Guides

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.  

After 40 years of manufacturing guitars, Korean musical instrument brand Samick hired industry veteran Greg Bennett to give their range of guitars an extreme makeover.  This new Samick range, now under the name of Greg Bennett Guitars, features a wide array of professional level parts such as Duncan designed pickups, Wilkinson hardware and great woods sourced from all over the world.

Unfortunately at present Greg Bennett does not offer too many of their guitars left handed, with there being only five available in total.  There are two lefty electric guitars, two acoustics and one bass guitar on offer, so they do manage to cover most bases with this humble offering.  However, it would be nice to see a larger selection in the future…

Let’s take a look at what’s on offer from Greg Bennett guitars…

Greg Bennett Avion AV3 Left Handed Guitar

• Mahogany body
• Bound, carved, flamed top
• Bound, mahogany set neck
• Rosewood fingerboard (12″ radius)
• 22 fret, 24″ scale
• Grover™ A102-C, 14:1 ratio tuners
• Stop tailpiece with adjustable bridge
• Dual humbucker pickups
• 2 volume and 2 tone controls
• 3-way selector switch

Greg Bennett Malibu MB1 Lefty Guitar

Lakewood Guitars is a German guitar company founded in 1986 by owner Martin Seeliger.  The company specialises in producing beautfiful hand-crafted acoustic guitars for musicians all over the world.

As with many other brands who concentrate on acoustic instruments, Lakewood are another fantastic company who produce all of their guitars in a left handed version.  When I got in touch with Lakewood they did have a few left handed guitars in stock, but expect to special order if you decide to take the plunge.

There are far too many guitars to display in a single article so I have given a brief overview of the main ranges from Lakewood below.  I counted 44 different guitars in total and that doesn’t even include country specific options.  There is a sample image for each series but keep in mind that you will find far more guitars and options on the Lakewood website!  Let’s take a look…

Lakewood Natural Series Left Handed Acoustic Guitars

Precious woods, pure and untreated, display their natural beauty in the most direct path from the material to the eye of the beholder, reduced to the absolute basics. No more, but no less either, since every guitar in the Natural Series is built to the same high standards of guitar artistry shared by all Lakewood instruments. The language of form allows the materials to speak for themselves. Each instrument is made up of finely tuned elements – a series where less is definitely more.

Lakewood Deluxe Series Left Handed Acoustic Guitars