Bob Geldof/left handed guitarists

[c00ky83]

I just saw Bob Goldof playing guitar on a Band Aid documentary.  He was playing a normal right handed guitar but upside down so the low E was at the bottom.  Is this how he always plays?  I think the great Jimi Hendrix played a right handed guitar upside down, but didn't he have his strings the conventional way round?

[Yeah Bee]

Jimi played a right handed guitar upside down but with the strings the convetional way. Curt Cobain also played  a right guitar upside down. Paul McCharty played upside down. I have always found it unlogical for a righthanded person to play a right handed guitar, I am a leftie and play a right jhand guitar cuz my left hand does all the tricky stuff, my right hand could almost be a hook with a plectrum. Does anybody else find this strange

[Hammer]

It is weird. The hand doing all the hard work is your 'weak' hand, ie left for right-handers. Never knew why, but I still play that way.

[smorodina]

Me too. It seemed more natural for my strong hand to run around on the neck while the weak hand deals with the relatively easy strumming or picking. I do, however, sometimes wonder if I would be a better player now if I had adopted the left-handed method.

[stoo_pid]

Special mention here for (wholly underrated IMHO) John Otway who can play left or right handed - I've even seen him play left and right-handed at the same time..!  This link shows you the ace guitar he uses in his gigs
http://www.johnotway.com/

(I think with this guitar he has the strings set conventionally for right-handed play & unconventionally for left-handed play)

[c00ky83]

Thanks for the answers - I guess it's quite common then.  Is there any difference between left/right handed guitars?  I mean, once you switch the strings they're just the same, apart from the shape being reflected.

[smorodina]

There is a difference. The intonation of each string is different and is set by the length from the nut to the bridge. This is shorter for the high strings and longer for the low ones. Usually set by the bridge which is normally adjustable on an electric guitar. However this is not generally the case on acoustics, and the bridge is designed to compensate for intonation which is why its at an angle and sometimes in more than one part. If you reverse the strings on a fixed bridge guitar the intonation would be quite wrong and the guitar would sound more and more out of tune as you went up the neck. Hence left-handed guitars. With an adjustable bridge this is not such a problem, but they are usually cut away more on the bottom to allow access to the higher frets, so a proper lefty guitar would be more convenient.