Is It Just Me?

[Minnesota Flats]

'Nuther one:

Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater | Vintage Guitar® magazine

The Chicago resident has been exciting blues audiences worldwide for decades. But he built his reputation working the local club circuit, playing for African-American audiences and Chuck Berry-inspired rock for suburban white kids.

www.vintageguitar.com

 

[Cougar]

Must be fun figuring out chords.

Yeah! An old buddy of mine played like that. Eric Chase. AND he plays a Guild!

 

[Minnesota Flats]

Muddy's guitar player, James "Pee Wee" Madison is certainly holding his Mustang "upside-down" in this footage, but I can't tell how it's strung. I know he played a factory-built, left-handed Gretsch at one point, so I suspect that the Mustang is not strung "light on top/heavy on the bottom".



Can't find any footage or stills that make it clear. Oh well, fun footage of muddy and his band, even if they had shed the Guild gear by then:

 

[West R Lee]

I never knew. Playing is challenging enough right side up.

West

 

[Midnight Toker]

If you'd ever seen Jeff Healey play live, you'll know anything is possible. He played upside down (over the neck) w/ his left hand and standard w/ his right. Some of the multi string chord bends he could do were just insane! And to top it off, he was blind.

 

[johnreardon]

Hendrix was just a righty guitar strung standard lefty. We're talking lefties that learned on righties strung righty, played w/ the strings still upside down! High E on top, low E on the bottom.

He could actually play both ways. Yes he preferred standard for a lefty, but he could play other people's guitars at jams, just turned 'upside down'




He also played bass upside down

 

[johnreardon]

I've played with some over here who play that way.

One chap often did originals and it's was very difficult, for me, to follow him, but I managed.

 

[lungimsam]

“I was the third brother of five…
Doing whatever I had to do to suh-vaaahhhve!!!!”

Bobby’s Probly my favorite R&B artist! One day I saw his strings and was like “wha…?!?!”

 

[Ross]

If you'd ever seen Jeff Healey play live, you'll know anything is possible. He played upside down (over the neck) w/ his left hand and standard w/ his right. Some of the multi string chord bends he could do were just insane! And to top it off, he was blind.

Jeff would occasionally stand up and wander about the stage during solos. If he got too close to the edge, the bassist would nudge him.

 

[HeyMikey]

It’s more than enough of a challenge for me to play normally. This thread is making my brain hurt.

 

[davidbeinct]

Hendrix was just a righty guitar strung standard lefty. We're talking lefties that learned on righties strung righty, played w/ the strings still upside down! High E on top, low E on the bottom.

It is true that Jimi restrung his own guitars to have the low E on top. I have seen pictures of him playing what must have been borrowed guitars truly upside down.
Edit to add I see @johnreardon beat me to it, and with actual footage to boot!

 

[Westerly Wood]

I think it is enough to be able to play your guitar right side up.

 

[Prince of Darkness]

Bob Geldof, of The Boomtown Rats (and Band Aid / Live Aid fame), also plays this way.

 

[WaltW]

Bill Staines is another player that plays a normally strung right handed guitar left handed. I didn't realize it until I recently watched a video of "Roseville Fair" that he wrote and has been covered by many including Nanci Griffith.

 

[JerryR]

I think it is enough to be able to play your guitar right side up.

Wish I could

 

[West R Lee]

So can anyone venture a guess as to WHY someone would play guitar upside down? I'll try and cover all the obvious answers......because they can........personal preference.......yes, obviously. But why? I guess many or most of us are self taught.........so they simply taught themselves to play upside down? Is there an advantage to playing this way? How would one learn to play this way, and why would you want to? Are there guitar tabs for playing upside down? Is there a chord chart for it?

West

 

[Midnight Toker]

so can anyone venture a guess as to WHY someone would play guitar upside down? I'll try and cover all the obvious answers......because they can........personal preference.......yes, obviously. But why? I guess many or most of us are self taught.........so they simply taught themselves to play upside down? Is there an advantage to playing this way? How would one learn to play this way, and why would you want to? Are there guitar tabs for playing upside down? Is there a chord chart for it?

West

It's been brought up in this thread several times already. It's predominantly lefties who first started playing on someone else's guitar (sibling or friend's) didn't own a guitar of their own, and just stuck with playing it strung righty. It's actually a more common occurance than you'd think. Especially when they start in their early teens. If you think for every 5000 bands there's only 1 that "made it", to have just a dozen or so notable players who play this way, there must be thousands we never heard of.

 

[West R Lee]

It's been brought up in this thread several times already. It's predominantly lefties who first started playing on someone else's guitar (sibling or friend's) didn't own a guitar of their own, and just stuck with playing it strung righty. It's actually a more common occurance than you'd think. Especially when they start in their early teens.

So.....self taught? There are no chord charts?

West

 

[Midnight Toker]

So.....self taught? There are no chord charts?

West

Sure, but you're not going to restring someone else's guitar every time you pick it up. You can look at charts or have a friend/sibling teach you what strings need to be fretted where to form basic chords...and necessity being the mother of invention does the rest. I'm sure it also comes with failed attempts to play righty first.

 

[Cougar]

So.....self taught? There are no chord charts?

Well, the chords are the same. The fingering is just going to be mind-bendingly crazy. You can try it at home!