[Jengstrom]

Some lefties learn right handed. Some learn left handed. I played righty as a kid but could never coordinate anything other than cowboy chords and a few basic barres. No leads at all.

As a middle ages adult, after not touching a guitar for 30+ years, I bought a lefty guitar and went to work. Granted, I’ve had much better instruction and learning materials than I had as a kid, but lefty is correct for me.

I suggest you allow your sister to fiddle around for a while, trying a guitar both ways (better if you can find a lefty guitar for the lefty fiddling, but perhaps not necessary) and let her choose which way she wants to learn.

If she chooses righty, there will be many more guitar choices and learning materials will be more straightforward.

If she chooses lefty, she won’t be so tempted by GAS, because there won’t be so many choices. She will also have to learn how to interpret learning materials designed for righties, like chord diagrams. It makes things more complicated, but it is doable.

As for restringing your Ovation backward, guitars are braced assymetrically to account for the different loads caused by differing string tensions across the guitar. Also, the nut would have to be replaced. If the bridge is cocked or compensated, that would have to be addressed to. I recommend against flipping it. (Exception: most classical guitars are symetrical. Much lower string tensions make asymmetrical bracing unnecessary. The only thing you would have to changed is the nut. When I bought mine, there were no lefty classicals in the local stores. I picked a righty that sounded good and had reasonable intonation. Then I took it to a local luthier who flipped it and set it up for about $100.)

IMO, all of the complications/frustrations involved in learning left handed are worth it if your brain and coordination are telling you to learn left handed. At least it was for me.

John