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I'm right handed.

My first commission was for a lefty mando.
by the time it was delivered I could play it as well as my righty one (I'd only just started playign mando)

I've never built a lefty guitar....

but I'm considering the idea, to have one in a case that I can say "here y'go" should a possible lefty commission present itself.....

am I mad?

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

No. Well, yeah, you are mad, but that's OK.

You see, the majority of my builds will be righties, so that I can say "here y'go" should someone be interested in buying one of my instruments...

That is causing me some distress, because if I make a rightie guitar with beautiful tonewood I have lovingly seasoned/ air dried, I won't be able to play it as well as I can left hand.

There is quite a high chance you will brace a top lefty by accident anyway, so it wouldn't hurt having one in the herd.

Believe it or not I'm thinking of a lefty/righty guitar bridge design with symmetrical bracing and interchangeable lefty-righty nuts supplied. Go on, have a laugh.

symetrical bracing hasn't done Lowden any harm.....

reversable bridge?

well, I can see how a righty/lefty couple might be interested.........

I think you might have trouble selling the idea to right handed guitarists.......

I reckon there'd be a "why do I need this?" mentality

no cutaways or soundports either of course

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

Well, speaking from a consumer perspective only here...

In terms of having a lefty handy for prospective clients, Martin. I'd say that makes sense to an extent. The risks are that if your client asks for a dread and your lefty demo guitar is an OM or OO, even though the logical part of their brain will be saying 'My dread would sound and feel different to this' the emotional part will be getting a less-than-perfect first impression, and emotions are what sell, unfortunately.

Add to this the fact that almost certainly a lefty player will be used to having to make decisions upon other people playing the righty version of the model of guitar they want. (In fact in this regard I think leftys have a little advantage in a way, most of us righty players make a decision based largely on the sound from behind the guitar, whereas lefties usually get to hear the guitar 'the way it's meant to be heard' and while soundports are helping with this for the rightys, they're still fairly rare in the grand scheme of things).

Anyway, it's still a worthwhile project just to say you've done it I would say :)

@Sam - A lefty-righty's big selling point to me, as a consumer (or guitarist), would be the resale value. Leftys seem to fetch higher prices in the second-hand market, so I guess it's feasable that instead of your ?2000 guitar being woth ?1000 when you sell it on, you could switch the nut/saddle using whatever kit it is you'd provide (although I could see this being an issue for most non-luthiers to do) and get an extra ?500 or more on the resale. Makes the guitar a better investment for the sort of person who buys and sells guitars like they're going out of fashion.

Just my thoughts from a non-construction point of view. In terms fo the technical feasibility standpoint, I would hapily pass that baton onto the more expereienced (so that would be *anyone else* in my case)...

Take care :)

[QUOTE=Sam Price] No. Well, yeah, you are mad, but that's OK.

You see, the majority of my builds will be righties, so that I can say "here y'go" should someone be interested in buying one of my instruments...

That is causing me some distress, because if I make a rightie guitar with beautiful tonewood I have lovingly seasoned/ air dried, I won't be able to play it as well as I can left hand.

There is quite a high chance you will brace a top lefty by accident anyway, so it wouldn't hurt having one in the herd.

Believe it or not I'm thinking of a lefty/righty guitar bridge design with symmetrical bracing and interchangeable lefty-righty nuts supplied. Go on, have a laugh. [/QUOTE]

And a lefty-righty pickguard, too? Shades of the Everly Bros. old Gibson SJ's.

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Hank Mauel

Or Lester Flatt...

If you rout a straight 1/4" saddle slot, you could go either way with the intonation slant/house top filing, and it would work.   

We brace tops symmetrically so I don't think that's an issue.   I'm not even sure you could hear the difference with asymmetric bracing; I'm not so sure that there's a bass side and treble side of the top, and if there is, then I'm not so sure it cares where the strings pull on the bridge for that. I think if you strongly thin one side or go heavily asymmetric, then you will create larger and smaller areas with nodes and anti-nodes, but the bridge may just drive them irrespective of whether you have the guitar strung rightie or leftie. This is one for Al to chime in upon.

But two nuts, two saddles, one hoss should work...