Hi there, I'm Chris.
I've been a guitarist since I was thirteen, but I've been left-handed for as long as I can remember!
It started earlier than that, though - I found my dad's old classical guitar forgotten in a cupboard. It was strung right-handed player, upside-down as far as I was concerned, but I didn't know that yet. I just liked making a noise with it.
A few years later I learned I'd been holding the whole thing backwards, so flipped the strings around properly. It felt so much more natural that there was no going back! That's when I actually became a lefty guitarist, not just someone playing a guitar the wrong way round.
By thirteen, music had properly hooked me - hard rock, heavy metal, then the British indie scene - and I decided guitar was what I wanted to do. My parents got me my first electric not long after: a left-handed Hohner Professional ST59, which I still own, battle scars and all. I've never been the most disciplined player - still learning after thirty-plus years - but that's never dulled the love for it.
I also write about all of this over at LeftyGuitarist.com, my blog for left-handed guitar and bass players - gear reviews, brand round-ups, and general musings from one southpaw to another.
Where the shirts come from
Over three decades of being a lefty player, one thing hasn't changed much: the choice. Flip through a guitar catalog or wander a music store, and right-handers get walls of options. Us southpaws usually get an afterthought - one or two models, if you're lucky. "Where's mine?" was a running thought for years. It's better now than it used to be, but the gap hasn't closed much.
Merch has the same problem, honestly worse. Many "left-handed guitarist" tees are clearly made by people who've never picked up a lefty instrument - some still show a right-handed guitar with left-handed text slapped on top, like nobody double-checked. I just didn't like what was out there, so I started designing my own.
I studied art, illustration, and graphic design at school, then did a degree in traditional animation - I'd like to think I've always had an eye for image-making, and I bring that to every design that goes on a shirt here. Some designs use reference imagery of a guitarist or bassist flipped so the player's holding their instrument left-handed, the way it should look. I used to think a reversed guitar looked strange. Not anymore - now it's right handed guitars that look backwards to me.
LeftyGuitaristTees is just that - designs made by someone who's actually lived this, for the players who get why it matters.
- Chris, LeftyGuitaristTees