Left hand acoustic guitar – for beginners

[nwgilbert]

Hi, I am looking to learn acoustic guitar and been doing some research into beginner guitars for quite some time. Originally I settled and decided on the Yamaha FG800M.

 

After taking further conservation I thought it would be worth exploring whether or not I am left handed (since I am ambidextrous and left hand in most things).

After a few tests, I am certain that I am left handed in guitar.

I soon learnt that left hand guitars are much more limited and costly than right hand.

 

So I spent some time looking for another guitar for beginners and came across the Yamaha FG820L.

So I am heading in this direction, however the reason for my posting here is that I have also seen that you can refit the strings in a right hand guitar to be for left handed.

Does anyone know if that's possible and easily achievable and the disadvantages of doing this, rather than buying a left hand guitar?

[StevieG]

Hi I'm left handed and when i first started I tried to play right handed on a borrowed guitar. I gave it a good go for a few weeks but just couldn't get away with it at all, I found I couldn't even hold it properly so I bought a left handed guitar and was away. If you can I would learn right handed the choice of guitars is much wider , If I could have done it I would have. As for swapping the strings over, you can but the bridge and the nut won't be quite right and it can affect the intonation

[nwgilbert]

Thank you for your reply. I've received very mixed opinions across multiple boards.

Taking everything into account and with further research, I am leaning towards left handed and paying the extra buck to get a left handed guitar from factory.
I understand the extra complications down the line but I know in myself that I will be better suited in the long run to play left handed. Right handed feels so wrong for me when comparing to left.

An opinion which has been stated numerous times is that learning guitar from new is a bitch as it is so if you can do yourself a favour and play something that feels more naturally comfortable then it will massively help as you'll be more likely to enjoy and continue playing. I think this outweighs those negatives, regardless of the added complications of learning as a left hander and not being able to walk into a room and pickup any guitar.

This is the model I am looking to buy from Dawsons - https://www.dawsons.co.uk/109710/yamaha-fg820l-left-handed-acoustic-guitar-natural
This seems to be a great model to go for as a beginner. What are others thoughts on this model?

I am also looking to buy picks, tuner, strap and capo - is there any particular brand or shop you would recommend getting these parts from? 
- ideally I could order it all from Dawsons along with the guitar but I'm open to buying these parts elsewhere if need be.

[EdwardMarlowe]

You're making the right choice to play left handed, imo. If I had a fiver for every know-nothing right handed player who blew on at me in the early days about how I should learn to play the "proper" way, that guitar isn't really a "handed" instrument, and that I'd have an advantage anyhow by having my better hand on the fretboard (weirdly, they could never explain why by that logic right handed players don't play the 'left handed way' so as to have their dominant hand on the board, given the instrument was invented by a right hander while we lefties were still too busy being burned at the stake as witches to do much in the way of musical innovation....), I'd be *almost* as wealthy as if I had a fiver for every left handed kid who quickly gave up on guitar because they were pushed into trying to play right handed...  (The Classical music world is even worse for handism, it has to be said). 

The anti-lefthanded bigotry has mostly disappeared from society, but as - as I like to think of us - the last, unrecognised minority, we're a small proportion of the market and a lot of brands inevitably have pretty poor left handed provision as a result. There are lots of guitars over the years I'd have loved but for the lack of a left hander. That said, the situation has improved enormously since I first took up guitar in December 1991. It's a rare brand these days that doesn't do *something* left handed, and even beyond that choice of finishes is no longer limited to "sunburst plus rosewood board" the way it once was. Needless to say, the more of us who play left handed, the bigger the market, so the more our options will be: I've come to regard lefties who play right handed as traitors to their people.  

That Yammy will be very decent for the price, they always have been a good brand at a fair price, and QC  is very consistent. Also worth having a look around at what else is on the market - the range of very good acoustics available in that price band these days is quite something. Sigma (Martin's budget brand range) are nice, and Tanglewood has some cracking stuff too.