About Us

Our company SouthPaw Guitars in Houston Texas is proud to be celebrating 40 years in business this  year. We sure have come a long way...

In 1980, Jim Duncan and his friend, Bill Townsend opened a music store called "Traders Corner" then  "Gold 'n Guitar Exchange". With $2000, their own individual guitars as stock and no experience, a new business was born.

After selling their own personal guitars, Jim and Bill went about replacing them. This simple need became the stepping stone for a new location. He reasoned that if he was having a tough time finding quality lefty instruments, others were experiencing the same woes. In a quest to fill these needs, SouthPaw Guitars came into being.

With the advent of the guitar show phenomenon, came the availability of quality pre owned left-hand products. Right-handed dealers had no use for these instruments and started seeking Jim out to buy them. Jim began attending guitar shows and advertising in various trade and music magazines to expand his customer base.

In the early 90's Bill, wanting to get out of the urban setting,  moved to Austin and established Cedar park Music which had a long run. 

SouthPaw now maintains a mailing list of lefty players numbering in the thousands. As the business grows, Jim continues to lobby the manufacturers to build quality instruments for the lefty market. Southpaw Guitars is proud to be an Authorized Fender Dealer work closely with Fender, Gibson, Martin and Taylor  to bring  a full line of lefty  guitars to the market place.

Most  companies have already seen the light, and have incorporated lefty models in their regular line of instruments - many with a former 10-15% lefty up charge PRS and Gibson. Others, like Martin and Taylor, have made SouthPaw a left-hand only dealer, selling lefty instruments only with no lefty up charge. Jim will continue searching for new sources.