Lefty Swap

[Lucius Paisley]

It's a long shot, but whatever. I recently purchased an RS440; gorgeous little thing, short, thin, red, beautiful, and right-handed.

I am not any of those things. But I make do.

I haven't needed to flip a righty in a while, usually I turn everything around; nut, pickup, strings.

What I haven't needed to do before is flip the tremelo, but since the RS440 has the Pro Rock'r installed, it makes sense to me that I will need to put the saddles in reverse order; since they're used to the pressure of keeping their accompanying string in place.

Which leaves the locking nut. Since I don't think I can leave it as it is; pressure of accompanying string, etc. Should I replace the nut or the entire neck of the guitar?

Hopefully all this makes sense to somebody. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can give me.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Lefty Swap

Do you mean to ask what you need to do to the locking nut when you switch from left handed to right handed? I had a Dave Murray strat that I gave the ol' Hendrix/SRV treatment. It was a left handed guitar strung right handed, but it still had the left handed tremolo. Which is the same as yours, but the whammy bar is on the other side.

All I did is put the strings on it upside down and reintonate. I didn't have to switch the order of the saddles or anything. The only difference you have is you have to put a right handed tremolo on it, you have to make no modifications to the nut itself.

 

[Lucius Paisley]

Re: Lefty Swap

Do you mean to ask what you need to do to the locking nut when you switch from left handed to right handed?

Nope. Guitar - right-handed, Me - left-handed.

All I did is put the strings on it upside down and reintonate. I didn't have to switch the order of the saddles or anything. The only difference you have is you have to put a right handed tremolo on it, you have to make no modifications to the nut itself.

Yeah, I'm not removing the tremolo at all, the one it's got is all part and parcel of why I bought this guitar.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Lefty Swap

The idea is still the same regardless of orientation. The nut doesn't need to be changed, since locking nuts don't really care what the thickness of the string is. If you want a left handed tremolo on a reverse strung right handed guitar, that's the only part you need to replace.

Since you don't want to change the tremolo, all you have to do is put the strings on in the reverse order and reintonate.

You don't have to replace the nut or neck, to answer your question.

 

[Lucius Paisley]

Re: Lefty Swap

You don't have to replace the nut or neck, to answer your question.

Excellent.