Lefty Mandolin

[marcodamusician]

Hi All, I'm new to this forum and also about to purchase my first Mandolin. Did I mention I'm a lefty player? Yup, lefty guitars: check. Lefty Ukuleles: check. You get the idea, right? Ok, so I did a search online and found several choices for lefty instruments. I'm leaning toward an Eastman but I also like The Loar and Morgan Monroe. I've found lefty models from all three luthiers. I did get some positive feedback on Eastman. Can anyone offer opinions on the other two or any other luthiers that make lefty mandos?

[Bill Snyder]

These are not really built by luthiers, at least not the The Loar and the Morgan Monroe. They are factory instruments.
If you want a luthier built instrument I would expect just about any of them would build you a lefty, but the price range would be much greater than a factory instrument.
In a like priced instrument you should also consider a Kentucky, perhaps like this one.

[Philippe Bony]

Equal rights for lefties...

[marcodamusician]

Bill, thanks. Kentucky was on my list too but I had been hearing better things about Eastman. I know they are all built by hand even though they are built in China. Yes, I did know that the others are probably built in a factor on machine equipment. I accidentally slipped the word luthier in my thread. It was an accident.

[marcodamusician]

Philippe, I completely agree. Do you play the guitar as well? I saw a cool photo on facebook the other day for guitar crossing but it was for a lefty guitar.

[srtaylor]

Mike Dulak (now operating as Big Muddy Mandolins) built me a left-handed mandolin from some very pretty birdseye maple he'd taken in trade years ago when his brand was called Mid-Missouri Mandolins. A left-handed Big Muddy might be an option if that style of instrument works for you--flat top and back, basic teardrop shape, built from solid woods in the U.S. I chose the slightly wider neck option because I was coming to it from the guitar. Its voice is loud and a little brash. I play all types of music on it, and it's met my modest needs for 8-9 years now. Lots of Big Muddy and Mid-Missouri threads on this site if you search. Good luck!

[lxnx]

I'm a lefty, and have been more than happy with the Eastman I purchased a while back. I did a fair bit of research on the lefty options out there, and the Eastman seemed to be the best I could find for the amount I was willing to pay (around £500).

They're also common enough that you can probably find a bunch of clips of people playing them on youtube, to get a feel for tone (we lefties can't just walk into a shop and try out mandolins most of the time!).

[marcodamusician]

srtaylor, I knew I had read something about Big Muddy but I had no idea where. What a nice surprise to come back to this thread and see that it was you who turned me on to these wonderful, customized Mandolins. I sent Michael and email to verify if he could make me a lefty model. I also found his facebook page too. When I heard some of the sound clips of his Mandolins I thought I was hearing angels. Oh, and the fact that these babies are Made in the USA and some amazing meets all of my needs. Thank you again.

And thank you everyone. As soon as I hear back from Michael I believe I'll go with one from Big Muddy if he can make me one.

[marcodamusician]

lynx, funny thing about your comment. I also play lefty guitar and left ukulele. I was just chatting on the ukulele underground and another well-meaning person told me I should learn how to play the "conventional way" because a southpaw ukulele is an oddity to him. My reply was this. Did people tell Paul McCartney he shouldn't play as a southpaw? How about Jimmy Hendrix? There is no way I will ever stifle my left-handedness and force something unnatural on my brain. Right-handed people are always telling us to do things their way but we never tell them to learn how to do things as a lefty. They don't understand that part of what makes up right-brained is our genetic wiring. I remember speaking with an older woman when I was a kid. She was a teacher in public school and she was a lefty. Sadly, she had been forced to write with her right hand because she grew up during a time when doing anything with the left hand was considered bad. She told me that she had gone on to get her bachelors and masters degrees but she always felt off-kilter. Kind of like something wasn't right. She knew that she was forcing her brain to do something unnatural and it had been telling her for forty years that she wasn't doing it right. Anyway, sorry for this. I just needed to vent. I hate it when people tell me to do something that will not work for me. I do nothing right handed because it doesn't feel comfortable to me. Why, oh why don't righties understand this?

[Bill Snyder]

It makes good sense to me to get the instrument set up/built the way you are able to perform your best. Having said that I hope you will forgive me since I am right handed but playing a string instrument right or left handed does not seem like it would matter that much since BOTH the right and left hands must be highly trained to perform well.
Also you mention Jimi Hendrix, I have always been under the impression he played a "right handed" instrument upside down.

[marcodamusician]

Bill, Jimmy did play upside down but eventually started to resting his instruments.

There's a story about Eric Clapton. Seems he found a white, lefty, stratocaster in a guitar store and went to meet his friend, Jimmy at a concert. He missed meeting Jimmy that night but held on to the guitar. That was the fateful night that Jimmy choked on his own vomit and died. Eric never had a chance to give his friend the guitar that would have been his first lefty.

Paul McCartney, on the the other hand, restrung all of his instruments and even commissioned a few to be built left-handed for him. Now we have lefty stores all over the place. Jerry's Lefty Instruments in Sarasota and Southpaw Guitars in Texas.

[Dr. Jazz]

Let's see. Left Handed Pianos. - Never seen one.
Left handed Fiddles - Nope.
Left handed trumpets? Nope again.
Left handed upright basses - Rumoured, but never seen.

Left handed musicians playing right handed. hundreds (in my personal experience.) - Many outstanding!

It's probably too late for anyone who's started playing lefty, but a new player should try right first. Life will be so much easier. Sorry. It's not fair, but it is life. Just think. You will Never, Ever, Ever be able to play a Loar.

[gabe]

That may be true Dr. J, but for a fraction of the price many makers in the U.S., such as Collings and Gibson will build a person tomorrow's Loars. I have had a high end A-style lefty built which stands against any vintage Gibson. I also believe after 65 years of playing lefty that one should not force themselves to play right handed based on availability of lefty instruments. Most major companies will make a lefty upon request.

[gabe]

I bought a lefty Eastman several years back and find they are generally well made. I did however have to do a few things to make it more playable. First, the radius fingerboard had to be cleaned up and the frets were too small so they were replaced with larger frets. All in all worth the money they ask for them. Mine is a 615.

I'm a lefty, and have been more than happy with the Eastman I purchased a while back. I did a fair bit of research on the lefty options out there, and the Eastman seemed to be the best I could find for the amount I was willing to pay (around £500).

They're also common enough that you can probably find a bunch of clips of people playing them on youtube, to get a feel for tone (we lefties can't just walk into a shop and try out mandolins most of the time!).

[marcodamusician]

Dr. Jazz, I think you need to take a lesson in genetics and learn how the brain works in the case of lefty vs. right. It's not as easy as you are assuming. However, it's because of a certain prejudice that you've learned over a period that you would make this statement. First, as I've explained and I'm sure a scientist can explain it more in depth. A person who is left-handed is right brained. A person who is right-handed is left brained. That lefty is dependent on most of his/her signals from the right portion of the brain. It is the higher functioning side after all and the ones we depend on. When you attempt to force a lefty to do something as a righty suddenly you're asking the brain to do something it's not trained for. As a result, the two different sides of the brain will fight each other for control. Basically one side will say yes and the other side will say no. Ask a person who was forced to write as a right-hander as a child. Not many of them left but quite a few that I spoke to had to deal with psychiatrists for most of their lifetime because of the psychological issues caused by their being forced to use the other hand. Now is that something you would wish on anyone John? You say it's the way the world works? I say *** the world. I was born a lefty. No one told Paul McCartney he needed to play righty. He probably would have told them to get stuffed if they did. Plenty of people that support us lefties. I think you said you learned as a righty. Good for you. I'll bet you'd be a superior mandolin player if you were using your left hand though. Just my opinion. After all, the right side is the more brilliant, creative side that you aren't using much of when your force your body to do something that goes against it's nature.

[marcodamusician]

Here's an article about what happens when your force a left handed child to write with their right hand. The same can be applied when you force a lefty to play righty.

What does switching accomplish?

So like you can read in the article "Can Left-Handedness be Switched? Insights from an Early Switch of Handwriting" from The Journal of Neuroscience, 18 July 2007:

These results suggest two distinct neuronal correlates of handedness in human sensorimotor cortex. Although those in executive sensorimotor cortex (i.e., SM1 and adjacent PMd) depend on the hand used throughout life, those in higher-order sensorimotor areas (i.e., inferior parietal cortex and rostrolateral PMd) are invariant and thus cannot be switched to the nondominant hemisphere by educational training.
Which says that the areas that are directly involved in movement control will move increasingly to the left in the brain, which is the dominant half in right-handers. But the larger regions that participate in the planning and control of movement remain all life in the same place.

Paradoxly those planning and control areas were even more stressed in retrained persons than in normal left-handers.

Problems of switching?

Even as early as 1918 [1] observations were made, were

[retraining]... may result in speech-hesitation. [...] Taking it all in all, this investigation seems proof conclusive that left-handed children should not be forced to use the right hand.
And a lot more studies from that time period (1930s) were linking stuttering to forced left-hand retrainment.

But since then no more professional studies have been made to investigate eventual problems with retrainment[2]. One of the reason for that is that left-handedness was long seen as a deviation from the norm and medical treatment or research was conducted purely from this perspective. Also many studies provide statements that refer to very different groups of people: generally assessed left-handed people, learned left handed and the subgroup of trauma-induced left-handed were all mixed together and no reasonable conclusions can be made.

Summary

So while it is not proven at this point that retraining is leading to serious problems (apart from the increased brain load) there are is also no point in doing it. All studies and logical reasoning hint for an exclusion of such practices.

[Bill Snyder]

I do not doubt the reality of left and right handedness. I understand the awkwardness of using a right handed tool in you left hand or of using it in your right hand when it is not your dominant hand. BUT the point is there is NO SUCH THING as a right handed mandolin or a left handed mandolin. We call them that but they all require the use of both hands to the nth degree.
You have learned to play "left handed" instruments and so that is what you need to keep playing.

[marcodamusician]

Right, but my point is, stop using prejudice against southpaws. We don't need you to tell us to play like you. Do you force a deaf person to hear? Do you have any idea what happens when you impose a cochlear implant on a child without permission? Yes, this is not a good analogy but I used it anyway because I'm sick and tired of seeing righty prejudice against lefties and that's what I'm getting from you. You probably don't even realize you did it because you prefaced your prejudice for apologizing first so it was clearly disguised. However, your prejudice against lefties was probably ingrained in you as a child. Teachers no longer force a child to write with his right hand if he is left handed. Likewise, we shouldn't force a child to play an instrument right-handed if it feels natural for him to hold the instrument as a lefty would. As mentioned, the guy who created the acoustic guitar was a southpaw and he intended for the guitar to be played the lefty way. It was your right handers that want to control everything that shifted the guitar around.

[G7MOF]

I play a left handed Eastman MD815, It's fabulous both in tone and build quality. I also have a left handed trowel, No it's not a make of mandolin I actually mean a brick laying trowel. It's amazing what you can get now in a left handed version.

[Philippe Bony]

Equal rights for lefties...

Er.. Equal lefts for righties?
Marcodamusician, I don't answer anymore when told I should have learned the "right" way.
And luthiers are happy, because I need custom ordered instruments...

[marcodamusician]

Hey M8, you are so right. I used to order a lot of stuff from a store in the UK because there were no stores here in the states that carried left-handed tools. Now we have a great store called Lefty's. We also have Jerry Left Handed Guitars in Sarasota Florida and Southpaw Guitars. There's also a store in New York called Adironback that carries a variety of lefty instruments. Yes, we can get anything. I have an entire collection of lefty gardening tools. I recently started learning the art of Bonsai. You need good tools for this. The cheap, right-handed tools weren't doing it for me. If you're in the UK you probably know of the store I speak, right?

http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/

[marcodamusician]

Philppe, I need to take a lesson from you and just ignore people when they speak such "blasphemy" to me. I just bothers me when people try to get me to conform to their way. A guitar teacher once told me he would love to teach a left-handed player. Want to know why? Because if he was facing me he could see the mistakes I made because a lefty is a mirror.

[JeffD]

So while it is not proven at this point that retraining is leading to serious problems (apart from the increased brain load) there are is also no point in doing it. All studies and logical reasoning hint for an exclusion of such practices.

Your point is well taken, but there is a huge difference, I think, playing stringed instruments like guitars and mandolins and such, compared with hand tools, writing, throwing and catching a ball.

Folks have told me that in playing a mandolin and guitar, but maybe especially the mandolin, there is not as clear difference between foreground hand and background hand (as with writing where the dominant hand does "the work" and the other holds the paper). So its not as much a matter of becoming right handed, or playing like the majority, but that many claim the instrument can just as easily be learned the other way, because fingering requires as much mental focus as picking. Its not a "compliance with the majority" issue (which bristles my hair as well), as much as a possible realistic option for some left handed folks.

In your case its moot, however because you mentioned you are already playing instruments left handed. I think once you chose one way, its much harder to switch.

Another option is to play a right handed instrument upside down. Nothing sacred about high notes being on top. Again, probably fine to start out, because in the beginning its all hard, and upside down is no harder. Changing to another way after learning one way is crazy hard.

I know a well respected professional singer songwriter, who is right handed, but whose early introduction to guitar was Paul McCartney, (a poster on the bedroom wall as I heard the story) and so he started playing right handed guitars and mandolins left handed and upside down. Done it that way since the beginning and he is rather accomplished.

My only point is that there are options for everyone, without "retrainment" or forcing anyone to do anything.

[nickster60]

Lefty's Guitars in Sarasota usually has some left handed mandolins. All he sells is left handed instruments

[Tobin]

This subject has always baffled me. Why do standard stringed instruments (presumably for right-handed people) require the player to use their weak hand for the difficult finger work? It would make more sense to me if right-handed players fretted with their dominant hands. But as it is, everyone has to train their weak hand to do complicated stuff. I would actually think that left-handed folks would have an easier time playing a standard mandolin than right-handed players.