Dr. J--Last night I tried to post to you the info I had promised but I kept getting an error message. Anyway, my banjo neck was made by Wyatt Fawley. Michael Holmes--www.mugwumps.com--has a link to him, or claims to. But when I contacted him he gave a lot of good reasons for a lefthander to learn to play banjo righthanded, in addition to the one I suggested to him, the lack of instructional materials, chord charts, and tablatures for left handed banjo. Here are his reasons:

They are practical and social.

1. The left hand does most of the harder and more involved work of chording, noting, etc., so lefties have an advantage when they start out.
2. Lefties are generally more facile with their right hands than righties are with their lefts.
3. Left handed banjos are very difficult to find, and generally require a custom made one.
4. Music is a social event, and pickers love to try out other instruments, something a left-handed player can't do.
5. If you don't have your own instrument with you, you can't join in on the unexpected jam that may arise.

Mike publishes an online folkmusic magazine (the addressI give above) and is a banjo historian as well as player.

--seed