(Originally written in 2012. Updated in 2016 and in 2018.)
As lefty players very well know, left handed guitar availability has never been consistent with the mainstream guitar brands.
Some big brand Guitar companies continually flip flop between making and not making left handed guitars. You never know what is going to happen next. When they do produce left handed guitars they never have the same range as right handed guitars and their excuses are usually stupid statements like “it costs more to make left handed guitars” or “we have to shut the factory down and re tool everything.” These are blatant lies. You are nothing but an “after thought” to these brands. Don’t kid yourself. It's really “Stockholm Syndrome” by supporting the brands that betray us. You owe them nothing.
Before 2017 Gibson Guitars were one of the very worst guitar companies for respecting lefty players. They and their Chinese Epiphone brand were the worst flip-flappers of all. In 2017 Gibson went bankrupt. This was the best thing lefty guitarists. “Gibson 2.0” is quite lefty-friendly and the new management is obviously more embracing than the traitors that ran the show all those years before. Good riddance to everyone that they got rid of! Original Gibson is dead and buried and there is no guitar company in the world that deserved it more. Even I am giving praise to the new Gibson and I was no fan of the old Gibson. There would be no Gaskell Guitars if there was not a company called Gibson that acted so badly to lefty players.
Overall the point is: Left handed guitar availability comes and goes. There is not much point writing about who does or does not make left handed guitars. It changes all the time. Or perhaps the new-and-improved Gibson can set an example to the rest of them?
There are a number of lefty-friendly guitar brands that routinely make intermediate level left hand guitars and my hat goes off to them for their consistency and respect for left handed players. They include Schecter, ESP, Tokai, Gretsch, and Dean. Companies like these are your friends.
The enemies of lefty guitarists are the brand that do not make left handed guitars. They are NOT your friends. Don’t support them! Don’t pander or beg to these people. Get over it.
Gaskell Guitars is no longer in the sub-$1000 guitar market. That ended in 2012. We were forced to make the transition to high-end or simply go out of business. This was the result of the painfully long “Global Financial Crisis” which year after year strangled all businesses in niche markets. There was nothing we could do about that. The world never really recovered from the Global Financial Crisis.
Every Gaskell guitar or bass is 100% made in Australia. We only make left handed guitars. I have gone from “making left handed versions of guitars that no one else makes in left hand” to making ALL TYPES OF LEFT HANDED GUITARS. This means you can have anything now. It doesn’t matter whether some other brand makes them or not. If you want colours or options you can’t get anywhere else or you simply want to send a message to these guitar companies that are happy to BETRAY you as a left handed guitarist then look no further than Gaskell Guitars. We make left handed guitars only. Don’t be conned. Don’t kid yourself. Companies that don’t make left handed guitars DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. Don’t support them. Don’t buy from them. Walk away. Come to Gaskell Guitars.
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