Left Handed Telecaster-Fender’s First Electric Guitar with a Vibrato Bridge

Fender Musical Instruments produced some classic guitars like the Telecaster that later led to the famous Stratocaster model. The Fender vibrato, or Tremolo Bridge, allowed players to bend the strings and changed the style of electric guitar playing. While it used to be difficult and pricey to get a left handed guitar, guitars like the left handed Telecaster, resemble the original classic.

The newer left hand Fender guitars have the classic duo of single-coil pickups, 3 way switching, alder body, with a new bridge, new finish but still has the rolled fret-board edges and staggered tuning, and the “Tele tone” that the original Telecaster was famous for.

Fender Telecaster

Telecaster was the first real success of the Fender Guitar company and it is still a sought after guitar, even with the improvements that have been made to the classic over the past 50 years. The tone range on a left handed Telecaster is the same characteristics and range as the original, from a cluck to warm sustains or crystal-clear notes.

The tremolo or vibrato bridge arm feature was a first on Fender guitars.  It has also been called the whammy bar as it is a lever that attaches to the bridge and the tailpiece of an electric guitar and enables the guitar player to quickly vary the tension and length of the strings to temporarily create a vibrato effect.

Also known as the Fender synchronized tremolo or Fender floating tremolo, the Telecaster was the first electric guitar released and the technology was later used on the Stratocaster guitars, as well. A left handed Telecaster guitar is a guitarist’s classic electric guitar that is beautiful, yet built with the technology of the original classics by the same name.  For over 50 years, Telecaster has been a staple of the Fender guitars.

Guitar Selection Over the Years

For many left handed guitarists, selection was limited in years past, and many adapted to right handed playing with right handed guitars, or turned them upside down, which made it more difficult to play and adapt chord tables and music that is typically written for right handed guitars.  Now there are many classic models of left handed guitars to choose from, including a left handed Telecaster.

If you are left handed, then you are used to adapting to many things- scissors, throwing a ball, bowling and guitar playing in a right handed world.  Many guitar players that adapted to playing right handed have found that they perform better and it feels more natural to play left handed. With a left hand Fender guitar, such as the left handed Telecaster, your performance can be greatly improved.

Hendrix and The Stratocaster

Jimi Hendrix played a right handed guitar, the Fender Stratocaster, altered for left handed playing, which was a later model of the Telecaster. Jeff Beck was a Telecaster fan and Bob Dylan owned a 1958 black and white Telecaster that formed his controversial musical sound.

It is easy for left handed Telecaster fans to get a left handed Fender guitar that looks like the classic, but has improved features.