There was a time when being a left handed guitar player meant that you either had to retrain yourself to play right handed or you had to put up with a series of compromises. Compromises such as playing a flipped right handed guitar, swapping the order of the guitar strings and putting up with the controls all being in the wrong place. And none of these are real solutions, guitars are set and calibrated to work in very specific ways, a flipped over right-hander is never going to compete with one built specifically with the left-handed player in mind.
Thankfully with the massive expansion in the guitar market in more recent years, left-hand players are beginning to be catered for to the same degree as their opposite handed rivals and one of those champions is an independent shop nestled at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York.
Whilst the shop caters for the usual range of regular right-handed guitars, basses and other fretted instruments, it really comes into its own for the left-handed player, offering a wide range of options and an understanding that leading with the left doesn’t make you a second class musical citizen.
Whether you are looking to play rhythmic folk songs or blast out blistering metal solos, hold down rooted bass lines or play intricate jazz pieces Adirondack Guitars will have the instrument which suits your needs perfectly, or they will at least know a man who does! And beyond your specific guitar needs, everything from capos to cables, amps to accessories, strings, cases, picks and all the usual peripheral musical equipment is also available and of course basses, banjos, ukuleles and mandolins.
Not only will you find the big name brands such as Ovation, Takamine and Washburn, in their quest to provide the most varied range of guitars Adirondack work with some very specialist companies and you will find everything from the beautifully finished Teye’s (they don’t come more gorgeous than the Electric Gypsy Fox pictured right) to handcrafted Cordoba acoustics, Kremona’s from the heart of Europe to collectable Swedish Hagstrom’s and of course big name domestic brands such as the Ernie Ball Music Man range.
Add to that the fact that there is always a clearance deal going on somewhere around the shop and with a steady flow of second hand and reconditioned instruments too, you never know what bargain finds you may stumble across from one week to the next. And of course like any modern shop international shipping is no object and full support, not to mention a vast about of industry knowledge, comes with any purchase.
But of course as high tech and forward thinking the industry is these days, somethings can’t be improved on and people will always be looking for that original sound driven by authentic, not to mention, vintage gear. Used, road tested and pre-loved pieces such as a second hand Univox Vintage Uni-Drive OverDrive Pedal turn up from time to time, enabling you to not only create that breakthrough late sixties Hendrix-esque sound but own a piece of musical history.
In fact Adirondack Guitars do such a good job of catering for the left-handed player, in every way from guitar to pedal to amp and everything in between, rumour has it that righty’s are learning to play the other way around. Or so I have heard….
