Guides

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

Tanglewood Guitars is a British guitar brand, founded in 1990 in England by owner Dirk Kommer.  Until recently this brand was almost exclusively sold within the UK, however after winning several industry awards the company has expanded and is now distributed in over 35 countries worldwide.

Although primarily known for their fantastic and affordable acoustic guitars, Tanglewood do produce a range of beginner lefty electric guitars and basses of which 5 are currently available left handed.  Hopefully we’ll see this range expand as the company grows!

Let’s take a look at what’s on offer from this British company…

Tanglewood TSB 58 CSB LH Left Handed Guitar

BODY Solid Mahogany
TOP Flame Maple Veneer
NECK (MATERIAL) Mahogany
NECK (BUILD) Set Neck
FINGERBOARD Rosewood
PICKGUARD Cream
BINDING Cream ABS Front
NUT (WIDTH) Cream ABS (43mm)
SCALE LENGTH 630mm
MACHINE HEADS Kluson Style with Tulip Buttons
HARDWARE Nickel
FINISH Cherry Sunburst Gloss
PICKUPS 2 x Entwistle Alnico HV58

Tanglewood DBT 6 BK LH Lefty Guitar

Framus is a German guitar and amplifier brand which was founded in 1946 by Fred Wilfer.  Unfortunately, due to the rapidly changing market at the time, the company was forced into bankruptcy in 1975.  However the Framus name was revived in 1995 after being bought by German bass guitar brand Warwick.  The company now successfully produces a wide range of high-end guitars and tube amplifiers.

Framus are one of the few bigger name companies out there who are truly ‘lefty friendly’ as they produce nearly all of their guitars in a left handed format at no extra charge.  The only guitars which are not available left handed are the Vintage Series and the Earl Slick signature series.  Great work from Framus indeed!

There are far too many guitars to fit in a single article so I have broken the choices down into their ‘families’.  Descriptions will be brief as the guitars in each family each differ from one another in various ways, so be sure to check out the Framus website for detailed specs.  Besides, you just come here for the pretty pictures right? ;)

Framus Panthera Series Left Handed Guitars

The gorgeous singlecut Panthera range from Framus is available in a wide variety of different finishes, wood configurations, bridges, pickup choices, and even has a 7-string model on offer.  Check out the Framus website to obtain detailed specs for each different model.

Framus Diablo Series Lefty Guitars

The stunning Diablo range from Framus is available in a wide variety of different finishes, wood configurations, bridges, pickup choices, and even has a 7-string model on offer.  Check out the Framus website for the skinny on each different model.