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Gibson Made 2 Measure guitar? Anyone tried?


zxcvbnm098

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Hey everyone...Mike here, dropping in from the Keyboard Corner side of universe.

 

I'm a lefty player, and considering ordering an SG Jr. from the Made 2 Measure program at Gibson as their currently offered SGJ (which actually looks pretty awesome, and for once period correct) is not available for lefties. A song I have sadly heard before being lefty.

 

I was wondering if anyone here has ordered a guitar through the M2M, and what the relative upcharge is? I know pricing can vary a bit depending on which dealer you order from, but I'm curious as to just how much more one might look to be paying? The currently offered SGJ is $1399...I'm thinking the M2M version in lefty might be around $2K? That's just a guess though....if anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear about it or any experience ordering from them?

 

Thanks in advance! I'm looking forward to popping in more around here...:)

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Sweetwater has an SG Special lefty for $1,499 only $100 more than the SGJ. They also have a lefty 61 SG Standard for $1,799. No lefty SGJ's shown.

 

Good luck in your search and we'll keep a candle burning for when you pop in again! :thu:

Take care, Larryz
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Sort of sideways response here -

 

Looking though GC's Used Gear listings, I see used SG Jr.'s going for anywhere from right around $700US, up to right around $1000US. If we're looking at the same model, overall, you've got a single P-90, and a one-piece wrap-around Bridge/Tailpiece. $2K seems like a lot of money for a very stripped-down Guitar, and I say that as a life-long SG player. I understand it's a one-off Custom Shop model, but for that money, I'd look into other brands, or even independent Luthiers, who might be able to offer the Guitar you want for less.

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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Sort of sideways response here -

 

Looking though GC's Used Gear listings, I see used SG Jr.'s going for anywhere from right around $700US, up to right around $1000US. If we're looking at the same model, overall, you've got a single P-90, and a one-piece wrap-around Bridge/Tailpiece. $2K seems like a lot of money for a very stripped-down Guitar, and I say that as a life-long SG player. I understand it's a one-off Custom Shop model, but for that money, I'd look into other brands, or even independent Luthiers, who might be able to offer the Guitar you want for less.

 

 

It might look a bit odd but it really wouldn't take much to route a new control area on the opposite side of the body, put the volume, tone and output jack there and set a right handed SG up as a lefty.

The strap button is at the neck joint anyway, no? Still have full access to all frets too. Might look a bit strange but that's kind of cool. Certainly be much less expensive!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Resources For Lefties

http://leftyfretz.com/

http://www.southpawguitars.com/

http://www.adirondackguitar.com/lefty/LHMenu.htm

http://www.jerrysleftyguitars.com/

http://leftyguitarsonly.com/

 

Beyond that, there"s several makers out there offering lefty guitars, so I echo WPS" suggestion about looking for guitars NOT made Gibson that will scratch your itch.

Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ

 

My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx

 

http://murphysmusictx.com/

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Sort of sideways response here -

 

Looking though GC's Used Gear listings, I see used SG Jr.'s going for anywhere from right around $700US, up to right around $1000US. If we're looking at the same model, overall, you've got a single P-90, and a one-piece wrap-around Bridge/Tailpiece. $2K seems like a lot of money for a very stripped-down Guitar, and I say that as a life-long SG player. I understand it's a one-off Custom Shop model, but for that money, I'd look into other brands, or even independent Luthiers, who might be able to offer the Guitar you want for less.

 

 

It might look a bit odd but it really wouldn't take much to route a new control area on the opposite side of the body, put the volume, tone and output jack there and set a right handed SG up as a lefty.

The strap button is at the neck joint anyway, no? Still have full access to all frets too. Might look a bit strange but that's kind of cool. Certainly be much less expensive!

 

I'd considered that option, as well, but one issue is that it takes a good deal of mass away from the Guitar body, in order to make a new control cavity; at that point, you essentially have a "chambered" SG Jr., which is unlikely to sound, or feel, quite like the original. It still seems like there would be better value in simply finding, or ordering a left-handed Guitar.

 

I'd also considered, very briefly, simply flipping the Guitar over like Albert King did, but that puts the controls right where your arm would tend to rest on the body, not a great idea.

 

FWIW, I AM a left-handed SG player, but when I took up the Guitar, more than 50 years ago, it never occurred to me that there were left-handed Instruments: all the cheap, beginner Guitars were right-handed, everyone I knew who had a Guitar was, or seemed to be, right-handed, so I took up the Guitar that was available to me, and never looked back.

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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Sort of sideways response here -

 

Looking though GC's Used Gear listings, I see used SG Jr.'s going for anywhere from right around $700US, up to right around $1000US. If we're looking at the same model, overall, you've got a single P-90, and a one-piece wrap-around Bridge/Tailpiece. $2K seems like a lot of money for a very stripped-down Guitar, and I say that as a life-long SG player. I understand it's a one-off Custom Shop model, but for that money, I'd look into other brands, or even independent Luthiers, who might be able to offer the Guitar you want for less.

 

 

It might look a bit odd but it really wouldn't take much to route a new control area on the opposite side of the body, put the volume, tone and output jack there and set a right handed SG up as a lefty.

The strap button is at the neck joint anyway, no? Still have full access to all frets too. Might look a bit strange but that's kind of cool. Certainly be much less expensive!

 

I'd considered that option, as well, but one issue is that it takes a good deal of mass away from the Guitar body, in order to make a new control cavity; at that point, you essentially have a "chambered" SG Jr., which is unlikely to sound, or feel, quite like the original. It still seems like there would be better value in simply finding, or ordering a left-handed Guitar.

 

I'd also considered, very briefly, simply flipping the Guitar over like Albert King did, but that puts the controls right where your arm would tend to rest on the body, not a great idea.

 

FWIW, I AM a left-handed SG player, but when I took up the Guitar, more than 50 years ago, it never occurred to me that there were left-handed Instruments: all the cheap, beginner Guitars were right-handed, everyone I knew who had a Guitar was, or seemed to be, right-handed, so I took up the Guitar that was available to me, and never looked back.

 

 

If it were a dual pickup model with the larger cavity for the switch and 2 more pots, I might agree or I might want to hear it since I like lightweight resonant guitars. With a Jr, the original cavity is much smaller and adding another small one on the other side probably won't affect the tone much at all.

 

I get it, I AM left handed and somehow started right in playing right handed guitars right handed. I feel lucky to have the selection, you'd have to drive down to Seattle to find a left handed guitar in a store and I'm not certain you would find one. I know there aren't any up here, not in stores.

 

Oddly, my left handed Uncle Ralph played right handed too and handed me a ukulele when I was 5. It felt fine right handed at that point and it stuck. Humans are certainly "interesting", no?

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Many thanks to everyone who has responded! And also thanks for making me feel right at home here!

 

Yeah, I know that's a lot of money for what is essentially a student guitar, but I'm also considering resell value if I ever decide to sell...which I have done in the past for various reasons. So I'm sticking with Gibson, and the M2M program will (I think) allow me to even choose another finish if I want, and choose (sort of) the weight. It's a cheaper alternative to going full-bore custom shop, which gets absurd price-wise fast.

 

In terms of flipping a righty, the SG is actually a subtle asymmetric body; the treble horn is slightly longer than the bass horn. Not a huge deal of course, but something that took a long time to even notice myself. But of course now that's all I see when I see a flipped SG...and there are some out there. Ironically I have a proper lefty SG, a '68.

 

And the irony of it all is I have an SG Jr. now, one of the reissues from 2009 or so? But Gibson being Gibson has over the years has done "reissues" that are period incorrect, whether it's the wrong knobs placement, or the wrong logo...what the hell? It's like they purposely made it slightly wrong. Typical of the Henry era Gibson, which I'm sure what intentional for some damn reason. But I'm at an age where dammit, I want one just like they made them in 60's, and that's what I want! ...:) Logic be damned!

 

And like Winston, I too have been playing for quite awhile, and it was insanely hard in the late 70's when I started to find anything out there lefty. I grew up about 90 minutes north of LA, and as soon as I got my license I drove down to Hollywood to what was then the only Guitar Center thinking that surely they'd have a couple of lefties??? Yeah, not so much. One CBS era Strat that weighed A TON and was about $600 in 1976 dollars? Had to pass and hope I'd find one somewhere, somehow. Living in LA in the 80's and 90's we had the Recycler, which started making it slightly easier to find some stuff lefty.

 

But since when the internet and eBay hit in the very early years, I've been able to actually find factory lefties, and I've also realized that sometimes the hunt is actually as fun as actually finding the item left handed. So I've made it point to continue to seek out the real thing - even though I'm principally a keyboard player. Go figure. But I've managed to find some pretty cool pieces that are likely the only or one of a couple lefties even made in certain models. And with groups like the ones Danny posted above (thanks Danny - I did know about those resources, but much appreciated), the information is readily available as to how many of a certain model are even out there.

 

So the hunt - and yes, the (sometimes unreasonable) obsession continues......:)

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Many thanks to everyone who has responded! And also thanks for making me feel right at home here!

 

Yeah, I know that's a lot of money for what is essentially a student guitar, but I'm also considering resell value if I ever decide to sell...which I have done in the past for various reasons. So I'm sticking with Gibson, and the M2M program will (I think) allow me to even choose another finish if I want, and choose (sort of) the weight. It's a cheaper alternative to going full-bore custom shop, which gets absurd price-wise fast.

 

In terms of flipping a righty, the SG is actually a subtle asymmetric body; the treble horn is slightly longer than the bass horn. Not a huge deal of course, but something that took a long time to even notice myself. But of course now that's all I see when I see a flipped SG...and there are some out there. Ironically I have a proper lefty SG, a '68.

 

And the irony of it all is I have an SG Jr. now, one of the reissues from 2009 or so? But Gibson being Gibson has over the years has done "reissues" that are period incorrect, whether it's the wrong knobs placement, or the wrong logo...what the hell? It's like they purposely made it slightly wrong. Typical of the Henry era Gibson, which I'm sure what intentional for some damn reason. But I'm at an age where dammit, I want one just like they made them in 60's, and that's what I want! ...:) Logic be damned!

 

And like Winston, I too have been playing for quite awhile, and it was insanely hard in the late 70's when I started to find anything out there lefty. I grew up about 90 minutes north of LA, and as soon as I got my license I drove down to Hollywood to what was then the only Guitar Center thinking that surely they'd have a couple of lefties??? Yeah, not so much. One CBS era Strat that weighed A TON and was about $600 in 1976 dollars? Had to pass and hope I'd find one somewhere, somehow. Living in LA in the 80's and 90's we had the Recycler, which started making it slightly easier to find some stuff lefty.

 

But since when the internet and eBay hit in the very early years, I've been able to actually find factory lefties, and I've also realized that sometimes the hunt is actually as fun as actually finding the item left handed. So I've made it point to continue to seek out the real thing - even though I'm principally a keyboard player. Go figure. But I've managed to find some pretty cool pieces that are likely the only or one of a couple lefties even made in certain models. And with groups like the ones Danny posted above (thanks Danny - I did know about those resources, but much appreciated), the information is readily available as to how many of a certain model are even out there.

 

So the hunt - and yes, the (sometimes unreasonable) obsession continues......:)

 

I get it, sometimes we gotta have what we gotta have and that's that. Gibsons do hold value well. Everybody is different, if I played left handed (I AM left handed but play right handed, who knows why?), I would probably flip a Gibson ES-335, hopefully a mid 80's Studio like the one I have now. Unlike an SG, the body is perfectly symmetrical. I hate knobs so I'd probably just mount the pickup switch and one volume control.

 

If that is your "comfort food" guitar you gotta get it. I finally have mine, an early 60's Silvertone Danelectro Dolphin Nose U-1. When I was a kid, I stared at the one in the Sears catalog obsessively, hoping Mom and Dad would throw down the $37.50 and get one for me. In retrospect, I had great taste for somebody who didn't really know anything. Now I have one and it's truly an great guitar, low action - the pickup sounds amazing and I play it and smile.

 

So get your lefty JR and play it and smile!!! It will be worth it! Cheers, Kuru

pix attached.

1548.thumb.jpg.811e5bfe33d267049d864ea6b8a1f6e9.jpg

1549.thumb.jpg.44c0772ed3b496747f6b16d1078a148b.jpg

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I always loved that version of the U-1! Great looking guitar for sure, and if it plays well as it does, home run! Glad you got one finally. It's funny how some of those things are burned in our brains from childhood.

 

Yeah, it's funny about lefties. In my first band our guitar player was a lefty that played righty. Knoplfer, Bowie, Allman, Noel Gallagher..all lefties playing right handed. For a lot of lefties like you, it just feels correct right handed.

 

But some are forced to, as I was when I first took lessons in third grade. My teacher used the logic that playing right handed utilized my strong hand on the neck; even as a third grader I recognized that with that logic all righties should play on a left handed guitar? Duh! But it never felt right, and I stopped lessons and didn't take it up again until high school when I was already playing keyboards in a band. I flipped the old acoustic from third grade around and it felt correct....strung lefty of course. I can play a bit strung upside down/righty, but most lefties know a few chords upside down just because there's never a lefty around, but always a righty strung guitar. Supposedly John Lennon could play Paul's left handed guitars upside down a bit, probably out of boredom.

 

And my daughter is the opposite; right handed, but plays left handed. And not because of my guitars. I got her a 3/4 strat when she was 10...she had no concept of handedness. I showed her how to hold it (righty), and she said it doesn't feel right, and flipped it over, Hendrix style (who she also didn't know about). Hunh? Oh well.....strung it up lefty and that's how she plays to this day. My other daughter is the lone righty in the family.

 

"Comfort food"...that's a good way to look at it...:)

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I always loved that version of the U-1! Great looking guitar for sure, and if it plays well as it does, home run! Glad you got one finally. It's funny how some of those things are burned in our brains from childhood.

 

The Danos had two well fitted and strong steel bars in the necks, non-adjustable and I've never seen a warped one. Thick slab of Brazilian rosewood for a fingerboard too, I guess it was cheap wood back then. Yes, it plays amazingly well for a cheap guitar. The lipstick pickups are legendary for good reason and this is an excellent example. I could quibble about the cheap tuners but they work pretty well and are original to the guitar so they stay.

I have another Dolphin Nose neck that I plan on re-fretting with jumbo frets and putting a set of Sperzel locking tuners on, then I could bolt that on this body and have a rat rod Silvertone from Hell. Fun!

 

More left-handed musicians who played/play right handed:

Steve Morse

Johnny Winter

Herman Li

Billy Corgan

Shawn Lane

Gary Moore

Duane Allman

Robert Fripp

 

One of the weirdest things I've ever seen a guitarist do was at an open mic night. The performer was the Featured Act that evening. He played a right handed acoustic guitar strung right handed, left handed. So upside down and backwards!

He was an excellent fingerstyle guitarist and with your eyes closed you never would have guessed that his left fingers were doing what most guitarist's thumbs would be doing and his left thumb was doing what most guitarist's right fingers would do.

I spoke with him after his set and he told me he was right handed!!!!

 

So, everybody is different. If we have fun and enjoy our music it's all good!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Sort of sideways response here -

 

Looking though GC's Used Gear listings, I see used SG Jr.'s going for anywhere from right around $700US, up to right around $1000US. If we're looking at the same model, overall, you've got a single P-90, and a one-piece wrap-around Bridge/Tailpiece. $2K seems like a lot of money for a very stripped-down Guitar, and I say that as a life-long SG player. I understand it's a one-off Custom Shop model, but for that money, I'd look into other brands, or even independent Luthiers, who might be able to offer the Guitar you want for less.

 

I'm thinking for 2 grand, Winston's idea of having an independent luthier build you one would be a great idea. It would not present a major problem as the guitar is pretty simple in design and could always use improved quality re-issue bridge, pup and pot parts...strictly custom as no one else will have one! :cool:

Take care, Larryz
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Also, if you found someone locally, you could have a bit more of a hand in selecting woods and parts, maybe even see some of the work in progress, and if there were any issues with it later on, you're not shipping it to Nashville for a warranty check-up.

"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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