Absolutely. And no offense, but only a righty would ask this question.
It goes back to normal arm position. Regular (right-handed) guitars are made to be held with the right arm cradling the body, and the left arm extended toward the fretboard. This feels perfectly natural to righties, and makes perfect sense to them. They never question it. BECAUSE THEY’VE NEVER BEEN ASKED TO PLAY A GUITAR IN THE LEFT-HANDED POSITION. Which would feel quite awkward to the great majority of them.
The tasks required of the right and left hands are secondary to this, but in light of this discussion I would say more significant on a guitar than they might be on a violin. I have a friend who plays classical guitar and I gather from him that picking hand technique is the main object of one’s attention after a certain level of competence has been reached.
Back to position - try holding a guitar left-handed. Does it not feel awkward? Remember, I chose to play left-handed guitar before I ever picked a note - because it felt so damn unnatural to hold a guitar the wrong way 'round. Some lefties aren’t so sensitive to this, and are quite happy to play right-handed. But for those of us with a strong sense of handedness, holding a guitar in the opposite stance is awful. Worse than having a limited selection of instruments, worse than not being able to borrow a guitar, worse than not being able to swap with one’s buddies.
Here’s my point: you righties are talking about the convenience of being able to use a right-handed guitar. You are not talking about the problem of playing a guitar “wrong-handed” because you have never had to try playing a guitar left-handed. Convenience and naturalness come together for you in a righty guitar. A lefty with a strong sense of his left-handedness does not have the same choice. For him, it’s either convenience or naturalness. They do not come together. And convenience is not always the best choice.
You are quite right. While I believe the question had to do with learning rather than the physical structure of the instrument, there is more to a lefty guitar than string arrangement.
On all guitars, the nut slots have widths that correspond to string thickness. A lefty guitar’s nut will be a mirror image of a righty guitar’s.
On non-classical guitars, the saddle is angled. A lefty guitar needs a bridge with a saddle slot angle the other way (mirror image again).
Many (most?) acoustic guitars have internal bracing which is assymetrical. There is a “bass” side and a “treble” side. (I believe this is somewhat analogous to a violin’s internal structure.) Whille a simple restringing isn’t likely to destroy anything, it results in lousy tone.
For most non-classical guitars, factory left-handed is far and away the best option.
True. There’s no “one size fits all” assessment here. But most people have a recognizable dominance. And while things can be learned either right- or left-, most people learn better and achieve more by favoring their dominance where applicable. Ask a lefty who was forced to write right-handed (increasingly rare nowadays, thank God) what it was like.
For some folks, which hand they learn to do something with doesn’t make any detectable difference. For others, it makes a huge difference. And there are gradations in between. It’s fine to recognize that it doesn’t matter much to some, but don’t ignore that it matters immensely to others.
Another difference between right-hand and left-hand guitars is the position of the pickup switch and volume/tone controls on an electric guitar. The jack for the cord and any kind of tremolo may present problems as well.
Just a minor point here. Albert King was definitely an “upside-down” player, with his high E being the first string he’d hit on a down stroke, but Jimi Hendrix did not play that way. He used right-handed Strats strung so that they would have been upside-down to a righty player, but so that he hit E-A-D-G-B-E on a down stroke.
Sorry. I didn’t say what I meant very well. (I should learn to write for comprehension.)
I meant using a right-hand guitar in a left-hand position (by flipping it over and re-stringing it) would cause those problems. (maybe, depending on the guitar)
As for the original question, I can see good arguments for both sides. All I can say for sure is that, as a right handed drummer of thirty plus years, my left hand is still less coordinated than my right. And I’ve never met a left-handed drummer who didn’t prefer his kit “backwards”.
I’m a natural lefty (I eat, write and play guitar lefty) who plays on a right handed kit. I play open - left hand on the hi-hat, right on the snare. I move my ride cymbla to the left side, but I play on an otherwise normal kit.