Guitar for a left hand ten year old

IIMII

My son has started learning the guitar and I'd like to pick one up for him for Christmas. I was going to get a right handed one and have the strings switched. Any advice beyond that and suggestions how much or where I might get a good price on a suitable one?

Thanks

Banjo

I'm no expert by any means so please disregard this mail if there's another reply on the thread, but as far as I know if you reverse the strings your nut and bridge will be back to front - at the neck the string with the widest circumference will be in the narrowest slot and vice versa so strings will be sitting too low or two high and the low E and A strings can pop out of their grooves ; depending on the type of bridge the saddles will be set up incorrectly so you can have intonation issues up and down the neck (you can adjust this on many electrics but if it's fixed, you're boned). Also, the raised E and A strings can make fretting at the first fret more difficult than it needs to be, which is no fun when you're trying to play a barred F for the first time. Not to mention that the pick guard will be upside down which just looks plain wierd OVerall, it's not the end of the world but it can be very offputting for a beginner. You should love your first guitar the way you'll always love the first girl you kissed - she may not be perfect, she may not be pretty, and maybe she didn't have as many twiddly bits as you wanted or her neck wasn't bolted on properly, but at the time she was exactly what you wanted. You don't want to think of her like your friend's older sister who used to pull your hair and tell people you wet the bed.

Left handed guitars aren't as hard to find as they once were, as long as you don't go into the shop with a fixed make and model in your head there should be some choice. In dublin, all roads lead to XMusic.ie. What's your price range and are you looking for accoustic or electric?

IIMII

Thanks banjo. I knew there was probably more to it than I was aware of..! Basically, he has only taken a few lessons (not electric, accoustic I think is the term), but it seems like a worthwhile longterm gift. Really bottom of the range is what I was thinking (price-wise anyway) to see how he gets on. But bearing in mind your post above, I'd be happy to put the effort and money into getting a decent starter guitar.

Hadn't heard of XMusic.ie, cheers

Maz81

IIMII wrote: »

My son has started learning the guitar and I'd like to pick one up for him for Christmas. I was going to get a right handed one and have the strings switched. Any advice beyond that and suggestions how much or where I might get a good price on a suitable one?

Thanks

Try the Sound Shop in drogheda, my brother is left handed and bought all his guitars there, i dont think he got the strings changed but you could ring them and check. Good Luck

smooch71

Beat him into using his right hand. Everyone knows left handed people are evil.

Or, check out Thomann.

They have a full range of left handed guitars. Don't know if you're familiar with them, they're based in Germany but have a proper section of their site for Ireland.

I use them all the time, they're fast at delivering and prices seem reasonable. If you spend over a certain amount (less than the price of a decent guitar) they ship for free.


http://www.thomann.de/ie/lefthanded_acoustic_guitars.html

BSOM

Hi, could i make the suggestion of getting a Valencia classical guitar pack (if hes 10 years old a full size would do him, unless he is a small 10). You can get one for about €90 (or €89) and you can switch the strings over quite well. It is a starter guitar, we sold about 40 of them in September between our school and others around the area. Its very easy to switch the strings and the intonation isnt too bad. Plus its not a massive amount, so if he doesnt continue with it no major loss.

Hope this helps.

J

Blackhorse Slim

Are you looking for an electric or acoustic? My son is 9, he bought a short-scale Epiphone flying V, the "Vee Wee" and it seems pretty good for him.

http://www.tachyonlabs.com/veewee.html

Reasonably priced and comes with a little amp too The only real downside is that being 10 he will want a bigger guitar in a couple of years.

Because the shape is symmetrical you would probably have less problems than normal switching it to left-handed, but the nut would have to be changed. I'm sure the shop would do that for you. Ideally you should get a left-handed short-scale guitar, but if you can't find one this might be an option.

punchdrunk

best mate is a lefty who plays right-handed
he's got great muscle strength in his left hand from writing
he counts his lucky stars that his dad had the foresight to make him play RH guitars as the choice of models/price points for lefties is crap!

playing guitar is not very co-ordinated at first no matter which hand his forming the chords

Kevin!

I've played guitar for a while (left-handed) and I regret soooo much not starting off with a right handed guitar, even though I'm left handed.

Sure, it's a little bit harder to grasp at the start BUT if he's ever out and about and wants to play guitar the chances are his friends will have a right handed one,

there's also a much better selection on right handed guitars, than there is for left and there cheaper also.

Thomas from Presence

punchdrunk wrote: »

best mate is a lefty who plays right-handed
he's got great muscle strength in his left hand from writing
he counts his lucky stars that his dad had the foresight to make him play RH guitars as the choice of models/price points for lefties is crap!

playing guitar is not very co-ordinated at first no matter which hand his forming the chords

Agree totally, been teaching for years and have put this policy as prime. Being a left-handed guitarist will cause a rake of problems later on with no benefit. Ever heard of a left handed violin?

Banjo

You do have the advantage of hiding behind your inability to play a right handed guitar though if you've been playing for over a decade and are still crap.

Gaspode

Thomas from Presence wrote: »

Agree totally, been teaching for years and have put this policy as prime. Being a left-handed guitarist will cause a rake of problems later on with no benefit. Ever heard of a left handed violin?

I've a left-handed violin! Cant play it, but there you go.

So often I wish i'd played right handed, being a southpaw does restrict the range of guitars available to you severely. I was in New york recently, and saw a total of 3 lefty guitars over 5 or 6 big shops, and all were crap bottom of range stuff, bar one top of the range (and vastly overpriced Gibson SG).

Getting your son to play right handed might be worth a try, but if its not comfortable for him, forcing the issue might put him off guitar for good.

Malice

I'm left handed and I play the guitar right handed. It just seemed natural to hold it that way and I didn't think anything of it. I didn't even know left handed instruments existed until I had to ask my father why the guitar stored in our garage had its strings on the wrong way round .

So I would agree with punchdrunk and to a lesser extent smooch71 (we're not all evil ), see if your son can play right-handed as there's a far greater selection of instruments out there.