zombi
Well-known member
I got my degree in industrial design too. Built one guitar but due to time constraints it became a fretless... Haha!
Anyways, as bp said, the different hardware is a lot more expensive and I'm assuming it's for this reason. Every piece made needs to be tooled, which is where the major expense is. This tooling cost is depreciated across every piece made. So if it cost $1000 to tool the base of the bridge and 5000 right handed are made, that only adds $.50 per part. If the same is setup and 500 lefties are made, that now adds $5.00 per part. The next factor is time. For example, to continually run right handed parts and bodies the line needs to stop only to change worn tooling and replace dull router bits, etc. To switch to the left handed run, now all tooling and programming must be switched and then switched back once done with the lefties run. Then there is the wrench thrown in of breaking repetition. If you peeled apples all day, you would start blazing through them, but as soon as an avocado pops up, you slow down, as does everyone else that comes in contact. And time is money. The time factor, is of course, assuming that all machines running are usually running righties. If they have a smaller set up exclusively for lefties the time isn't a factor.
