Former racer Jerry Welch runs "Lefty" Guitar Store after crash
 |
Jerry Welch at the race track during his motorcycle racing days.
|
Space bar goes here.
Guitar playing became his hobby and his passion. And, just as he was getting good he lost his left index finger in a construction accident. After the finger accident he thought his guitar playing days were done. Looking for another passion, he took up an interest in motorsports and eventually bought a street motorcycle and built a race bike for road racing events.
Space bar goes here.
Jerry's first season of racing netted him the #2 spot in the series. But like a lot of motorcycle racers who are fast, Jerry got banged up pretty bad over the years. He hit the 'bare' wall, head-first at Daytona International Speedway coming out of the chicane when his handle bar came loose. In addition to injuring knees, elbows and shoulders, his helmet visor cut a deep gash under his eye and he still suffers from double vision at night. He returned and built a brand new Suzuki SV650 with all the right stuff and went racing again. Doing quite well with the new bike he crashed at Moroso and broke his collar bone pretty bad. And, it took a long time to heal.
Space bar goes here.
Jerry, who's a muscular six-foot-something, soon realized that the bigger you are, the harder you fall and that maybe it was time for a guy in his late 40s to quit road racing motorcycles. So again, he was having to quit something he loved because of injuries.
Space bar goes here.
After he quit motorcycle racing and without a hobby, he decided he really wanted to play the guitar again and it seemed playing left handed was the answer. Having a full hand to fret with seemed more important than a full hand to strum with. So Jerry became a lefty player. He banged around Jimi Hendrix-style on that 'turned around' Vega for years before deciding to find a factory lefty. Any lefty knows what happened next -- frustration. Not even 1% of guitars built are lefties, even though 8 to 10 percent of the population are lefties.
Space bar goes here.
Jerry eventually accumulated a large personal collection of about 25 left-handed guitars but was still unhappy with the limited choices all lefties have. He wanted more choices so he spoke with many manufacturers about making more models available. He was told pretty unanimously that they would be happy to make him lefties if he would order them in quantities that would make production feasible. So he did, and now he's a successful dealer of only left-handed guitars and string instruments.
Space bar goes here.
The business took off and today Jerry's Lefty Guitars is now a household name to left-handed guitar, mandolin and bass players the world over and offers hundreds of lefty guitars on his website, new and used.
 |
| Jerry Welch at the NAMM dealer show in California with custom woodcrafter and boat builder, Thomas Tuten in the foreground. |
He's finally getting to play a wider range of instruments. As a matter of fact he's having guitar models built that have never been available before to lefties. You lefties can thank Jerry Welch for that.
Space bar goes here.
Jerry now has a huge collection of lefty guitars, a growing business that he's passionate about, and a nice collection of street and racing motorcycles in his garage, including his original Ducati M900 "Monster."
Space bar goes here.
He even claims that becoming a left-handed player after playing right handed for years is good exercise for the brain, and has a whole right brain, left brain usage thing on his website. If it does, in fact, make you smarter, I think I'll switch my mouse pad over to the left of my keyboard. It's a start.
Space bar goes here.
By the way, a short list of well-known lefty guitarists are Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, David Cook of American Idle fame, Dick Dale, Iggi Pop, Elliot Easton head an all-star cast including other greats like Jackie King, Billy Hinds, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta, Toronzo Cannon, Al McKay of Earth, Wind, and Fire, Dean Tidey, Steve Hammond, Angel Reca, The Campbell brothers, Michael Anthony, Michael Lund, David Booker, Tom Holland, Coco Montoya, Ollie Halsall, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Andrew "Tone" Smith, Tony Iommi, Albert King, Davey Scott, Ronnie Mutone of The Roost, Jimmy Cliff and producer/perfomrer Michael Stein.
Visit Jerry's blog.
Or his website at jerrysleftyguitars.com
