right hander for my left handed niece?

swiller

I have an in bits squier strat, affinity, china , right hander. My niece has taken an interest in the guitar and currently has a symmetrical acoustic that she tinkers on.
Apart from just stringing the thing upside down, do you think she would cope ok with it? I think the body would be ok for her.
What about the nut? Assume it may need a recarve.. Anything else?
Funds are tight and its a birthday pressie and have 100 max set aside for local tech to set up, put back together with some alnico pups spare and do any necessaries.
Or would people advise just to cut losses and get an actual left hander for her.
TIA
Swill.

Funkfingers

Is the symmetrical acoustic guitar strung right-handed or left-handed? If your niece already has some facility for playing "upside down", it might be wiser to allow her to continue that way. 

Using electric guitars upside down tends to present problems like the controls, vibrato arm and output jack socket getting in the way of the strumming forearm.

The nut probably ought to be replaced. That way, the widths and depths of the new slots will not be affected by the old slots. (The stock Squier Affinity nut is almost certainly plastic. Change handedness and material at a single stroke.) GraphTech TUSQ would be my choice. 

swiller

Funkfingers said:

Is the symmetrical acoustic guitar strung right-handed or left-handed? If your niece already has some facility for playing "upside down", it might be wiser to allow her to continue that way. 

Using electric guitars upside down tends to present problems like the controls, vibrato arm and output jack socket getting in the way of the strumming forearm.

The nut probably ought to be replaced. That way, the widths and depths of the new slots will not be affected by the old slots. (The stock Squier Affinity nut is almost certainly plastic. Change handedness and material at a single stroke.) GraphTech TUSQ would be my choice. 

thanks man v useful. She has it strung upside down the acoustic, with same nut, but it is a nylon strung classical job. Good point on the controls and think she can live without the tremelo. I may be better just grabbing a harley benton left hander perhaps.

Sporky

Being able to play an upside down righty might be useful - much more choice. 

swiller

Sporky said:

Being able to play an upside down righty might be useful - much more choice. 

interesting, i had not thought of that.  in last hour i have explained hendrix was a lefty righty and seems to have amplified the enthusiasm for it.

Sporky

Just for clarity I'm in favour of each person playing whatever instrument any way around they want. In case my last comment sounded any way otherwise. 

Funkfingers

swiller said: 

I may be better just grabbing a harley benton left hander perhaps.

That would certainly involve less work for you.

Alternatively, consider pre-owned LH examples of, for instance, the Yamaha Pacifica and Cort G series. These are well-built and easy to upgrade in the future as funds allow. 

If your niece's tinkering is the equivalent of picking out melodies on a piano with two fingers, it might be worth getting a ukulele first. (Depends on age and hand span, really.) 

The change from nylon strings to steel could come as a shock. Introduce your niece to this gradually. Hopefully, she is willing to suffer for her art. If not, it may be necessary to sink to the depths of Bass Ukulele! 

  

Ddigger

How old is she?  I think guitar body size does make a difference.

My son has been playing a Squier Mustang for the last 20 months.  He has just turned 10 last week.  He doesn't last even 10 min with an LP (Gibson or Vintage) and even a partscaster Tele doesn't get worn for long.

With the Mustang 30min guitar lessons (or practice at home) are no problem.  He can also carry it to school or a friends house.

There are 3 Mustangs on Gumtree at the moment, all under £120 (seems a bit high - they cost that new...).

Didn't Albert King play with the strings reversed?  I think Doyle Bramhall does as well.

I think you'll need to hear from some left handed players about what is best.

swiller

Funkfingers said:

swiller said: 

I may be better just grabbing a harley benton left hander perhaps.

That would certainly involve less work for you.

Alternatively, consider pre-owned LH examples of, for instance, the Yamaha Pacifica and Cort G series. These are well-built and easy to upgrade in the future as funds allow. 

If your niece's tinkering is the equivalent of picking out melodies on a piano with two fingers, it might be worth getting a ukulele first. (Depends on age and hand span, really.) 

The change from nylon strings to steel could come as a shock. Introduce your niece to this gradually. Hopefully, she is willing to suffer for her art. If not, it may be necessary to sink to the depths of Bass Ukulele! 

  

Thanks funkfingers ha ha. I have decided to get my local tech to sort it for her. Valid points on the nylon. But she is big into the hendrix pic i showed her with the upside down strat as a fellow lefty, so seems appropriate to re assemble the existing bits and make it personal to her.

Ddigger said:

How old is she?  I think guitar body size does make a difference.

My son has been playing a Squier Mustang for the last 20 months.  He has just turned 10 last week.  He doesn't last even 10 min with an LP (Gibson or Vintage) and even a partscaster Tele doesn't get worn for long.

With the Mustang 30min guitar lessons (or practice at home) are no problem.  He can also carry it to school or a friends house.

There are 3 Mustangs on Gumtree at the moment, all under £120 (seems a bit high - they cost that new...).

Didn't Albert King play with the strings reversed?  I think Doyle Bramhall does as well.

I think you'll need to hear from some left handed players about what is best.

She is 17 and a bit of a tomboy. she built a 911 lego last week and as said above, loves the fact that her guitar could be a hendrix one.  This one nice and light. 

Ill do some pics when done. Hoping she becomes the gowers version of avril lavigne.:)

swiller

All done. New nut, setup with action nice and low, loaded pickguard with alnico pups and small 250k pots, new drill holes needed, install tuners. 80 quid at tech.  Just scrap hanging around from affinity 2000 body and neck.  Plays and sounds remarkably well and the neck plays as good as it looks. Sanded down and decaled by me and smooth as a babys arse. Looks like it would stain nicely. Surprised at how its turned out, but tech knew it was for a teenaged girl and went extra mile i think. 

Funkfingers

swiller said:

tech knew it was for a teenaged girl and went extra mile i think. 

Tech also knows that providing a new learner with a playable starter instrument is a good way to win a customer for life.

Ddigger

Awesome!

Although,I expect teenagers say something else.

JAYJO

I filed the nut down and switched strings on my first electric. Problem i had was always nudging the volume nob. Eventually i removed the outer on the volume and tone nobs. Problem was i never learned to play and control the volume on my guitar. It was set from start to finish. 

shufflebeat

swiller said:

All done.

Nice!

I think you’ve done the right thing by providing her with a lefty-strung guitar. It took me 30yrs of playing upside down and dealing with the inherent frustrations to bite the bullet and start relearning with a conventional lefty guitar. If I’d known all the stuff you guys were doing was that easy I’d’ve done it years before.

There are other issues, controls, whammy bars, etc. but she’ll find her way through them, with the added satisfaction of knowing that she’s going through the same process as Hendrix and Cobain (as well as some longer-lived inspirations).

All the best.

JAYJO