Here's a job I've done a few times over the years but surprisingly little for what I would thought was a bigger demand for lefties wanting cool guitars they can't seem to source in left handed.
This came in without a bridge or tailpiece and the owner wanted a leftie made out of it. Being a symetrical cutaway body it makes sense to convert these type of guitars.
As he wanted a semi acoustic this was the perfect candidate. It was cheap to start with so he could spend a little more on it to get it the way he wanted it.
So, what do we need to do ? Swap it over, right? Easy.
First thing to do is strip out the wiring loom and pickups so I can swap them over to the other side. On a solidbody, this is EASY. On semi acoustics you need to do EVERYTHING through the F holes.
Getting this stuff out isn't so hard, it's getting it all back in that's the fun bit.
I filled the old pot, switch and jack holes with epoxy and went to work transferring the holes over to the other side.
The pickups went off to Brierley to get nicer magnets and a rewind while I got to work on ordering a left handed Bigsby and waiting for epoxy to dry.
Once sorted it was time to sand back the epoxy and paint the holes. I wasn't going for a "you can't tell it's been done" finish here.
This sort of work is expensive as it's just time consuming. It could be done so you can't tell but this is a cheaper end instrument and understandably the owner didn't want to spend too much on it.
With the paint dry (ish) and the new holes drilled the electronics are installed.
I had decided to make the jack a side mount as this guitar will be used live and the jack can be the weak spot for live guitars, always getting damaged or crackly. This way the jack can be replaced easily and on tour without too much trouble.
The pickups were re-installed with foam under them and everything was wired back up.
Time for a new left handed bone nut and a Bigsby.
So with everything swapped and fitted it was just a simple set up to get this baby playing the "wrong way 'round"
No matter how many times I set up a left handed guitar it still feels ......... wrong. I can now play simple chords and lead stuff on them to check for buzzing and intonation, but it just doesn't feel right. For lefties I tend to depend more on measurements in the early stages and then finish with feel, but less so than right handed.
I would have liked a little more time on the paint but it wasn't to be. It looks good, plays good and feels....... wrong.
