Because of the extraordinary vision and desire by Kevin Gaskell, there would be no dreams realized for southpaw guitar players
like myself to own guitars like Kevin Gaskell manufactures! I have long given up the dream in years past of owning a Firestarter
style guitar (short of making one myself). Now thanks to Gaskell Guitars there is hope for us lefty players! It is a world
where lefties are treated special and are honored… not exploited or neglected!
My Firestarter weighs in at a mere 7 lbs. 8 ounces! Strapped on, it hangs on the player similar to a tele except a little
more forward. It is not neck heavy in the least. That was a feature that became important to Kevin along with other improvements
of the original F style design.
Another innovative feature he incorporated was a more perpendicular angle of the bridge, knowing that there are two different
categories of lefty players in the world. One that plays a true lefty string orientation and then folks like me that play
with a right hand string orientation. Because of this forward thinking feature, I was able to simply reverse the strings,
make saddle adjustments for intonation and re-cut a new nut all without expensive or major surgery to the guitar.
The Wilkinson humbuckers that came with my Firestarter were awesome and a great choice for most players. Since I prefer PAF
style humbuckers, I did replace the originals. I also switched out the factory pots to CTS 500K lefty pots that actually perform
better than a right hand pot wired in reverse. I also use .047 orange drop caps on my tone pots (yeah, that’s right…
just like Teles!) and I’ve integrated a treble bleed into the circuit. A truly awesome guitar!
Go give them a visit: Gaskell Guitars
