Convert a Right-Handed Guitar to a Left-Handed Guitar

Left-handed Martin D-28. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How to Convert a Right-Handed Guitar to a Left-Handed Guitar    

by Seth Baker

Would you like to convert a right-handed guitar to a left-handed guitar? This is an easy conversion to do, but you'll need to do more than just change the strings.

While I believe that it's better to just buy a quality left-handed guitar, maybe you've found a right-handed guitar that you really like. Perhaps you're a lefty just dabbling in guitar playing and not yet ready to make an investment in a left-handed guitar.

Most left-handed guitar and bass players are faced with this dilemma.

When I was learning to play, I didn't have a lot of money to invest in a high-quality guitar, so I went to the flea market and purchased the cheapest guitar I could find, a twenty-dollar acoustic. Even with its standard setup, the action was terrible because the neck was warped. The strings wouldn't stay in tune.

In short, the guitar sounded like a dying animal. But I converted it to a right-handed guitar by flipping the strings. I didn't bother to change the nut or the bridge, and this was part of my problem.

Eventually I swallowed my pride and visited a music store. Their luthier looked at it and shook his head. He said it would cost a couple hundred dollars to make it sound really good, but for about forty he could make it serviceable. I went with the latter option. In addition to doing the work, he explained what needed to be done to convert a right-handed guitar to a left-handed guitar.

This works for acoustics, electrics, and electric basses. The materials required to convert a guitar are new strings, a tuner, and wood glue. You may also need a blank nut, a screw driver, sandpaper, and a truss rod adjuster. A string winder is a handy tool to have as well.

First you need to remove the old strings. Once the strings are off, remove the nut (the little thing at the top of the neck). You may need to pry this out with a flat screwdriver. Once it's out, scrape out the crusty glue with a screwdriver or some sandpaper. Add a little bit of fresh glue to the nut and replace it with its direction reversed.

The nut has a groove sized for each string, and if you don't change it around, there will be play in the little strings and the big strings won't seat properly.

If something happens in this step, for example the nut breaks or the angle causes the strings to sit too low to the fret board, you'll need to file your own nut. You can have a guitar shop do this, or you can purchase a file and do it yourself. Plenty of video tutorials are available.
For electric guitars, you might want to reverse the directions of the pickups.

To do this, usually you just need to unscrew the pick guard or pickup frames. Be careful not to lose the springs that allow for height adjustment. Once your glue dries, go ahead and install your new strings.

To keep your nut from flying away, don't tighten the strings to full tension until all six strings are on. Use your tuner to get close to the correct pitch. Stretch your strings a bit as you tighten them up.

After they're installed, play for a while and give them time to go to their length. Once this happens, it's time to set your intonation. Maybe you'll be lucky and you won't have to set it. To check intonation, you compare the pitch at the twelfth fret (octave) with the pitch of an open string. They should be the same.

On acoustic guitars, you may need to alter the bridge to ensure correct intonation. Sometimes this is just a matter of getting a blank and filing it down. If you are converting an expensive guitar (not recommended), take it to a luthier and let them do it.

For electric guitars and basses, this process is much easier. The string saddles are usually adjustable with a Phillips screwdriver. All you need to do is adjust them until the pitches of the twelfth fret and open string match. Always use a tuner for this process, and don't forget to re-check the open-string tuning every time you make an adjustment to the string saddle.

That covers about everything you need to know about converting a righty guitar to a left-handed guitar. For more information about left-handed guitars, check out the resource box.

To learn more about left-handed acoustic, electric, and bass guitars, visit the Left Handed Guitar and Bass Guide. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Seth_Baker

Fast Heavy Downstroke Strumming On Metal Bass Chords With Speed Licks

7-saitiger HeKe E-Bass "Goliath" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fast Heavy Downstroke Strumming On Metal Bass Chords 

 Playing metal bass is fun and not just for those bassists who are only interested in the metal style of music.  The heavy sound and fast playing is a hallmark of metal which has a variety of variations from classic metal, nu metal, hair metal, etc. 

Metal bass riffs are used over metal chords and can be made up of chords themselves. For example, power chord riffs are often used in metal. The bass picking method used for the lead playing may be alternate picking for scales, and sweep picking on arpeggios for example.

While chords are picked in various directions, one method is repeated, rapid fire down strokes, in one direction without alterations that makes the sound heavy and characteristic of the thrash metal style.  Metal chords are also alternate picked many times as well, depending on the style that you want to emulate and your own personal preference.

While some metal chords may seem like easy bass chords, executing them properly and with precision is an art that takes practice and dedication to the style. Often times, the chords may be some form of a power chord, whether b5, +5,(diminished or augmented) straight power 5 or other type of chord.

A common technique used when playing these chords is palm muting which can be added on and off to create a different tone while playing the same chord, at the same speed, in the same song.  The type of distortion and the quality of your technique will create a heavy, percussive rhythm sound which must be able to be maintained throughout the length of a standard song.

You will find that as you practice some of these rhythms whether with consistent down strokes or alternating up and down pick strokes, you will have to have your hand and forearm relaxed because if you get too tense you picking hand will start to lock up on you and you will not be able to maintain your speed or accuracy.

The speed bass licks and riffs that are played over metal chords need the energy of the heavy chord rhythm to have a solid sound background to play the solo over.  Whether the licks are played with alternate picking or economy picking, one thing is for sure, they will not be played with all down strokes.

A chord riff could be played that way depending on how it is constructed.  The real secret to metal bass chords and chords of all types is to learn your bass in a way that is going to give an intensive education on the bass. For bass players from beginner to advanced, and all styles including jazz it is best to learn the bass with a serious software program.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

 TONY GREY BASS ACADEMY

Whatever membership you choose, you’ll also get access to;

- Private Members forum
- Exclusive Members resource area
- Our excellent support team
- Exciting new Lessons EVERY Month
- Live member webinars where we invite special guests
- No need to know how to read music
- Learn all the styles, all the genres
- Printable PDF lessons
- Tips, tricks and exclusive MP3 play-along tracks to download
- Full rundown on gear
- Comprehensive Ear training
- Music Reading and composition

Get Maximum results in the minimum of time.

Click Here!

Building Electric Guitars - eBook

eBook: Building Electric Guitars

How to make solid-body, hollow-body and semi-acoustic electric guitars and bass guitars.

eBook edition
PDF-format (5.8 MB download), 235 pages
229 drawings, 627 b/w photos, 15 color photos

The Benefit of the Double Neck Guitar

The Benefit of the Double Neck Guitar

 

Rosli Mansor with his double neck guitar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 A double neck guitar looks like a set of Siamese twins. With two separate and distinct necks and a single, wider-than-average body, the instrument really does appear to be two independent entities joined by a common body. This description is, in fact, not too far from the truth. 

The benefit of the double neck guitar is that it essentially allows the musician access to more than one instrument at a time. To take the most common example, consider the typical double neck guitar. This instrument has one neck with twelve strings and one with six. The musician can, at any point during his or her performance, choose to switch between the two necks. This freedom of choice allows him or her to double the kind of music he or she can produce. Hence, to play the double neck guitar is to essentially play two instruments not simultaneously, but at least back-to-back. The concept of the double neck guitar is not a new one. Instruments similar to this have been around for at least a few hundred years. 

A double neck version of the Russian guitar, for example, was popular in the beginning of the 19th century. Today, however, double neck guitars are generally Western-style electric instruments. As mentioned, the most common models have twelve strings on the top neck and six strings on the bottom. However, some versions have six strings on one neck and only four on the other. Fretted instruments are most common, but sometimes only one neck will be fretted and the other fretless. In fact, almost any combination of guitar characteristics is possible with these instruments. Some models eve have three, four or five necks. 

Such guitars only increase the variety of music that can be played on a "single" instrument. Although double neck guitars have traditionally been simply standard electric guitars, bass instruments have gained popularity in recent years. Double neck bass guitars are often tuned differently, an approach that significantly widens the player's range. Other models vary the use of frets or the number of strings. A more unusual approach is to have a double neck instrument with one neck set up as a standard electric guitar and the other set up as a bass guitar.

 The double neck guitar is, needless to say, rather startling in appearance. This no doubt contributes to its popularity with a number of musicians in famous bands. After all, not only does the double neck guitar allow the artist to increase his musical variety, it also ensures that a great number of people will be staring at his instrument. These musicians are usually bassists, and they include Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Slash of Guns N' Roses, Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi and Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen.

 It should be mentioned that while the harp guitar is a relative of the double neck guitar, the two instruments are not the same. The harp guitar features unstopped strings that are designed to be plucked like those of a harp. The double neck guitar's strings, on the other hand, are invariably meant to be played like those of a guitar. Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, keyboards, sheet music, guitar tab, and home theater audio. You can find the best marketplace at these sites for guitars, double neck, sheet music, guitar.