Anyone working at the Rockshop?

[MattRSK]

Hey

Just a bit of a rant.

My wife is studying to be a primary school teacher and one of the options she can take is to learn the guitar, sort of an extra on top of all the other stuff. So I thought I would go out and price some guitars for her birthday.

Had a chat to a guy at the rockshop, bloody good salesman showed me the difference between classical and western guitar etc. Decided to go with a western guitar as it has steel strings and a narrow neck. Good because maybe one day my wife will play to assemblies, class etc.. and the narrow neck would be easier to learn with i.e not stretching her hands too much. Also she is left handed so this is where the problem I have is. Being left handed is a problem if you want to play guitar. Apparently there are no left handed guitarists in the world because the rockshop and everywhere else in Christchurch does not have one in stock.

We did go around all the music shops in town and decided the Rockshop was the best on price and service (mainly because they gave us the time of day) but because they don't have one in stock they want to charge us an extra $40 dollars to get one delivered to the store! Whats with that? I know $40 may not sound a lot to most people but we are both students and that is a huge chunk of money!

Are they allowed to charge that? It seems really odd.

Anyway bit of a rant what are your thoughts?

[marty]

we ordered a guitar online last year off these guys. they mucked us around royally. it never arrived. probably because they were selling stuff they didn't/couldn't get their hands on, then after we had paid our money spent the next few weeks dicking us around. we ended up getting our money back and buying from somewhere else.

[Brownstoo]

I got a couple of m8s who are lefty guitarists, Hendrix and Cobain were also lefties!
I got an amp from them, they ordered it in no extra charge, and it arrived early, so dunno why they're charging you for the order. Check trademe?

[Mikkel]

Heh, don't worry mate. Just flip the guitar over and reverse the order of the strings and you are sorted - that's what Jimmy used to do as well.

Did you try Canterbury Music on the south side of Tuam Street between Colombo and Durham? I haven't dealt with them a lot, but the older guy there seemed to be both clued up and a good bastard.

[Swoop]

Could play it "Anika Moa style"...
Regular guitar turned over, strings still in normal position...

[vifferman]

My son's left-handed. He plays all of the (four) guitars in our household, and violin, all right-handed. When he first started playing, I tried to get him to buy a left-handed guitar, as I figured it would be easier to learn sitting opposite me (or a teacher) mirroring what he was shown.
Nope.
He insisted on playing right-handed. Said he'd tried a left-handed guitar at school and it was crap. Plus he plays piano/keyboards, so both hands are pretty able.
Most left-handed people are less inclined to left-handedness than right-handed people are to right-handedness, so swapping hands (or being more or less ambidextrous) is easier for them.

[Mikkel]

Could play it "Anika Moa style"...
Regular guitar turned over, strings still in normal position...

Or like the Danish guitarist Uffe Steen:

Blues:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA-4vFkeZzM[/youtube]
Jazz Funk:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbARxOv-u3o[/youtube]

And yes, I am aware he's got a proper lefthanded guitar now - but he learned on a normal guitar flipped 180°. He still uses the reversed string configuration - 1st at upside of the neck.