Guitars

Where to go for left handed guitars and left handed bass guitars? Part Two – left handed Firebirds

These days, with more and more major Guitar manufacturers ceasing to make their products in left hand as well, one might well ask the question “where do I go for left handed guitars and left-handed bass guitars these days?”

In actual fact, there are definite guitar models that are popular with guitarists that you cannot get left handed at all. Some have never been available in left hand.

Fortunately there is one guitar brand in the world that makes left handed guitars and left-handed bass guitars only: Gaskell Guitars.

Gaskell Guitars (http://www.gaskellguitars.com) is from Australia, and was started by New Zealand-born left-handed guitarist Kevin Gaskell.

Gaskell Guitars has been going strong formally since 2006 and has become international renowned for left handed guitars, designed by a lefty, for lefties only.

Gaskell makes left handed guitars and basses that are otherwise not available in left hand option by original manufacturers. Here are some examples:

If you are a left-handed guitarist and you want to play, for example, a Firebird style guitar you will be confronted with the following list of facts:

a)      Gibson, the original maker of Firebird guitars has never made a production reverse body Firebird. The model is nearly 50 years old!

b)      It appears that Gibson has made a few non reverse body Firebirds over the years and people with them hold on to them. It is possible that this was mainly during the 1960’s and possibly the early 1970’s. The non reverse body Firebirds are the unpopular ones. No one plays them. People play reverse body Firebirds.

c)      If you were to buy one of these non reverse body Firebirds expect to pay anything up to US$ 27,500.00 for one. (True case. A guitar was going for that amount in 2010!)

d)     ESP Guitars also make a Firebird style guitar. Theirs is called the Phoenix. It may come in left hand through their custom shop (???) but has never been available as a production left handed model. It looks pretty similar but has some style differences.

e)      Jackson Guitars USA used to make a reverse body Firebird guitar with their pointy Jackson headstock but the model has been discontinued for years and was never made left-handed any way.

f)       Even the sub-$500 entry level brands don’t do left-handed Firebirds. It might be because they are too expensive to make, even by the uber-cheap and nasty Chinese brands that mass produce junk guitars. Firebirds have 3 piece bodies and that cannot be done by computer (CNC machine.) A Firebird is probably THE most difficult guitar to make. It is not a slab body guitar which can be CNC’d without effort.

g)      For those in the know, Tokai, from Japan, make left handed guitars and they do make a Firebird but theirs is a slab body guitar and bolt neck. That loses pretty much everything that makes a Firebird sound like a Firebird. It may as well be a Stratocaster!

Gaskell Guitars makes a left handed Firebird style guitar.

Their version, called the Firestarter ( http://www.gaskellguitars.com/models) has a 3 piece body with set in neck. The earliest models were neck thru but they had to be changed to set neck, due to the huge cost increase to make neck-thru and no resource in CNC technology to do it for that model of guitar.

The Gaskell Firestarter is a little smaller than the Gibson Firebird so is more manageable. Apart from the mahogany body, the neck is maple which makes the guitar a little lighter than a Gibson. Heavy guitars are not an option for the pro guitarist who has to stand on a stage for 1 – 3 hours holding a guitar. Heavy guitars are not needed and wanted by professional guitarists.

Left-handed guitarists wanting a quality, gig ready, Firebird style guitar, there is really one place to get one from: Gaskell Guitars.

No matter where you live in the world you can get a Gaskell guitar or bass without too much hassle.

I suggest you look at their website for more info. It is worth it! You will be surprised!

Left-handed guitars and left-handed basses only. Designed by a lefty, for lefties. How much more better than that can you get it?

 

About the Author

Kevin Gaskell is the business owner and designer of Gaskell Guitars which is a manufacturer of left handed guitars and basses, located in Sydney Australia. Gaskell guitars are available world wide. http://www.gaskellguitars.com

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