The Chapman Stick was devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s and is a rather uniquely designed electric musical instrument.  The instrument, which looks like an enlarged guitar fretboard is usually played with a tapping technique which allows players to perform bass, chords and melody lines simultaneously!

The company offers all but one of their instruments (the NS model) in a left handed option and there is no added charge for the modification. Prices start at $1900 USD for the Alto Stick and plenty of custom options are available when ordering your own.

If you’ve never seen a Stick in action before, head to the end of the article to see Stick maestro Kevin Keith doing his thing.  For now, let’s take a look at the different models that are available left handed…

Chapman Stick 10-String Left Handed

Chapman’s 10-string stereo fretboard tapping instrument has evolved greatly over the years but still has the classic Chapman Stick sound. Each new instrument features their latest adjustable components for easy setup. A wide variety of ordering options allow you to customize your instrument with your choice of exotic hardwood laminates, tunings, string gauges, pickup configurations, MIDI, and even the inlay material.

Chapman Stick 10-String Grand Left Handed

The wider fretboard of this 10-string stereo Stick model provides more room for the fingers. Center-to-center string spacing is .350″ as opposed to .315″ on the standard 10-string Sticks. The space between the two groups of strings is also wider, at .500″ instead of the standard .430″.

This instrument is meant to accommodate those musicians with larger hands and fingers, and those who want more of a guitar-like string spacing. It’s a step in the direction of the SB8 (Stick Bass), which spaces all eight strings uniformly .400″ apart, measured from center to center of each string. The SB8 has the typical Stick stereo placement of strings into two groups of four, but the string spacing is uniform all across a single sequence of perfect fourths. The Ten-String Grand, on the other hand, preserves the wider physical gap at the center between the two groups of strings, as with other Stick type 4ths/5ths tunings.

Manne Guitars was founded in 1987 by owner Andrea Ballarin in Schio, Italy.  The company philosophy is that “there is always a better way to do it”, and it is this mindset that makes them strive to produce better and better instruments.

The brand produces a range of uniquely shaped body designs as well as a selection of some more traditionally styled guitars.  All of the guitars produced by Manne are available to order left handed.

I have listed a small sample of Manne’s guitars and basses below as there are too many to list in a single article.  I encourage you to head over to the company website to see exactly what is available.  Keep in mind that Manne Guitars is a custom shop and as such, all guitars can be specced to your exacting requirements.

Manne Left Handed Electric and Acoustic Guitars

Flatline Guitars was founded by owner Rick Lockhart with the aim of building guitars that look like they were retrieved from the window display of a guitar store in a bygone era.  Each guitar is handmade and setup at the Flatline Guitars workshop in Washington, USA.

Flatline will make any of their guitars in a left handed version at no extra charge.  A lefty model will need to be assembled from scratch and the build time should run you roughly 6-8 weeks.  I’ve been really impressed with this company – beautiful guitars coupled with a lefty friendly attitude, and I’ve got to say, a fantastic price for a handbuilt USA guitar!

Let’s take a look at the left handed guitars available from this USA brand…

Flatline Delta T Left Handed Guitar

A players best friend. This guitar sings with vintage tone from the rich and warm sounding neck pickup and a very hot bridge pickup that provides tone somewhere in between a twangy single coil and a ballsy P-90. It features a simple control group with a three way toggle switch, master volume and tone. This simplified electronic setup allows the true tone of the guitar and pickups to shine through and it loves to naturally overdrive tube amps.

• Modern C-shaped maple neck with satin finish
• Kluson tuning machines
• String through body
• Vintage bridge with six saddles
• Lollar Special T Neck and Bridge Pickups
• Single volume and tone control
• 3-way toggle switch
• Colors : Caddy Red,Vintage Butterscotch,Two-tone Sunburst,Vintage Blonde
• Optional Bigsby Tremolo (add $150)

Laguna Guitars is a new-ish guitar company which is owned by and brought to you by the team at Guitar Center in the USA.  You may have heard of this brand if you are a fan of fusion guitarist Greg Howe who has a signature model with the company.

Laguna takes pride in being an environmentally friendly company and insists that for every guitar thay they build they will also plant a tree.  The packaging used is made from recycled materials and they also do not print out heavy and largely unneeded catalogues, they leave the printing up to the customer.  A very green company indeed!

But alas, they do seem to care more about the planet than they do for us lefty guitar players as the company only produces one of their guitars left handed.  And you guessed it….it’s black!  Companies really need to wake up and realise how utterly fed up we are of being force fed black guitars.  Ah well, at least it’s a satin finish rather than the usual glossy :P

Let’s take a look at the left handed guitars available from this Californian company…

Laguna LE200BKS Left Handed Guitar

• Carved basswood body
• Hard-rock maple neck
• Indian rosewood fretboard
• 24 frets with pearl “Earthrise” inlays
• Teflon-infused graphite nut
• String-thru w/tune-o-matic style bridge
• HH pickup configuration, C4 ceramic magnets with coil tap
• 5-way pickup selector
• Black hardware
• Finish: Black Satin (BKS)

Aria Guitars was founded in Japan in 1953 by Shiro Arai under the name ‘Arai and Company’.  They began retailing acoustic guitars in 1960 and currently produce a wide range of acoustic, electric and bass guitars under various names.

Unfortuntately Aria are one of those big name companies who overlook the left handed player, and as a result there is only a single model available.  And just to rub salt into the wound this single model is only available in our favorite color – black :P  It seems unlikely that you will see many left handed Aria players around…

Let’s take a look at what’s available from this Japanese brand…

Aria STG-003 Left Handed Guitar

• A solid alder body with a classic design
• A bolt-on maple neck
• A rosewood fingerboard
• 25 1/2″ scale length
• 22 frets
• Three OS-1 single coil pickups
• One volume knob, two tone knobs, 5-way pickup selector
• VFT-1 Tremolo bridge
• Chrome hardware
• Available in black

Aria Website

The Aria website is fairly basic in design and dated in appearance, but the lack of bells and whistles does make for an efficient browsing experience.  There is absolutely no mention of left handed guitars anywhere on the site and as I result I had to contact Aria to find out any information.