Top 10 Greatest Left-Handed Guitarists of All Time

WatchMojo

They flipped the script - and their guitars! Join us as we count down our picks for the most innovative and technically skilled guitarists to play southpaw. From genre pioneers to modern virtuosos, these musicians proved that sometimes greatness comes from the left hand.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most innovative and

00:12technically skilled guitarists to play southpaw. That is, guitarists who play left-handed style,

00:19rather than lefty legends like Gary Moore who played right-handed.

00:3010. Kurt Cobain – Nirvana The accepted frontman of 90s alternative

00:36did accept that he was no virtuoso. Rather, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was defiant down to how

00:42he used the guitar to enhance his intense creativity. He favored vintage when he could

00:56afford more high-end gear than beat-up budget fenders. He told Guitar World,

01:01junk is always best. And as he brought that philosophy to feedback heavy thrashing,

01:07even the simplest passages sounded explosive. Where Cobain really excelled for the radio,

01:12of course, was his overpowering riffs. This was a far cry from the self-indulgent six-string

01:27gymnastics that grungers felt polluted the 80s. Cobain may not have been looking to impress,

01:32but the ingenuity and authenticity of his playing were essential to turning the most

01:37underground sound into the most mainstream.

01:409. Elizabeth Cotton – Early American blues was more about songwriting innovation than

01:55instrumental. Then came Elizabeth Cotton to shatter the rules confining her gender,

02:00dexterity, and playing style. Contending with right-handed guitars is one thing,

02:11but hers was traditionally strong. This meant the banjo-trained cotton,

02:15led with the rhythm strings while thumbing on the thinner, in a style she referred to as

02:21cotton-picking. Her iconic ballads were written from the hearts, but it was her distinct guitar

02:32work that made them so whimsical. It wasn't until the late 1950s, when she returned to professional

02:37music and shared this with the world while housekeeping for the Seeger family. Cotton's

02:42recordings have since influenced musicians of all genres to use experimentation and skill

02:47to enrich their storytelling.

02:498. Omar Rodriguez Lopez – At the drive-in slash the Mars Volta

03:01The skilled multi-instrumentalist Omar Rodriguez Lopez mostly sees the guitar as an efficient means of

03:08artistic communication. He didn't really get into the instrument until

03:17after handing off his bass in At the drive-in, but Rodriguez Lopez proved to be more than just a

03:23dazzling player, incorporating jazz and Latin virtuosity into a modern alternative twist on 70s hard rock.

03:36Even fancier was his sweeping use of tone and effects to hone the cosmic psychedelia that

03:42powered his prog project, the Mars Volta.

03:45His unconventional riffs and rhythm had already established at the drive-in as a driving force in

03:50post-hardcore. Whether he likes it or not, Rodriguez Lopez has been hailed for pushing the boundaries

03:56of what the guitar is capable of.

03:58The blues had widely gone electric by the time Otis Rush broke into the Chicago scene, but leave it to a lefty to

04:16revolutionize the instrument further.

04:25Rush played both left-handed and flipped right-handed guitars with the E-string on the bottom. This created a distinctly bright tone to

04:33compliment his passionate vocals. His solos, emotively long bends and lively, dissonant runs, rounded out the

04:40west side Chicago blues sound that enchanted listeners with musicianship as expressive as the songwriting.

04:47The specific style would be a key influence on the blues rock genre. Rush himself was no rock star,

05:06but a true blues man whose imaginative and dynamic style fully modernized the art form.

05:196. Eric Gales

05:24Where many lefties sadly learned to play guitar right-handed, Eric Gales was actually the sole righty in a musical family.

05:31His big brothers may have taught him to play like them, but his dominant hand fretting on the upside-down string

05:45arrangement helped the family act stand out. The youngest, Gales' passionate, blistering improvisation

05:51quickly distinguished him in 1990s blues rock altogether.

05:54He was jamming with Carlos Santana before he turned 20. The prodigy has since consistently

06:06grabbed the spotlight as a prolific session and solo musician across many genres. With his high-energy,

06:12funky riffs and epic solos, the right-handed Gales knows how to slap original pieces and covers alike

06:18with his distinct left-hand brand. 5. Emdu Maktar

06:30Growing up in rural Niger, Emdu Maktar received little encouragement in his love of electric guitar.

06:36So he built his own guitar, then a playing style that married heavy blues rock with Berber folk music.

06:49He then invested in Fender Stratocasters to clean up his either mesmerizing or face-melting showmanship.

06:55Maktar's eclectic virtuosity and incredibly fast, fiery solos inevitably made him one of the most

07:01internationally recognized stars of desert rock. And he's embraced this ambassadorship to bridge the

07:15divide between Western pop culture and the Taurig people. Maktar may have more than made up for the

07:22initial concerns about him potentially forsaking his culture, but no folk or guitar hero anywhere

07:27sounds quite like him. 4. Felix Martin

07:45Taking ambidextrous playing to a radical extreme, Felix Martin first trained himself on a variety of

07:51left-handed guitars and genres. At age 13, he began modifying pairs of guitars to create a single

08:05instrument consisting of more than a dozen strings. Martin took his invention to Berklee School of Music

08:11to refine a unique two-hand tapping, slapping and shredding technique at the center of Latin-infused

08:16progressive metal. The style may look bizarre, but it sounds clean and exhilarating. Martin,

08:28if you will, single-handedly sparked a trend of guitar virtuosos playing dual fretboards. And yes,

08:35his own FM Guitars company makes right-handed models. But it would take a lot more than that

08:40to keep up with the mixed-handed master. 3. Albert King

08:50Between Bebe and Freddie is one king of blues to reign over the left-handers,

09:01a pioneer of his genre's electric phase. Albert King played right-handed guitars in their standard

09:07string arrangement and popularized the Gibson Flying V. It was all very unorthodox for the blues,

09:14but King's intense thumb and finger-picking merely enhanced his soulful chops.

09:24When the imposing Velvet Bulldozer gave his silky voice a rest, his richly amplified guitar did the

09:31real wailing. His groovy hooks and sprawling solos crucially shaped modern blues, particularly as it

09:37began crossing over with rock. But King himself still stands tall as an icon of the guitar,

09:43regardless of how he wore and strung it. 2. Tony Iommi

09:56Black Sabbath slash Heaven and Hell 17-year-old aspiring rocker Tony Iommi was working in a factory

10:03in Birmingham, England when an accident severed two right fingertips.

10:13Rather than learn to fret left-handed, he began wearing thimbles and playing flexible

10:18banjo strings and down-tuning. Thus, the heavy metal guitar tone was born. But Iommi's inventiveness

10:26wasn't just out of necessity, as he led Black Sabbath's groundbreaking sound with powerful riffs and flashy

10:32solos.

10:42This commanded the attention of the hard rock world and influenced a new style of guitar virtuoso.

10:48Through it all, the so-called godfather of heavy metal continues to stand out through Sabbath

10:53and the spin-off act Heaven and Hell. Iommi's is the type of massive tone and talent,

10:59to leave more than just a cultural imprint.

11:01Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

11:11The technical death metal pioneer's dynamic shredding isn't just confined to solos.

11:29With the grooviest hip-hop and flashiest metal, crossover thrash doesn't go much harder.

11:35To Ronzo Cannon, an explosive showman and the powerhouse epitome of modern Chicago blues.

11:52Here I stand, guitar in hand, everybody knows a Chicago man.

12:00Dick Dale, the king of the surf guitar.

12:02Used eastern scales to fire up mainstream rock.

12:06Melina Moyet, a real force of classically mesmerizing blues with a modern, soulful flair.

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12:461. Jimi Hendrix

12:48The Jimi Hendrix Experience

12:50This one's a given, since Jimi Hendrix is already recognized as the most

12:55consequential guitarist in modern rock.

13:04It's harder to argue against as being the pinnacle of southpaws.

13:08Partially trained to play right-handed, Hendrix developed a uniquely ambidextrous style

13:14on flipped right-handed guitars with inverted stringing. Greater technical experiments with this

13:19flashy, idiosyncratic tone made him a forerunner in psychedelia and heavy metal.

13:31Besides that, the master blues improvisationalist navigated his instrument with speed, power,

13:36and showmanship, never mind countless unmistakable riffs. Though he tragically died at age 27,

13:42Hendrix's immense body of work is a permanent inspiration for great musicians. He's certainly a

13:49leading example of how the greatest artists, sometimes literally, come out of left field.

14:04Who are some left-handed musicians you feel deserve more credit? Tune into the comments below.

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