Sometimes I get requests to build left-handed guitars. Some players learn to play lefty. It just seems ‘right’ to them. Hey, Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix… So anyway, there are left-handed guitars on the market to satisfy the relatively small demand for these lefty guitars.
What makes a guitar right or left handed? A few possibilities.
1. The bracing may be asymmetrical. It’s debatable whether this makes a difference… I won’t go into it here.
2. The action may be optimized. Action is usually measured by the clearance of the strings above the 12th fret. The bass side is higher than the treble. Sometimes the fingerboard is scooped out on the bass side.
3. The intonation (how the guitar plays in tune) may be optimized by compensating the saddle at the bridge. Often this means slanting the saddle so that the treble strings are shorter than the bass strings.
Here is how to correct the 3rd issue. Below you can see the saddle slot slanted the wrong way.
After removing the strings, I made a piece of matching rosewood to plug the slot, which will be glued in, trimmed, and then a new slot will be routed.
Check out the gallery below for what happens next.
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- I built this jig to guide the router for the new slot. It’s held on the top with several clamps.
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- Here is the bridge with holes drilled to register the new slot.
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- Here the router bit is in the new treble side of the slot.
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- Regisering the bit in the other hole. All the needs to tighten the guide rails and rout a perfect slot.
