Left-Handed Fletcher Tenor Guitar for sale, hand-made by Jamie Dugan

Fletcher tenor guitar for sale

For sale is my 2012 Left-Handed Fletcher JD1 Mahogany tenor guitar.  Hand made by Jamie Dugan in Ithaca, NY.  

This finely crafted instrument is in very good condition with little or no wear and tear.  It cost over $2,000 new.  I'd like to get at least $1,200 for it to cover the cost of my next indulgence - which will be an electric mandolin.  Make me an offer!  Shipping will probably be around $60 to $80 - US buyers only.

Although this 4-string tenor guitar was made to be left-handed, the symmetrical design means that the "right" buyer could easily convert it to right-handed, if desired.  (Note: in that case one of the strap buttons would be on the wrong side for a right-hander).

I will include the hardshell case it came with AND a custom fit Blue Heron soft case/gig bag ($200 value) that I special ordered.  I tune this tenor guitar GDAE one octave lower than a mandolin but you can use a variety of tunings. 

Sound samples 
(Fletcher tenor guitar lead melody played by me with baritone uke backup):
Home With the Girls in the Morning


Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine


Rakes of Mallow

Specs:

• All Mahogany body
• Black Binding
• 21" Scale Length
• 32" Total Length
• 1.25" Nut Width
• Fretboard Side Dots
• Upper Bout 8"
• Lower Bout 11"
• Strap buttons
• Acoustically Tuned Top and Back.
• Arched X Braced Top
• Wood-inlaid Rosette
• Two way Adjustable Truss Rod
• Banjo-style Peghead with an Ebony Peghead overlay
• Ebony Fretboard with Abalone Dots
• 5-Star Geared Planetary Tuners with Ebony Knobs
• Bone Nut
• Floating Ebony Bridge
• Cast Weber Tailpiece

Contact me if interested!

Fletcher tenor guitar in Blue Heron soft case/gig bag

My Left-Handed Fletcher Tenor Guitar

Fletcher Tenor Guitar in Blue Heron case

In late summer 2012 I became the owner of a Fletcher Tenor Guitar.  Fletcher instruments are hand-crafted by Jamie Dugan in Ithaca, NY.  I had seen and heard a Fletcher guitar in the hands of Jamie's mom, Jody Platt, a well known oldtime musician and Clifftop veteran who plays with the likes of Riley Baugus and the Lonesome Sisters, and I immediately knew I wanted one.  The quality (and price tag) of these instruments meant that if  I was going to get one I was making the jump from someone who dabbles in music as a hobby, to someone who better be pretty damn serious about dabbling in music as a hobby!

Fletcher JD1 Mahogany

Fletcher guitar with The Bailey strap

I already play short scale (21", 17-fret) GDAE-tuned tenor banjo.  Most tenor guitars have a bigger body and longer scale length than I'm comfortable with, and I don't like the feel of double course strings so an octave mandolin wasn't something I was interested in.  Fletcher instruments, on the other hand, are designed to use the same GDAE tuning (one octave lower than a mandolin) and have basically the same scale length, specs and feel that I am used to from playing tenor banjo.  Add in the fact that Jamie could make it left-handed, and it seemed like the standard Fletcher model was custom made for me!

Blue Heron case

John Carty's traditional Irish album I Will If I Can - where he plays some tunes on tenor guitar - and Norman Blake's classic flatpicking guitar album Whiskey Before Breakfast are two huge influences on the playing style I'm aspiring to adopt, and the Fletcher tenor guitar gives me the perfect means to attempt these forms of music on a 4-string guitar-sounding instrument that I greatly enjoy playing.

The Fletcher came with a hard shell case and one strap button -- if I'd have thought about it I would have had Jamie install a 2nd strap button on the other side of the body.  I found that I don't like lugging around a heavy case, so I ordered a custom fit, high-quality soft case/gig bag from Ken Jorgenson at Blue Heron Cases, who is super friendly and easy to work with.  I had a local luthier install a 2nd strap button, and ordered a hand-braided leather strap from Bill Bailey ("The Bailey").  Now I'm all set.  Some hastily recorded sound demos are below.  I recorded them using a basic iPad recording app.  My limited playing abilities combined with the limitations of the amateur recording device may not properly convey the tones this instrument can produce, but it will give you some idea.

On Playing Music Left-Handed

One of the main reasons I chose the tenor banjo was because I’m left-handed*.  A 4-string banjo is easily converted to lefty – all you do is switch out the bridge and nut, and reverse the strings.  Everything else is the same.  There’s no 5^th string to throw things off.  (*My tendency toward nonconformity and individuality may have also been a factor!). 

I’m pretty strongly left-handed – I eat lefty, throw lefty, golf lefty, use left-handed scissors.  My dominant hand was going to have to be the picking/strumming hand.  (I do throw a Frisbee with my right-hand; go figure!)  Now that I’ve been playing for a few years the decision to use my left hand to hold the pick has been validated by the realization that keeping rhythm is more important than hitting every note perfectly.

Lefty violin collision

Playing left-handed does have some limitations.  You don’t have the opportunity to play as many different instruments.  It’s not like you can just pick up anyone’s guitar, mandolin, ukulele, banjo or bass and fool around with it.  Going into a music store is no fun - with all those instruments that are strung “backwards” or upside down.  I also have to take note of where I position myself in a jam setting so I don’t bash headstocks with the right handed person sitting next to me.  Yes, being lefty can mess up the feng shui of a room.

However, I don’t think the process of learning to play is any more difficult as a lefty – taking lessons from a right handed person, figuring out chord shapes, reading tablature, and mentally reversing instructions that refer to “the right hand”.  It’s a right-handed world and lefties are already used to making these adjustments.  We’re probably a little more ambidextrous too – everything from automobiles to computer keyboards to can openers are made with a right handed person in mind.

Kermit's a lefty!

I recently got a really nice tenor guitar.  I often get asked by others if they can try it out.  Usually I’ll just hand it over and watch the look on the person’s face when he discovers that it’s a left-handed instrument and that I’ve been playing left-handed the whole time.  If I don’t feel like handing it over I’ll preface it by saying “OK, but you do know that it’s a lefty, right?”.  That usually stops them.

I did get to hear my tenor banjo being played in real time last year when a really good left-handed guitarist with mandolin experience came to our session for the first time.  I handed him my GDAE tuned banjo and asked him to play it so that I could finally get to hear it from the perspective of a listener and not the person making the sound.  I was pleased with what I heard! 

Being lefty is probably why all of my current instruments are custom orders from independent luthiers.  I like having the side position dots on the correct side, but more than that I like knowing that the instrument was made specifically for me.  It’s more expensive but also more personal.  If you’re left-handed and thinking of playing music, there’s no reason to not to do it the way that comes most natural to you!