Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Thanks, John!

I think I remember reading something about the guitar was designed by a lefty to be played left handed. I had the article here somewhere, I just forgot where I left it

Left-handed tuners for a 3/3 would have to have the worm gears cut in the opposite direction from right-handed tuners in order to give the opposite rotation direction as right handed tuners for each set of strings on the top/bottom of the headstock.

The question is, why, for such an arbitrary gain?

jingle_jangle wrote:Left-handed tuners for a 3/3 would have to have the worm gears cut in the opposite direction from right-handed tuners in order to give the opposite rotation direction as right handed tuners for each set of strings on the top/bottom of the headstock.

The question is, why, for such an arbitrary gain?

For symmetry, of course!

Remember, I'm an organic chemist, and chirality (handedness) is second nature to me.

I my zaniness, I thought about buying a six-in-line LH set and use the 'correct' half of them on the correct side, but use RH on the other side ... then I came to my senses that the arrangement would be so confusing!

Can you open up a regular set and flip flop the gears?

jdogric12aolcom wrote:Can you open up a regular set and flip flop the gears?

No, the spiral of the worm gear (I think that's what it would be called) is what determines the direction of rotation, and any spiral (helix) is chiral, i.e. it's either 'to the left' or 'to the right' ... an example can be seen in snail shells:

http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comm ... n_euhadra/
That's what Paul was saying, a different (opposite chirality) worm gear would need to be manufactured for use in the left-handed tuners, and as he said, why go to the bother?

Chirality, hey, Doc?

Man, I learned something new today. But now I wonder what my brain had to throw out in order to be able to store this...

jingle_jangle wrote:Chirality, hey, Doc?

Man, I learned something new today. But now I wonder what my brain had to throw out in order to be able to store this...

HD full, Paul?

Personal preference - IMO the Gotoh tuners (same footprint, as noted above) are much superior to the Klusons. All you lose is the stamp "RIC DELUXE".

houblues wrote:Personal preference - IMO the Gotoh tuners (same footprint, as noted above) are much superior to the Klusons. All you lose is the stamp "RIC DELUXE".

Thanks for the input, Patrick!