A Question for Guitar Experts

Edited by AmericanProgster - March 13 2010 at 22:53

If by 'take the nut and switch it around' you mean the flat surface is showing and the grooves are no longer guiding the strings onto the fretboard, I can't see this working very well.. the strings will not stay in place and, as Harry [Petrovsk] points out, your intonation - that is your guitar's ability to stay in tune - will be severely reduced.  You also risk a string popping right off the neck which will be hard to put back in place, and could begin to warp the neck by a constant decrease/increase in tension.

I guess you could try reversing the direction of the nut rather than flipping it over, though you may have to file the smaller grooves a bit so they'll fit the larger strings (your low E, A, etc.).. not sure if Jimi Hendrix did this or not

Good luck

Atavachron wrote: I guess you could try reversing the direction of the nut rather than flipping it over, though you may have to file the smaller grooves a bit so they'll fit the larger strings (your low E, A, etc.).. not sure if Jimi Hendrix did this or not Good luck

Sorry that's what I meant. I did reverse the direction NOT flip it over, geez now everyone thinks I'm an idiot!

Edited by AmericanProgster - March 13 2010 at 22:48

AmericanProgster wrote: So I recently received an acoustic guitar from my grand-mom (a Harmony Marquis, model no. 403 to be exact). But the problem is, its a right handed guitar and I play left handed. So the only thing me and my dad could come up with to make it left handed is **(EDIT!)** to reverse the nut. So that all the grooves look like it would as if it were left handed. I'll take a pic so that you can see, because I obviously suck at explaining!**(End of Edit!)** Now my question is: Will that slight modification (if you could call it that) harm the strings or affect the sound/playing? -AP

There that's what I meant! Sheesh, just lookin for advice. Just assume that I want to keep this guitar and I'm determined to modify so I can use it! I want no talk of selling it!

Edited by AmericanProgster - March 13 2010 at 22:58

You're still going to have intonation problems no matter what because of the bridge saddles not being in the correct locations to accommodate the fact the strings will be in the opposite spots from where they were (i.e, the 6th now in the 1st, 5th now in 2nd etc)
You seem to refuse to believe that or something, because I've posted it twice now and it seems you wont bother to heed that warning
Save yourself the hassle, and find a left handed guitar on ebay or anywhere on the used market.

And btw, intonation is a very basic concept one should know about. I don't consider myself a guitar expert by any means, it's just something one should know about guitars if they intend to use them regularly.

But the thing is, if he sold it off and bought something on the used market, he'd come out about even though.
His choice I guess, but there are plenty of great used bargains if one is willing to look.
I do know Ibanez make a few left handed models that can be found used for great prices

Just did a quick search for left hand nut and they are available for accoustics. If it is classical, the bridge is straight on these, so shouldn't be a problem. 

Edited by cobb2 - March 14 2010 at 00:30

I'm left handed and I play the guitar right handed. So my advice: Learn it the right way. If you think about it, when you're playing the guitar right handedly, the left hand does the complex stuff anyway.

Edited by AmericanProgster - March 14 2010 at 09:45

^ well, a deformity of the ring finger ... you have to decide how to deal with it. If you're going for acoustic guitar finger picking, obviously you won't be able to do that then on a right handed guitar. On the other hand (), if you're going to play with a pick, that might work ... and in that case the deformity might interfere with your playing less on a right handed guitar than on a left handed guitar.