Are there left-handed (backwards) hurdy-gurdies?
It’s physically possible to make one. The real question is why one is needed. The left hand is used to play the melody, while the right is used to turn the crank and sound the dog. Both of these are complex motions, so there is no advantage to having a reversed instrument. If anything, a player who doesn’t use the dog would probably prefer to be left-handed, playing a traditional right-handed instrument. To make one left-handed, we’d need to thread the shaft, handle, wheel and handle shaft backwards, with left-handed threads. There’s no reason not to do this, except that we don’t have the taps and dies, the handle shaft would have to be custom made instead of off the shelf, and the wheel would need to be turned backwards, making for some unusual machine setups. Setup of the instrument would prove problematic also, since we would need to play the instrument to adjust everything and play it in, and neither of us plays left-handed. It would be like starting playing all over again, with a
