Beatle was asking about Dick Dale in a closed thread. The big hits were Miserlou, Let’s Go Trippin’ and…?
Anyway, he was one of these lefties playing upside down. He would more or less melt a pick playing one tune.Then a new pick.Also blew up a lot of early amps.
Jimi Hendrix didn’t play upside down, he’d play whichever way the guitar was strung, left or right handed. Elizabeth Cotten, a folkie, had to slip her brothers’ guitar away and play, so she learned leftie upside down.
Any more lefties upside down?
Hendrix routinely took right-handed guitars & restrung them left-handed. I’ve never seen him play right-handed, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he did. Flippin’ genius, he was.
SRV was a leftie, too, and copied the Hendrix re-string idea.
As for famous lefties that actually played left-handed guitars, my mind is drawing a blank. It’s early, I haven’t had any coffee yet, and my husband is still asleep. He’s a guitar player, and could name several lefties–before he’s had his coffee. I’ll get back to ya. 
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Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
Tim Armstrong (Rancid)
Oh wait–you asked about lefties playing upside-down, didn’t you? I’ve never seen anyone famous do that, but I have seen a couple of non-famous local people do it.
My daughter is three years old, and she’s inherited her father’s musical gift. She’s also a leftie. We bought her a guitar a while ago, an itty-bitty student model. They didn’t have any left-handed ones, so we got her a rightie. She plinks on it upside down. Seriously!
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Let us not forget Paul McCartney!! Of course, he’s mainly known as a bassist, but he also plays acoustic guitar.
Otis Rush, Albert King, & Coco Montoya were all lefties that played their guitars upside down, without restringing.
A quick retraction: According to my husband, SRV was a rightie and did not play his guitar upside down, or restring. Sorry about that.
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Paul McCartney ( see the one toke thread)
Ohh cool Cristi I am a guitar player too…tell your hubby that I just happen to own a 70’ Martin. Made from indian rosewood complete with pearl inlay was offered 3000 for it and turned it down. Figured I would spend the money then wouldn’t have the money or the guitar.
I am currently playing a ( can’t spell it) Takamini.
Yours truly,
aha
:::brief hijack:::
Cool, aha. My husband has a '34 Martin, that was given to him as a Christmas gift a few years ago (we have some very nice friends). It’s pretty beat up, and because of that it’s not worth a lot dollar-wise, but this guitar just sings. Mr. Cristi is afraid to have any work done on it, because a)it’s very old, and he’s afraid that in trying to repair it, more damage would be done, and 2)he’s afraid any changes in the guitar would change the tone.
It’s just his around-the-house beater guitar, and he doesn’t ever have any intentions of selling it anyway. It’s not like it’s really broken up badly. It’s definitely playable.
:::end hijack:::
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::Sorry Sunbear::
Ok Cristi if he ever decides to give it away I will send my address. 
Yours truly,
aha
Hendrix plays an acoustic blues in a movie documentary, I think Red House, playing a right handed guitar right handed.It wasn’t his, he just picked up a guitar on the set.
Hendrix plays an acoustic blues in a movie documentary, I think Red House, playing a right handed guitar right handed.It wasn’t his, he just picked up a guitar on the set.
BTW: If you’ve ever seen McCarthey in concert, (I saw the “Flowers in the Dirt” and “Above The Ground” tours) you know he can hold his own on the electric twanger. (He got bass duties with the Beatles after Sutcliffe left)
As with many folk, I’ve seen lots of local talent play if left handed and up-side down but I’ve never seen a “professional recording artist” do it.
My fate keeps getting in the way of my destiny.
Stevie Ray played right handed, but had a tremelo from a left handed guitar put on his main ax. Here’s something funny, some of you guys have heard me play guitar (really), I was a guest guitarist on Dave Matthews last album on two songs (guess the songs?).
sunbear: My husband told me that he had heard that Jimi played right-handed sometimes, but he himself has never seen pics or film of it. My husband says that he’d heard of Jimi doing this thing often enough to believe it.
(“my husband this, my husband that…” yeah, I’m a total dolt when it comes to this stuff!)
Michael: my husband confirmed your statement about the vibrato bar on SRV’s axes, but since neither of us are Dave Matthews fans, I couldn’t confirm anything else. So who the hell are ya? 
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I think it’s pretty obvious I’m a SRV fan. Yeah, SRV did have a left handed tremelo on his guitar.
I have a SRV model strat. What a great guitar. He used some huge strings to get that tone (.13 - .60)
IIRC Albert King played a righty guitar lefty,but did not restring it. He had the low E on the bottom and the high E on top, so all his high bends were done by pulling down instead of having to push up. He also tuned his guitar really weirdly.
If anyone wants to hear some great blues, check out Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King:In Session. It just was released this year.
Trying is the first step to failure
Stevie: That SRV/King session sounds like a winner to me. I might have to get that one for myself. My husband is a blues guitarist and a huge Albert King fan, but he’s not hot for Vaughan. I like them both, though. Thanks for the tip!
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Aside from the lefties, a favorite blues guitarist of mine is Freddie King, especially the instrumentals.
Paul M tried to play some guitar instrumentals on his first album, but people only remember Maybe I’m Amazed. I think he played quite a bit on Sgt Pepper, guitar that is.
For the reference, there is no famous classical guitarist who plays the guitar left-handed. Classical pedagogy teaches the student that you play one way only. If the student is left-handed, he/she will learn to compensate. Left-handed guitars are akin to saxophones, flutes, and pianos…just because you are left-handed doesn’t mean you have to change the technique in order to play it. The left hand still goes on top.
HUGS!
Sqrl