Do left handed guitarists have an advantage? Being a southpaw won’t turn you into a guitar god overnight (sadly, that part still takes practice). But science suggests our fretting hand might be better coordinated than a righty’s, and the perks don’t stop there.
From looking awesome on stage to dodging “Wonderwall” requests at parties, here are 9 advantages of being a left handed guitarist that righties can only dream about.
9 Left Handed Guitarist Advantages
1. No One Else Can Play Your Guitar (And Break It!)
Picture the scene. You’re at band practice and your hyperactive drummer asks to try out your brand new guitar. You hand it over. He cranks the amp to 11 and starts windmilling like Pete Townshend, with all the self-control of Animal from the Muppets.
Two minutes later, he’s lassoed himself in guitar cables and your headstock is buried in the drywall. Words are exchanged, the band splits, and you walk away with a broken axe (and possibly a criminal record).
Now rewind and replay that scene as a lefty. The drummer reaches for your guitar, and you get to smugly deliver the line every southpaw dreams of saying: “Terribly sorry, old chap, but this is a left handed instrument. I’m afraid it would be utterly wasted on a right handed player such as yourself.“
He picks it up anyway, stares at it like it’s a Rubik’s Cube, and quietly hands it back.
Disaster averted, band saved, jail time avoided. Huzzah!
OK, that’s an extreme example. But being a lefty has kept plenty of grubby paws off my guitars over the years. It’s the best anti-theft device money can’t buy.
2. You Look Awesome On Stage
Few things are more pleasing to the eye than symmetry, and a lefty in the band hands it to you for free.
Just ask the Beatles. Paul McCartney’s lefty Hofner bass, set against John and George’s righty guitars, gave them one of the most famous lineups in rock history. It just looks good!
It’s even better when it’s time to show off. Whether it’s a guitar duel or a bass-and-guitar standoff, a righty and a lefty can go back-to-back in full rock-god stance and look like a perfect mirror image, necks fanned out like a pair of wings. Two righties attempting the same move just look like they’re waiting in line for the bathroom. Cue the smoke machine!
My Two Cents: In my experience, a band with a left handed guitarist always gets noticed. Even people who don’t know a Strat from a Tele do a double take when a southpaw walks on stage.
3. Lefty Guitars Can Fetch Serious Money
Want bragging rights? Two of the four most expensive guitars ever sold were played by lefty legend Kurt Cobain. His left-handed “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Mustang sold for $6.9 million in March 2026, beating every Clapton, Lennon and Harrison guitar in the same auction. His MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E isn’t far behind, fetching just over $6 million in 2020.
Check out the full list of the most expensive guitars ever sold and you’ll spot a handful of Jimi Hendrix’s axes in there too.
OK, those prices have more to do with Kurt and Jimi than which way the strings go. But rarity is on our side as well. Vintage lefties are hard to find, and dealers know exactly how badly lefty collectors want one. Keep a rare southpaw in mint condition, and it could make a nice little retirement fund for when your fingers are too creaky to traverse the fretboard.
Just don’t count on every lefty making you rich. My limited edition Surf Green Fender American Professional Strat is probably worth more today than I paid for it new, but I suspect inflation deserves the credit rather than my brilliant southpaw investment skills.
4. Copying Your Guitar Teacher Is a Breeze
Here’s one that righties never see coming. Sit opposite a right handed guitar teacher, and everything they play looks like a perfect reflection of your own guitar. Chord shapes, scale patterns, that tricky strumming pattern they keep repeating… just copy it like you’re looking in a mirror.
Right handed students in the same chair have to mentally flip every move, which is why plenty of them end up craning their necks or dragging their chair around to sit beside the teacher. Check out my guide to learning guitar and the mirror effect for the full lowdown.
And if you ever decide to teach guitar yourself, the trick works in reverse. Your righty students get to mirror you, which makes you their ideal teacher (in theory, at least).
5. In-Store Lefties Are Usually in Better Condition
Roughly 10% of people are left handed, but lefty guitars make up a much smaller slice of the market. Paul Reed Smith was once told the left handed market was 5%, only to discover it’s actually half of one percent. That’s just 1 in 200 guitars!
Most of us also do our shopping online, knowing full well that our local guitar store only has a handful of southpaw models tucked away in a corner. So the few lefties hanging on the wall rarely get taken down, let alone played.
From my years working in guitar retail, I can confirm this one. The lefties are often in mint or near-mint condition, while the righty models have been mauled by every teenager in town trying to play “Smoke on the Water” at full volume. Take a closer look at one and you’ll often spot belt buckle scratches, a ding or two, and a fretboard coated in the greasy fingerprints of a thousand Doritos.
6. No One Can Force You to Perform at Parties
We’ve all been there. You’re at a party, minding your own business, when the host spots the dusty acoustic in the corner and announces to the room that you play guitar. Suddenly 30 tipsy faces are staring at you, chanting for “Wonderwall.”
Being asked to perform on the spot is like walking up to a comedian in the street and demanding a joke. Nobody enjoys it, least of all the poor guitarist trying to tune an instrument that hasn’t seen new strings since 2009.
Fortunately, lefties come with a built-in escape hatch. Glance at the guitar, shrug apologetically and sigh, “Oh, I’d love to, but it’s right handed.” Then retreat to the snack table, free from Oasis duty for another night.
Whether you could actually play it upside down is between you and your conscience.
7. Less Competition When Buying Used
Hunting for a used guitar can get ugly. Righty players on eBay have to fight off dozens of rival bidders, sniping software, and that one guy who always swoops in with two seconds left on the clock. Over on Reverb and Facebook Marketplace, the best deals vanish before you’ve even finished reading the description.
As a lefty, things are often a lot quieter. With so few of us out there, you’ll often find yourself up against just a handful of bidders, and sometimes nobody at all. Win one unopposed and you could walk away with an absolute steal. And if a lefty listing has been sitting unsold for weeks, that’s your cue to make a cheeky offer.
That smaller market also means a regular lefty can sell for less than its righty twin. It’s not that nobody wants it. It’s just waiting for the right (or should that be left?) buyer to come along. Just don’t expect a bargain on the truly special stuff. The moment a sought-after lefty pops up, every southpaw collector on the planet suddenly crawls out of the woodwork.
8. Science Is On Our Side
Ask r/Guitar whether you should play lefty, and within 30 seconds you’ll be buried under an avalanche of “just learn right handed, your dominant hand should do the hard fretting work” replies.
Science has other ideas. A 2012 study from Penn State tested how well people controlled their non-dominant arm during precise reaching movements. Left-handers’ right arms turned out to be substantially more accurate and better coordinated than right-handers’ left arms. The researchers suggest that a lifetime of coping in a right handed world gives our “weaker” side a serious workout. Handy, considering that’s the hand doing all our fretting!
And there’s more. A 2024 brain scan study of left-handed musicians at Spain’s Universitat Jaume I found that the way some lefties’ brains are wired could boost the pathways linked to musical skill. In other words, your noggin might just be built for music. Take that, Reddit warriors!
Being a lefty won’t magically turn you into Jimi Hendrix, of course. You’ll still need to put in the hours. But the next time someone tells you to just switch to a right handed guitar, you’ve got science in your corner.
9. The Horror Stories Are All Hype
Lefties of old had it rough. Tales of guitar stores with one dusty southpaw in stock, or stubborn teachers forcing kids to play righty, still get passed around like campfire ghost stories.
But it’s not 1985 anymore. These days there are PLENTY of excellent lefty guitars to choose from, and most cost about the same as their righty twins. Some models do cost a little more, but you won’t need to sell a kidney to get one.
So don’t let the righties and conformists talk you out of it. If playing lefty feels natural, dive right in. Still on the fence? My guide on whether to learn guitar left or right handed will help you decide.
As you can see, being a southpaw guitarist comes with some seriously good perks. So embrace your lefty roots, crank up the amp, and go make some noise!
