Despite the greater availability of left-hand guitars nowadays, I still see the question asked surprisingly often, can I convert a right-handed acoustic guitar to left-handed? In the following article, I’m going to explain why you can and the best way to go about it. Hint: It’s not just a case of changing over the strings if you want your guitar to play and sound great.
Getting it right for lefties
If you are left-handed and just starting on guitar, and/or on a limited budget, chances are you don’t want to invest a lot of money on your first guitar. In most cases, this means adapting a right-handed guitar to a left-handed one.
And, while the shape of an acoustic guitar is generally symmetrical (unless featuring a cutaway) giving the impression that all that’s required to change orientation is to reverse the order of the strings, there are additional considerations.
The Saddle
The saddle is the thin strip made from either plastic or bone (sometimes ivory or tusq) seated within the bridge, typically on an angle, unless a classical guitar.
The role of the saddle is to transfer the vibrations from the strings to the bridge and soundboard.
Cheaper (softer) plastic saddles tend to soak up some of this resonant energy while harder materials e.g. bone tend to transfer the vibrations from the strings more effectively.
The saddle also assists with spacing the strings, which prevents them from coming into play with each other and, along with the nut, controls the height of your strings, otherwise referred to as the ‘action’ of the guitar.
As seen above, most steel-string acoustic guitar saddles are positioned at an angle. This compensates for the increasing thickness of the strings from high E to low E. The heavier the gauge string the longer it is required to be to allow for correct intonation (e.g. remaining in tune further up the neck) due to its additional mass.
The saddle also has a few additional subtle features you may not notice at first glance, including the recessed section beneath the high E string which minimises the contact area for the string. This results in shortening the vibrating length of the string compared to the B string. The B string on the other hand has a recessed area to the front of the saddle which lengthens the B string compared to the E.
The difference in how the saddle is shaped for the first two strings compared to the lower strings is to compensate for the non-wound strings which proportionally have less mass.
The other feature of the saddle is the gradual thickening of the string’s first point of contact from the G string to the low E String.
Additionally, you may notice the saddle’s height, which although rounded to match the guitar’s fingerboard radius, also increases in height as the strings increase in thickness to prevent the lower strings from buzzing against the frets.
All things considered, there is a lot of compensation going on within the bridge of your guitar concerning intonation and playability.
How to Change the Saddle on a Right-Handed Guitar to Left-Handed
With that in mind, if you are changing the orientation of a guitar you will need to reverse the saddle.
The process involves filling in the existing slot and rerouting it on a reversed angle. Unless experienced with this type of work, you should leave this to a skilled luthier. The chances of doing real harm to your guitar if you don’t know precisely what you are doing are reasonably high.
Classical Guitars
The good news for classical guitar owners is in the majority of cases the bridge saddle is not angled, as the lighter nylon strings require less compensation.
In some cases, there may be a slight compensation angle e.g. 2mm difference between high E and low E (as seen in the accompanying image).
Being Practical
It’s true, most beginner guitarists aren’t going to worry much about the compensation angle on a steel string acoustic or classical guitar and if only starting out on guitar, I wouldn’t recommend going to the trouble of having your bridge saddle slot filled and rerouted.
The longer you play and the more experienced you become the more intonation will become a concern, especially if you care about the particular guitar and plan on having it for some time. When starting out, however, most of the time you will be in the open chord position (e.g. the first three frets) where intonation is far less of a concern.
The Nut
The second component of the guitar you should consider changing if switching a right-handed guitar to a lefty is the nut.
The nut is the white (in most cases) thin plastic, bone, ivory or in some cases brass strip adjoining the 1st fret and is the last point of contact between the strings and the tuners.
If you look closely the nut has slots of increasing depth from highest to lowest string to compensate for the additional thickness of the lower wound strings. When you simply reverse the order of the strings you will often have problems with fret buzz due to the smaller diameter string (the high E) sitting lower in the low E nut slot, while the ticker low E will sit higher in the slot.
How to Change the Nut
Changing the nut is a simpler job than changing the saddle and just involves removing the old nut, cleaning out the cavity and replacing it with a left-handed one. But there are a few areas you should pay close attention to.
Protecting and securing the guitar
First, identify a suitable area to work on the guitar and place some padding beneath the body and headstock where the guitar is most likely to come into contact with the surface of the area you are working on. This serves two purposes, to protect the back of the guitar from being scratched and to secure the guitar in place and stop it sliding around while working on it.
Removing the nut
In almost every case when I’ve changed the nut on a guitar, only a small amount of glue has been used to secure the nut. Excessive amounts of glue are not required due to the downward pressure of the strings.
This means you won’t require a great deal of force to remove it and the chances of the nut tearing the timber or damaging the finish is minimal.
My advice is to use a razor blade and begin working the gap between the headstock and the nut only applying a small amount of force as you slowly work the glue away from the timber. In most cases, you will hear an audible ‘pop’ when the seal of the glue gives way. You can then safely remove the nut.
Another option, especially if the nut is not seated inside a channel is to use a light hammer with a piece of timber positioned between the hammer and the nut to distribute the impact and lightly tap until the nut comes away.
Cleaning the nut slot
Next, you should clean the nut slot. This involves removing any excess glue and other buildup. I prefer to use a small file, along with a soft brush to remove debris, ensuring a clean and smooth surface for the new nut.
The Replacement Nut
Left-handed nuts aren’t as common as right-handed but you still shouldn’t have a lot of difficulty ordering one. You must order the correct width nut for your neck (measure the width of the nut you are replacing) and make sure you order a slotted nut, not a blank, as slotting a nut requires the skills of a luthier.
In some cases, you can buy the bridge saddle and nut as a pair. In any case, I would recommend not buying a plastic nut and instead opting for bone or Tusq.
It can also be a good idea to mark the slots with a graphite pencil. The graphite residue left in the nut slots will help the strings slide through their slots without grabbing and can aid with tuning stability.
Fret Markers
Another issue you may run into if converting a right-handed guitar is the placement of the fret markers on the top side of the neck.
This is more of a problem for classical guitarists than steel string players as almost all classical guitars do not feature inlay markers and instead mark the frets on the top side of the neck.
Most classical guitars utilise fret markers on the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th frets. For steel strings, the 12th, 15th and 17th frets may also be marked.
There are two ways I’d recommend doing this.
The first method involves using white paint or a decal and placing a small dot at the centre of each fret. You can get decals from amazon.com or specialist guitar sites such as stewmac.com
Or if you want to do a more professional job, you can drill the side of the guitar neck, adjacent to the centre of each fret using a depth stop on your drill to avoid the hole becoming too deep and then purchasing fret marker strips.
Once the hole is drilled, insert the strip, cut parallel to the top of the fret and then sand and polish until you have a beautiful smooth finish. Ensure your drill bit is the exact diameter of the fret market strip you buy.
Stewmac.com’s Dan Erlewine has a great video showing the exact way to do this which I have inserted below.
Pick Guard
Steel string guitars typically feature a pickguard. Removing this, especially on an older guitar is going to leave tan lines. The reason for this is the soundboard timber loses moisture over time and exposure to direct light can fade the finish on an acoustic guitar.
On a newer guitar, this won’t be as much of a problem, in which case manipulate a corner of the pickguard until a small section lifts up and continue to work the edges until you can remove the pickguard without damaging the top of the guitar. You can then simply turn the pickguard over, clean it thoroughly, and using a good adhesive simply position and glue it to the guitar beneath the soundhole.
For an older acoustic, you can remove and replace if necessary but you will need to sand back the finish and refinish the guitar. I would not recommend doing this unless you really have an issue with the pickguard being upside down. If you own a valuable older guitar, I’d recommend against doing so unless taking your guitar to a luthier.
Soundhole pickups
Lastly, if you have a soundhole pickup in your guitar, as many acoustic guitars do, you may notice the pole pieces are recessed for the higher strings and raised for the lower strings. If your pickup features adjustable pole pieces you can simply adjust to mirror the initial look of the pole pieces.
If not, you may need to swap the orientation of the pickup which may require some adjustments to be made to the cable. Due to the range of acoustic pickups, it’s best to get advice specific to the pickup you are currently using.
Final Thoughts
As we have discussed. You can certainly change the orientation of a right-handed acoustic guitar to left-handed and if only learning you may prefer to just switch the strings and/or change over the nut. For more experienced players, I’d recommend replacing the nut and saddle but remember this requires the expertise of an experienced luthier, otherwise, you may do irreparable damage to your guitar.
Of course, if this all sounds like a lot of work the best advice I can give is to clean up your right-handed guitar put new strings on it and list it on eBay and use the money to buy a genuine lefty, as there may also be small differences in the bracing that contribute to the tone and projection of the guitar.
Also, bear in mind if you are new to guitar a lot of people are going to advise you just learn to play right-handed, in my opinion, this is bad advice regardless of who’s saying it. If you need a response, just tell them you plan to play live someday in a 4 piece and being left-handed gives the band greater symmetry on stage 🙂