Left handed playing a right handed guitar

[Skyedriver]

Hi again, yes it has a cheap version of that steel "holder" at the base.
Strings are 3 steel, 2 nylon and one broken......my sister had it re converted to right hand and last night I tried to convert it back but 30 year old nylon strings don't hold any tension!!
Why 3 of each? Well when I was young back in the 60's and 70's the thinner steel strings used to play havoc with my delicate little fingers so replaced then with nylon. Now after nearly 40 years of DIY my fingers are like hardened sandpaper!
Tony H

[Skyedriver]

Hi, sorry, me back again.
I have now re strung the guitar with new strings and am finding that the floating bridge is moving around a lot while I practice, obviously putting the guitar out of tune.
Also the floating bridge leaves the strings about 8mm above the 12 fret and I am finding that a problem too.
Why should I not plane down slightly the bridge, and why shouldn't I stick it into place?

[gingerpaul]

If it was a cheap nylon strung guitar from the 60's then you could be having all sorts of problems. First of all have a look and see if the neck is straight. Hold the guitar up by the body and looking from the bridge look down the neck, just asyou would look down if you were aiming a rifle. It should be dead straight or ever so slightly and uniformly concave. It should have no obvious bumps or valleys.

I've got the camera out for the string thread so I'll take one of mine so you can see what I mean. Back in 5 minutes...

[gingerpaul]

In the first picture you can see there is a slight rise just before the neck joins the body of the guitar. Even this when combined with the fret wear mine has is causing slight playability problems. The second picture shows the top side of the neck is fine. On mine it might be that it could be straightened up with a truss rod adjustment but unfortunately you're unlikely to have one in your guitar. In fact if your neck is warped then that might be part of the reason, along with storing it in a funny position, exposure to extreme temperature and moisture changes etc.





The point I was trying to make in a round about way is that the big danger of just sanding down the bridge is that you'll get playability issues elsewhere on the neck, for example some buzzing on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th fret area. On cheap guitars the action is high usually because the guitar wasn't made well enough to allow for a more accurate set up. If you've got problems there then you won't be able to play an open chord without buzzing, making the guitar pretty useless in the process (for me anyway).

Sooo, what's your neck look like?

Edited by gingerpaul on Thursday 30th April 20:22

[Alfanatic]

Hmm. Just did some internet research and realised I was talking bks when I called it a floating bridge! Anyway, if it's moving around, maybe supposed to be fixed to the guitar after all. Or maybe not... If the action's around the 8mm mark, might be best to take it to a shop to look at. I'm sure most will be happy to give some advice without charging and I'm sure it will be better advice than I've managed.