left-handed guitars | Gaskell Guitars

I played a Jet guitar

I recently walked into a music store and tried out a left-handed Jet brand guitar priced around $600. I heard about these guitars only recently. Apparently, there has been plenty of online buzz claiming these Chinese-made instruments are surprisingly "good" for entry-level players. The model on the floor was a seafoam green Stratocaster-style guitar that definitely looked the part hanging on the wall. Fit, Finish, and Action Let’s start with the positives, because credit wher

Gaskell Guitars Australia

7 days ago3 min read

Fernandes: The Pathways to a Left-Handed Guitar

Next to my own brand, my favourite guitar brand is Fernandes. I have spent over 3 years writing the five-part Floyd Rose Tremolos for Lefties series. (Every time I think I have finished, something else comes up.) That was how I first came to appreciate Fernandes guitars. Fernandes was probably the most accommodating Japanese brand for left-handed guitars until the 2000s, after which the company damaged its reputation by becoming a predominantly Chinese-made brand. For the las

Gaskell Guitars Australia

Oct 48 min read

Floyd Rose Tremolos for Left-Handed Guitars: The Asian OEM Pool

The following series is the definitive guide on Floyd Rose tremolos (and variants) with a special (but not exclusive) emphasis on left-handed guitars. It covers genuine, licensed, and proprietary systems, both historical and current. Nowhere else on the internet will you find all this information in the one place. This series is in five parts: Part 1: Original and Genuine Floyd Rose (Floyd Rose, Fernandes, Schaller, Sung-il, Ping Well) Part 2: Licensed Versions (Schaller, Kah

Gaskell Guitars Australia

Feb 613 min read

New lefty Kahler Steeler review

In October 2025 I got in touch with Kahler in the United States after having read their announcements about the new 2700 Fulcrum series being relaunched. I bought a left-handed Kahler Steeler Traditional after watching this YouTube video: I do not have a guitar to hand to install it into as the block is wider than a Floyd Rose cavity and it will not go straight into anything routed for a Floyd Rose. But at this stage, I will not be installing it. Unfortunately, there were som

Gaskell Guitars Australia

Dec 8, 20253 min read

Floyd Rose split from Schaller?

I just found out that Floyd Rose will now be making all his tremolos in the United States. This is after 40 years of exclusive production by Schaller in Germany. I am happy about that for a few reasons. I am a not a fan of Schaller because of a personal "bad customer experience" with Lars Br ü nning a couple of years ago that put me offside. Since then, I have pretty much refused to use or recommend Schaller products. I took their locking tuners and tremolos off my website. T

Gaskell Guitars Australia

Aug 2, 20251 min read

The Floyd Rose-Fernandes Connection

In the beginning, Fernandes Electric Sound Research Group Co. Ltd. of Japan (not Schaller) was Floyd Rose’s first commercial manufacturing partner, producing the early Floyd Rose tremolo system for Floyd Rose. The following is a concise summary of Fernandes' connection with Floyd Rose and the subsequent development of its own guitar vibrato systems with particular emphasis on left-handed guitar production. 1976–1981: Origins 1976–1980. Following its development in 1976, Ameri

Gaskell Guitars Australia

Jul 30, 202532 min read