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Lefty conversion on an acoustic
Papa-Smurf
If this topic is covered elsewhere, I apologise - just point me to it, please.
I am a Lefty. There! I feel better, now.
I have a Tanglewood left handed acoustic on which I am enjoying re-learning to play (bwahahahaha) as a lefty, in spite of the dark looks from my neighbours.
Carting a guitar between where I live (Gauteng) and where I work (Lephalale) every week isn't much fun with lift-clubbing, so on Saturday I bought a "cheapie" to use at one end of the journey. I have some hand skills, so I'll just do a quick conversion, I thinks.
A bit of research and it turns out my cheapie is a Palmer PD-21, which apparently retails for a LOT more than I paid for it in the US of A! Suddenly I need to think carefully about my conversion of this guitar for left handed playing so it can be changed back without lasting damage which would destroy a potentially valuable instrument!
More research has failed to uncover any lefty pre-made nuts and saddles, such as are freely (expensively?) available for the masses. The nut is simple, but the saddle gets a little more complicated if I want to avoid filling the existing saddle slot and cutting a new one.
My thoughts are that I can create a special saddle, milled from solid, which will have a tenon that fits into the existing right handed saddle slot and has a left handed compensated saddle on a "pad". Hope my sketch describes this better. ......... hmmmmmmm have to find out how to attach a JPEG whose filename says it is 189 kB big. :'(
Comments and suggestions, please, together with pointers to suppliers of suitable materials in appropriate sizes (guessing about 75 mm x 12 mm x 6 mm block to start with).
Thanks,
Papa Smurf
AlanRatcliffe
Those Palmers are being sold new by Soundselect for R1400, so it's not like it's a vintage Martin you are modding.
My advice would be to go ahead and do the conversion properly - fill in the saddle slot and rout a new one, change the nut.
Papa-Smurf
Thanks Alan,
That's a lot more straightforward than I was thinking.
On the value - I still got mine at a very good price. No way of telling how old mine is - there isn't even a serial number. At least I don't have to be too "precious" about it!
Papa Smurf
IceCreamMan
Papa Smurf wrote:
I am a Lefty. There! I feel better, now.
We love you papa smurf ?
