-smooth feel.

Dean Zelinsky Private Label Website

The company website includes a special left-handed section which is really nice to see, however as is the case with many other brands - it needs to be kept updated!  At the time of writing the Zenyatta model is not listed in the left handed section, despite being available in a southpaw version.

DZPL has a store on their website which allows for purchasing direct from the company, however they also have a small number of worldwide dealers which you can find listed on their website. This new range of guitars is surprisingly affordable, with prices starting at around the $400 mark.

For more information:
Dean Zelinsky Private Label Guitars Website

I recently had the absolute pleasure of having the opportunity to read through what is undeniably THE definitive study of the world of the left handed guitarist. Uncommon Sound : The Left Handed Guitar Players who Changed the World, written by John Engel should be on every serious guitar fanatic’s bookshelf.

First Impressions

When these books first arrived at the office I was initially taken aback by the weight of the package. Had I accidentally been sent two or three copies? Nope! Uncommon Sound is a substantial product that weighs in at a whopping 7.7kg (17 pounds in old money) according to my bathroom scales. This isn’t an item you’d want to carry home on foot (like I did!).

The first thing you’ll notice before opening the books is the effort that has gone into their presentation. They are contained within a beautifully printed and incredibly robust display folder which in itself will look great in your bookcase. That is, if you have a bookshelf large enough to accommodate them (unlike me!).

The books are colour coded to help differentiate between the two. The red book focuses on players from the worlds of rock, pop, punk, reggae and metal, whilst the blue book details R&B, jazz, folk, blues, country and world music guitarists. Each book very thoughtfully contains a built in bookmark – which you will need, because there’s no way you’re reading one of these behemoths in a single sitting!

From the sheer size of the books you would think that they probably contain mostly image based content, but you’d be wrong. Whilst they do contain plenty of high quality images, the content is mainly text based. Each book is about 400 pages long and over a foot tall – a substantial amount of work has gone into the making of Uncommon Sound.

Also included inside the package is a CD which contains music from a select number of artists contained within the books – a nice touch.

Inside the Books

Each book follows the same format. The introductory chapters talk about left handed guitarists and left handed people in general. I particularly enjoyed the first chapter in the blue book which quizzed well respected guitar teachers about their stances on left handed players. Here is a great quote from Bruce Dickinson, head of the Brighton Institute of Modern Music:

I’ve seen many lefties who play right handed and have difficulties later on because their picking/strumming hand is the less sensitive and controlled of the two. Typically, if they are fully left handed, their sense of rhythm in the right hand will be less developed or just unmanageable. This problem, which does not build up until later along the learning curve, can be an insurmountable obstacle. This is why I don’t recommend that left handers learn to play right handed unless they feel very comfortable with it.

I like this guy!

After the brief introductory chapters the main bulk of the book begins – the artist biographies. This section makes up almost the entire book and generally consists of between 4-6 pages which detail the lives and achievements of each guitarist. Each of the two books contain a dizzying number of artists, complete with high quality imagery of press shots, gigging photos and album artwork. Even after running a website about left handed guitarists for several years I can safely say that I had previously heard of very few of the musicians that Engel chose to write about. Going through these biographies was a real eye opener for me!

The final 50 or so pages of each book is dedicated to showcasing some of the most incredible left handed guitars from years gone by. If you are anything like me you will have some serious G.A.S after ploughing through these sections!

Uncommon Sound by John Engel

THE definitive study of the world of the left handed guitarist. These books are just an absolute must have for any guitar fanatic’s bookshelf – left handed or otherwise.

At almost $200 Uncommon Sound is by no means a cheap product, but when you have the books in your hands it plainly becomes obvious that your money was well spent. A serious piece of literature for serious guitar enthusiasts.

Uncommon Sound : The Left Handed Guitar Players who Changed the World is available to purchase online:
Amazon USA : Uncommon Sound

Think you’ve seen it all when it comes to weird guitar designs? Well, you haven’t! Check out these 17 crazy monstrosities – you won’t believe number 15 isn’t Photoshopped!

1.The Destroyer
Part guitar, part mandolin, and what’s the antennae for? A freaking theremin, that’s what! As if that wasn’t enough, the Destroyer comes complete with in-built effects, tuner and glow-in-the-dark capabilities thanks to its multitude of LED lights. Mark Dalzell is the creator of this quirky beast – plenty more photos on his Flickr page.

2. Tennessee 15-String Bass
This one is for the extended range police – you know, those guys who get all high and mighty every time I talk about guitars with more than 6 strings. Well this over-the-top crazy bass has 15 strings – FIFTEEN!! How d’ya like them eggs? Recently spotted for sale on eBay UK.

3.ZZ Zulu Warlord
Well, that’s what the gentleman selling this monstrosity on Craigslist christened it. This taxidermy special features a deerskin hide body covering, steer horns, and in case you didn’t notice them, the volume and tone knobs are sheep eyeballs. Although preferring cash, the seller was also willing to trade it for a live goat and vintage pygmy blow dart gun…

4.Grassroots GR-PPG
This has got to be the epitome of a ‘no-frills’ Strat! The GR-PPG is made by Grassroots for the Asian market.  Black, white and tortoise-shell variations are available – check them out here.

5.The Swinger Guitar
Belt out a victory solo every time you serve an Ace with the Swinger tennis racket inspired guitar. The Swinger puts the soul of an electric guitar into a body inspired by vintage tennis rackets.

6.Bender Distortocaster
The Bender Distortocaster looks like it would be more at home in a Salvador Dali painting than in your lap. Although bizarre in appearance, these ultra-rare and ultra weird guitars are reported to be excellent players. Here’s a great YouTube video.

7.Rockin’ Chair
Ever wished your guitar was also a chair?  Yeah, me neither! What’s incredible is that after making the bass, the builder somehow thought it would be a great idea to build a guitar version as well.  Check them both out in action in this video. As far as weird guitar designs go, these are right up there!

8.The NO-Caster
More a study of negative space than a guitar! Three kinds of aged plywood, recycled 27 inch inner tubes, many screws, tape. What more do you need? The No-Caster, designed by Eric Mecum can be played sitting down, but a guitar strap is preferred!

9.Lego Guitars
Is there anything you can’t do with Lego? These two examples were created by Fosters Guitars.

10.Dewey Decibel’s Flipout Guitar
Most of the time when you hear about a guitar being flipped it’s a southpaw converting a righty guitar into a lefty. That’s not quite the case with these crazy guitars!  Find out more on the Dewey Decibel Guitars website.

11.Lawsuit Proof Les Paul
Another design which takes the idea of flipping a guitar to extremes! Not too sure this is a real guitar, but an innovative idea nonetheless!

12.Baster Stereo
While great as an art installation, i’m not quite sure about the practical qualities of this creative guitar! See it in action on Vimeo.

13.Wangcaster
You knew I had to include this infamous guitar in here somewhere!

14.Pikasso
Thought that 15 string bass was over the top? This guy has 42 strings of sheer and utter insanity. Check out this video which shows Pat Metheny giving it a workout.

15.Yoshihiko Satoh 12 Neck
The string count keeps on exploding! This beast has a whopping 72 strings! Another guitar which definitely falls under the art category.

16.Coon Dog Guitar
Wow, this one is super realistic! Looks like an actual dog asleep inside a guitar case.  Oh wait…it is.  My bad, next photo!

17.Teenar Girl Guitar
CREEPY.  That is all I’ve got to say.

 Click the buttons below to share these crazy guitars with your friends!

Dean Guitars was founded in 1976 in Chicago, Illinois by Dean Zelinsky.  Although Zelinsky left Dean in 2009, the company has carried on with new owner Elliott Rubinson at the helm – Rubinson changed his surname to Dean in 2009.

Dean offers a great selection of left handed guitars and basses (almost 30!), featuring many exotic shapes, finishes and woods which are generally avoided by most of the other larger brands in their southpaw ranges.

Left Handed Dean Guitars

The image above shows a small selection of part of the range of left handed guitars and basses from Dean.  Dean has the entire lefty collection so well arranged on their website that there would be no sense in showing you every guitar here. Check out the special left handed section on the Dean website to see the entire series!

Limited Runs

In addition to these standard models, you may also wish to take a look at the exclusive selection of left handed Deans from our friends at Xtreme Lefty Guitars.  They often commission special runs of instruments which are usually unavailable left handed. Send Dave an email to see what he has lined up!

Dean Guitars Website

The Dean Guitars website is definitely one of the best out there when it comes to catering for the southpaw demographic.  The site features an easily accessible ‘lefty’ section which clearly displays all available left handed guitars – great work Dean!

For more information:
Dean Guitars Website

You requested it, so here it is – a definitive guide to the manufacturers who offer left handed 7-string guitars! Extended range guitars can really help add an extra dimension to your playing and will undoubtedly help to grow your musical vocabulary.  Help us to expand the list by adding any missing brands in the comments section.

There is a large number of left handed 7-string guitars out there; a handful from the big names and quite a few from the smaller brands and independant luthiers. It would be incredibly tedious and long-winded to list every single guitar available, so a list of brands has been provided with the neccessary website links. All of these companies will supply you with a left handed 7-string guitar, either from stock or via custom order.

As a left handed guitar player, it’s not always as easy as you would like it to be when trying to find your next bargain guitar on eBay.  You may be blissfully unaware that you aren’t searching correctly and are in fact overlooking many hidden gems!  This guide should hopefully give you all the tools you will need to reliably uncover the best lefty guitars listed on eBay.

Consider for a minute that you want to buy a Godin guitar. You pull up the eBay homepage and type ‘left handed Godin guitar‘ into the trusty search box. Bingo! You get a result…

Straightforward enough right? Sure, in this case, but unfortunately not everyone listing a left handed guitar has the mental fortitude to include a functional title description such as in that example. The reason for this is both simple and frustrating – creating an eye-catching title description for a lefty guitar is instantly more challenging due to the fact that you have less typing space to play with.  Right handed players don’t need to waste space telling bidders that the guitar is right handed, but us southpaws do!  By the time you’ve thrown in every synonym and abbreviation for ‘left handed‘ you’ll be lucky to have enough room left to tell your potential bidders the brand of the guitar!

So what do people do? They sacrifice space to better describe the guitar, failing to adequately advertise the left handed orientation of the item.  Let’s take a look at a few examples of how sellers choose to describe their guitars…

As you can see, sellers use different terms and abbreviations to advertise their guitars. Obviously you would grow weary of searching for each of these different description terms, and you certainly don’t want to trawl the entire list of guitars on eBay, looking for suitable guitars listing by listing.

Smart Searching

So let’s get smart! Here is the search enquiry that I personally use to ensure that I find all of the best  deals on eBay.  Surf over to the guitar section on your country’s eBay website and enter : (left,lefty,lh,l/h,southpaw)

What this is basically saying to eBay is ‘show me all of the listings which have ANY of these terms in their title description. So in this case any auction which has any of ‘left’, ‘lefty’, ‘lh’, ‘l/h’ or ‘southpaw’ in their title.

If you’re looking for a specific brand or model just throw that in after the end bracket, for example ‘(left,lefty,lh,l/h,southpaw) ibanez‘ will throw up all of the guitars from Ibanez. You can also further hone your results by choosing to omit certain keywords. For example if you want a Fender in any color but red or black you can try ‘(left,lefty,lh,l/h,southpaw) Fender -Red -Black‘. Experiment with it and tune it to your needs. A top tip is to use this custom search enquiry and then save the results page to your favorites/bookmarks list. This way you don’t need to type it in every time you want to check for new deals. Sort your search results by Time :Newly Listed and you’ll get the freshest listings at the top.

But LeftyFretz, why not just tick the ‘left handed’ checkbox on the sidebar when searching? When you consider that a large number of people will not bother to input the fine details such as this when listing, this method of searching becomes less than reliable.

Now that you’re armed with your laser-targeted search terms let’s go back to our original search example. If I now search eBay Guitars for ‘(left,lefty,lh,l/h,southpaw) godin’ we get back 3 results! That’s a significant increase! Obviously Godin is a less common brand so in the case of something more mainstream like Fender that could mean a large number of extra options for you depending on where you live.

International Left Handed eBayers Have Extra Problems!

Unfortunately for some other countries such as the United Kingdom, proceedings are even further complicated by the addition of a southpaw guitar sub-category in the guitars section. “But LeftyFretz, how could that possibly make things more complicated, now I don’t even need to search with that stupid long search string!?! ” Well the left handed category is more a burden than anything else, and I feel that eBay should remove it – here’s why…

• Not all sellers will be aware that there is a left handed category and will list in the regular guitar section blissfully unaware.
• Some sellers will realise that the category exists but will continue to list in the regular section believing they will get more traffic there. They are also reluctant to pay to list in both categories.
• Many sellers who do list in the lefty category think that listing in this section means they are free to omit the guitar’s dexterity in the auction title, therefore making it impossible to search for in general.

The example above shows an acoustic guitar listed in the Left Handed sub-category without any left handed tags – doh!

So what does this mean for left handed UK eBayers? Simply put, it means that if you search for guitars purely in the left handed category you will not discover all of the guitars that are available to you

Let’s do a mini case-study here for a second and see what we can discover. If we browse the left handed category with no search terms we throw up 143 results. Now go back to the main guitars category and do our lefty search enquiry ‘(left,lefty,lh,l/h,southpaw)‘. Here are the results of the LeftyFretz jury…

• 131 guitars in ‘Left Handed’ (this means that 12 were described improperly)
• 25 guitars in ‘Electro-Acoustic’
• 312 guitars in ‘Electric’
• 131 guitars in ‘Acoustic’
• 14 guitars in ‘Other’
• 613 left handed guitars in total (an increase of 470!!)

So as you can see, the search procedure for lefty guitarists in the UK just got a lot more involved. If you reside in good ol’ Blighty I would suggest that you do the custom search enquiry in the general guitars category and then head over to the left handed guitar category and search for whatever brand/model you’re looking for, omitting the ‘(left,lefty,lh,l/h,southpaw)‘ search.

That concludes our guide to smart eBay searching, I hope you will use this information to make your next southpaw guitar purchase a good one! Now that you know how to find the guitars take a look at our guide on How to Get The Best Prices on eBay Guitars

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The Major Scale is one of the most commonly used scales in Western music. Here at LeftyFretz we know that some of you do struggle with regular diagrams and lessons which are aimed at right handed players, so we’ve put together a lesson which shows the major scale for left handed guitar players.

We won’t delve into musical theory in this article as there are a million and one other websites out there which will thoroughly explain this to you if interested. The aim of this lesson is to let you dive straight into using the major scale and start having fun with it right away.

Major Scale Shapes for Left Handed Guitar

Rather than learning the major scale over the entire guitar neck as one huge pattern, it is much easier to split it up into smaller, bite-sized chunks.  Take a look at the diagrams below and you’ll see that I’ve split the major scale up into five different patterns.  Try and master each one individually before moving on to the next.  The blue notes are important as these represent the root notes and indicate which key you are playing in. When playing each pattern, keep coming back to these blue notes in order to sound more ‘in key’.

One Huge Scale

All of the different patterns are interconnected and note overlaps will occur between adjacent shapes – for example patterns one and two share eight of the same note positions.  Take a look at the diagram below to see exactly how each pattern connects and overlaps with the next.  If you have swatted up on your note name positions then you’ll be able to work out that this particular diagram shows the A Major Scale (all of the blue notes are A’s).  If you haven’t yet mastered learning the names of all of the notes, check out our lesson on Learning the Guitar Fretboard Note Names.

Also notice how the patterns repeat themselves up the neck – 1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,1,2 etc..

Hints for Faster Learning

Start off by learning the first pattern and then build upon that by adding position five behind it. Practice moving fluently between the two positions.  Once you have them mastered try adding the second pattern on top of position one and keep building up until you can cover the entire neck.  To make the learning process more interesting play the scale shapes over some of your favourite songs, or find a backing track from any online resource.  One of the easiest places to find a backing track in almost any style and/or key is YouTube.

To really embed these scale shapes in your subconscious try and play them in as many different ways as possible.  For example make sure that you can play them ascending as well as descending and even try and play the entire scale using only string!

Practice while watching your favorite television show and you’ll find that muscle memory soon takes over and you’ll be able to play these patterns in your sleep!

Hungry for more left handed guitar tuition?  Check out our Lessons Section!

Hit the buttons below to share this lesson with your friends!

Do you get enough exercise?  Honestly?  Yeah, I thought not.

And to be fair, who does? We live in a time-starved society where every minute counts and finding time to exercise can be challenging. Playing guitar does burn a few calories, but by making one very simple change to your practice sessions you can double, if not triple your energy expenditure. Kill two birds with one stone – improve your guitar skills and improve your health.

How Many Calories Do I Burn Playing Guitar?

The graph below shows roughly how many calories you will burn per hour whilst playing a variety of different instruments. These values are based on an average male who weighs 80kg, or around 175 pounds in old money.

As you can see, with the exception of the accordion, guitar is dead bottom of the barrel. The lowest of the low. Assuming that you are sitting whilst practicing you are only going to be burning a paltry 80 calories every hour. And let’s face it, we all sit when we practice – right?

But take a look at what happens to that number by simply getting off your ass and standing up. You’ve got legs right? Use them! Suddenly you are burning 159 calories per hour – an increase of almost 100%. Playing guitar and moving around will further ramp up the numbers to 239 calories per hour!

If you weigh more, you burn more.  If you play more, you burn more. If you move more, you burn more.

Say that you manage to play guitar for one hour every day.  By standing rather than sitting you are burning an extra 79 calories per day, or 553 calories per week. To put that into perspective, 553 calories burned is roughly equivalent to:

1. Going for a 5 mile jog
2. Stationary exercise bike for 1.25 hours at moderate pace
3. Swimming for 1 hour (crawl)
4. Going for a 4 hour leisurely walk

And you can expend all of this extra energy by just standing up. It’s not exactly a big ask is it? And you’re burning all of those extra calories without losing any precious extra free time.

As a modern society relying heavily on technology, we spend far too much time sitting down. It’s not natural! Make this one tiny change to your practice sessions. What have you got to lose, besides a few unwanted pounds?

Share these facts with your friends by using the buttons below!

Today we spotted two new left handed guitars which have just appeared on the Ibanez website.  Check out the new left handed AG95L and AM93L hollow-body models from the Artcore Expressionist Series.

At the moment these two guitars only appear to be on the Ibanez USA website, so there’s a chance they could be exclusive to the States.

Ibanez AG95L & AM93L Left Handed Guitars

On top is the AG95L and underneath is the AM93L

Ibanez Artcore Expressionist
For a decade now, Ibanez has continued to energize the hollow-body segment with a wide range of designs—with everything from rockin’ hybrids to straight-up jazz-boxes. The new Expressionist line begins yet another chapter in the Artcore story.The Expressionist difference? Jazz fans will recognize the Ibanez original Super 58 custom pickups— the preferred pickup of George Benson, Pat Metheny and John Scofield on their own Signature models. A jazz favorite, yes, but as funk guitarist Eric Krasno has been proving, the Super 58s perform well in a variety of situations. Warm, balanced articulation, and excellent response characterize the Super 58 custom.

AG95L 
neck type Expressionist 3pc Mahogany/Maple set-in neck
body Figured Bubinga top/back/sides
fretboard Bound Rosewood fretboard w/Pearl block inlay
fret Medium frets
number of frets 22 frets
bridge ART-1 bridge
tailpiece VT06 tailpiece
neck pu Super 58 custom (H) neck pu (Passive/Alnico)
bridge pu Super 58 custom (H) bridge pu (Passive/Alnico)
hardware color Gold

AM93L
neck type Expressionist 3pc Mahogany/Maple set-in neck
body Quilted Maple top/back/sides
fretboard Bound rosewood fretboard w/Pearl block inlay
fret Medium frets
bridge ART-1 bridge
tailpiece Quik Change III tailpiece
neck pu Super 58 custom (H) neck pu (Passive/Alnico)
bridge pu Super 58 custom (H) bridge pu (Passive/Alnico)
hardware color Gold

For more information:
Ibanez USA Website

Let’s take a quick break from guitars and talk about being left handed in general for a change.  I’ve put together a list of 25 interesting left handed facts, from the funny to the weird and everything in between.

One really interesting factoid that I picked up was from a scientist who believed that left handed people tended to be more independent as a result of having to adapt to a world which is largely built for right handed individuals.  Here are a few more fascinating pieces of trivia related to being a lefty…

Scientific Left Handed Facts

• Make up between 5% and 10% of the population (depending on who you ask)
• More likely to have allergies
• More prone to migraines
• More likely to be insomniacs
• Use the right side of the brain the most
• Three times more likely to become alcoholics – the right side of the brain has a lower tolerance to alcohol!
• More likely to be on extreme poles of the intelligence scale
• Tend to reach puberty 4 to 5 months later than right handers
• More likely to suffer stuttering and dyslexia
• Twice as likely to be a man
• Better at 3D perception and thinking
• Better at multi-tasking
• Live on average 9 years less than right handed people
• 39% more likely to be homosexual

Interesting Left Handed Trivia

• Make especially good baseball players, tennis players, swimmers, boxers and fencers (almost 40% of the top tennis players are lefties)
• Celebrate left handed day once a year – August 13th – International Left Handers Day
• Draw figures facing to the right
• Recover from strokes faster
• More likely to pursue creative careers
• Of the seven most recent U.S Presidents, 4 have been left handed
• Left handed college graduates go on to become 26% richer than right handed graduates
• On a QWERTY keyboard there are 1447 English words typed solely with the left hand, whilst only 187 are typed with the right hand.

Bizarre Left Handed Statistics

• Adjust to seeing underwater quicker
• Less able to roll their tongue than a righty
• Nails grow faster on the left hand than the right (fingerpicking advantage anyone?)

So we’ll live for nine years less than right handed people huh?  Well the way I see it, that’s nine years less squandering my kids’ inheritance money, living in a nursing home where some teenager cleans up my drool and wipes my arse for me – that’s a plus in my book ;) 

If you have any left handed trivia of your own leave a comment below!  Also be sure to check out our list of 15 Crazy Left Handed Superstitions and Myths!  You may also enjoy our article that looks at some of the theories that attempt to explain Why Are People Left Handed?

Hit the button below to share these facts with your friends!

Happy National Left Handed Day!  Every year on August 13th we southpaws get our very own designated day to celebrate being left handed.  This annual event is also meant to help raise awareness of the troubles that left handed people experience with living in a right-hand centric world.

So the idea is that we have an excuse to get drunk and have a whinge at how easy righties have it? Well, not quite.

Special events are usually set up around the world, such as ‘left handed zones’ where everyone is encouraged to use their left hands to perform simple tasks.  These special areas might only include lefty tools and utensils in order to force people into finding out what it’s like being a southpaw in a right handed world.

All too often left handed people are overlooked by designers and developers. It is also hoped that through participating in this day we can raise awareness of the need for ambidextrous product designs.

Here’s my (selfish) suggestion for this yearly event.  Every year on August 13th guitar stores worldwide should have a sale where only the southpaw models are discounted. Do it. Do it.

Are you planning on celebrating National Left Handed Day?  Leave a comment below!

Celebrate this great day by grabbing one of our exclusive left-handed tshirts!! Click here to see the range!

Lefty Links

Read more about left handed people at the following rediculously fascintating links…
25 AMAZING Facts about Left Handed People
15 CRAZY Left Handed Superstitions
Why are People Left Handed?

Let your friends know about National Left Handed Day by hitting the buttons below!

Taylor Guitars is a USA guitar brand established in 1974 by Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug.  Although Taylor is mainly known for their highly regarded steel-string acoustic guitars, they have also of late been producing some stunning semi-hollow and solid body electric guitars.

But what about left handed models I hear you ask?  Although sadly omitted from the current Taylor website, here is the old FAQ entry about left handed availability:

Do you make left-handed models?
Yes, you can get any current Taylor guitar in a left-handed model. There is no extra charge. We can even do a left-handed guitar strung right-handed, if you prefer. Our usual turnaround time is two months or less, even for custom orders. See your local Taylor dealer for more info.

That’s right, you can order any guitar from Taylor’s current range left handed – fantastic!

Left Handed Taylor Guitars

There is just no way I could list all of the guitars available, so I would suggest that you head over to the Taylor Website and take a look around.  Unless you have a fantastic local guitar store with a large lefty selection you’ll more than likely need to special order one, but it’s great that the option is there for us!

The image above shows a tiny selection of Taylor’s current range of left handed guitars, but be sure to head over to the Taylor website to learn more.

Taylor Website

The Taylor website used to be really excellent for left handed information, but it seems as though much has gone amiss in recent updates. There used to be a section in their FAQ which talked about lefty availability, and every single product page used to have left handed availability clearly marked. A little disappointing, but a quick email to Taylor gave me the details I needed.

For more information:
Taylor Guitars Website

Music Man Guitars is one of the world’s best known manufacturers of high quality guitars and basses.  The company is a division of the Ernie Ball corporation and all of the guitars are made in San Luis Obisbo in California, USA.

Left handed Music Man guitars come with a number of configurable options.  For example you can choose from a variety of different finishes, and have your headstock match the body finish color or keep it natural.  The Petrucci models have the option of a piezo bridge and special inlays, and the Silhouette models also have choices on which material your pickguard is made out of. Check out the Music Man website to see the full range of available options.

So, whats the story with left handed Music Man guitars and basses? In total Music Man make 12 of their current range as a left handed option, which is a damn sight better than most of the other big manufacturers.  Let’s take a look…

Left Handed Music Man Guitars

From left to right: Luke, Axis SuperSport, John Petrucci 6, John Petrucci 6 BFR, Jogn Petrucci 7, John Petrucci 7 BFR, Silhouette Special

Luke Steve Lukather Signature Model
The Music Man Luke Steve Lukather Signature Model combines hot electronics, a sleek body, and an oil-finished maple neck with a prominent V-profile. The electronics are active (with an easy-access battery compartment) and employ an active EMG model 85 humbucker in the bridge position, and 2 EMG SLV custom single coils forward. 5-way selector gives instant access to a palette of tones. Hardware includes a MusicMan vintage tremolo and Schaller M6-IND locking tuners that ensure accurate tuning and intonation. Includes hardshell case.

Axis Super Sport
Combines the classic book-matched figured maple top, cream binding, and features of Music Man’s Axis with the string-thru-body bridge and 5-way switching of the Music Man Axis Sport. Available as either a double Dimarzio humbucker option or as a double MM90 ‘soapbar’ style configuration.

John Petrucci 6
The Music Man John Petrucci 6-String Electric Guitar has a maple neck featuring an adjustable truss rod and 5-bolt mounting to the basswood body for perfect alignment and no slipping. A sculpted neck joint allows free access to upper frets. The Petrucci 6 guitar’s rosewood fretboard has 24 wide, high-profile frets. Schaller locking tuners and custom John Petrucci tremolo complete the hardware. 2 Custom DiMarzio humbucking pickups were specially designed for Petrucci. Piezo bridge option adds bright, natural string vibration tones to the mix. 3-way selector has a custom center-position configuration.

John Petrucci 6 BFR
The Ball Family Reserve John Petrucci 6 Electric Guitar was designed in conjunction with the world-renowned Dream Theater guitarist. The signature Music Man guitar features fine tonewoods including alder and mahogany. A mahogany tone block runs from under the bridge to the neck pocket. Full mahogany neck. The Petrucci electric guitar’s high gloss polyester finish looks great and offers superb protection. Equipped with redesigned controls providing additional versatility and tonal options, the signature John Petrucci 6 sets the standard for the next generation of electric guitar innovation.

John Petrucci  7
Same as the Pectrucci 6 string above but with 7 strings

John Petrucci 7 BFR
Same as the Petrucci BFR 6 string above but with 7 strings

Silhouette Special
Same cool Silhouette shape and features, except this version comes equipped with a Music Man vintage tremolo, a 3-pickup array in an H-S-S or S-S-S configuration, and featuring the patented Music Man “Silent Circuit” that reduces hum while retaining a true single-coil sound. The graphite acrylic resin-coated body cavity and aluminum-lined pickguard provide electronic shielding to block noise and hum from external electrical sources.

Left Handed Music Man Bass Guitars

From left to right: Bongo, Bongo 5, Stingray 4, Stingray 5, Sterling

StringRay 4
Combining tone, looks, functionality, feel and loads of character, the Music Man StingRay took the bass world by storm in its debut in 1976. Since then it has remained one of the most popular instruments amongst professional bassists, and for good reason. Featuring that signature massive humbucking pickup, 3 band active EQ, select maple neck, 6 bolt neck attachment, and Schaller tuners, the current day StingRay is a prime example of what a bass should be.

StringRay 5
5-string version of the Stingray, see above for information.

Sterling
The Music Man Sterling 4-String Bass has a similar shape to the StingRay, but is shorter and narrower, while the neck remains basically the same (34″ scale, 11″ radius). It also features hot-rodded electronics: active 3-band preamp, a Music Man humbucker with hum-cancelling phantom coil, and unique 3-way switching (both coils in series mode, single coil, and both coils in parallel mode).

Bongo 4
Selected basswood is carved into THE most distinctive body style ever—very well balanced and responsive with a super-tight 5-bolt joint to a selected maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. Dual neodymium humbuckers with 4-band EQ on 2 concentric knobs and continuous balance provide huge tone with precision command. Schaller BM tuners with tapered string posts, easily accessible truss rod, matching headstock, and a graphite acrylic resin-coated body cavity for supreme noise shielding add up to true Music Man luxury.

Bongo 5
5-string version of Bongo, see above for information.

Music Man Website

The Music Man website is well designed and contains every detail under the sun regarding their guitars.  Unfortunately there isn’t an option to browse by dexterity, but this isn’t much of a problem here as the Music Man range is kept to a few high quality guitars rather than hundreds of variable quality models.  Check out the spec list on each guitar’s information page to find out which are available to order left handed.

For more information:
Music Man Guitars Website