What was your first guitar and experiences with it? [Archive]

dohootowl

01-07-2011, 03:12 PM

Just out of curiosity, I thought I'd start a thread about your first guitar and how you loved/fought with it until you graduated to another. Show pics if you have them!

My first guitar was an off-brand small-bodied acoustic purchased from Mundt Music in Longview, Texas. I think my Dad paid 20 bucks for it and the store should have paid HIM for taking it out of their shop! This was 1971. The strings were outrageously high off the fretboard, but I stuck with it for a year or so until I begged for an electric

At Christmas, I got my wish--a Sears SG copy. I think that one was around 99.95 with a little tube amp with a ten inch speaker. I was so incredibly happy to unwrap that guitar at Christmas. I have the pic somewhere and will scan it and post it later. The first lead that I learned was from Carly Simon's "You're So Vain".

I then graduated to an Electra, Ovation Deacon (wish I still had that one) and finally a custom B.C. Rich (the real deal--not the metal axes of today).

Here it is!
http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/uu15/dohootowl/FirstElectric.jpg

Jerry Shaw

01-07-2011, 03:21 PM

Mine was a mid 70s Electra SG copy. As I recall it was a pretty decent guitar. I played it in my high school music class. One day I want to get it and it was gone, along with the no-name amp I got with it. The music teacher felt bad because he had neglected to lock the storage room where it was left. Insurance payed for it and the amp, and I used the money to buy a 77 Fender Strat that I loved, but ultimately turned out to be one of the dogs everyone talks about.

I found out a couple of years later that the kid who sat next to me/jammed with me was the one who stole the Electra.

Ymir

01-07-2011, 03:27 PM

Mine was a single PU Vantage that my Dad (RIP) bought me at Kurlan Music in Worcester. MA. It was $99.00 (plus the amp). He was a bit freaked out by the cost, I think it kind of cleaned him out. But he wrote the check (while planning to eat ramen noodles for 6 months probably).

I wanted to buy a book to learn, but my mother insisted on lessons. I was reluctant, but I went and it was great. My teacher was awesome. Anyone know Marty Hayden?

pickaguitar

01-07-2011, 03:30 PM

pawn shop pointy red yamaha...it sucked and so did I (at the time)

A-Bone

01-07-2011, 03:37 PM

Mine was a c. '88 Gibson Les Paul Studio model purchased new in 1988. It was a great guitar, although it had this odd Bowen Handle aftermarket (?) trem arm. I still own it.

smallbutmighty

01-07-2011, 03:57 PM

Sears Silvertone. Kept it for about a month and then returned it. (I had kept the receipt just in case.) They wouldn't give me cash...only store credit. I took the credit and bought a rifle...a 30/30....which I sold to my uncle.

I took that money and bought a Peavey T-15.

PVH5150

01-07-2011, 03:59 PM

Dean Vendetta XM, satin black. 80 dollar special at GC in 2007.

Dealt with it for 3 months until I saved enough money to get my workhorse ESP M100FM.

chrisr777

01-07-2011, 04:00 PM

Mid 60's. It was a cheap Sears nylon string job. I had a great time with it. No idea what I was doing except for a few chords, but I loved it. I kept it for years too. My mom may even still have it somewhere.

ggwwbb

01-07-2011, 04:09 PM

aliensporebomb

01-07-2011, 04:39 PM

Do you mean my first playable, giggable guitar or my first guitar-like object?
I could write a book. Stay tuned...

antbosca

01-07-2011, 05:14 PM

A hollow Teisco, not a bad guitar. I got it thrown in for free when I bought an old library table at a flea market. Still have both. I just recently got the "separated at birth" 12-string version of my old Teisco. Definitely came from the same factory but the 12 is labeled "Kent." Had to pay a little for that one, but it was still a deal.

razorbladeSD

01-07-2011, 05:17 PM

http://i432.photobucket.com/albums/qq45/razorbladerob/robcowboy.jpg

razorbladeSD

01-07-2011, 05:22 PM

Okay...this one was a little nicer...

http://i432.photobucket.com/albums/qq45/razorbladerob/oasis.jpg

SteveO

01-07-2011, 05:23 PM

Peavey T-60. Not a bad guitar, but it was a boat anchor-for a LARGE boat.

dohootowl

01-07-2011, 05:26 PM

Marcfordsfuzz513

01-07-2011, 05:28 PM

Technically a Taylor Big Baby. But I was playing for a year and a half before I got it.. On a LP Studio and a Strat... Oh and a Fender Jazzmaster I think.. They're all my brothers. I also played on a Mesa Boogie for over a year before I got my amp.

moozak

01-07-2011, 05:31 PM

Stevil

01-07-2011, 05:31 PM

$100 Epiphone Dreadnought. bought it new @ banjomart about 15 years ago. the neck has a bit of a curve to it & it was slightly painful to play. i tried sanding down the bridge a bit to lower the action. i still have it. broke it out the other day after being locked up in a case for a few years & cleaned it up a bit. it's not as bad as i'd remembered. it's currently got an LR Baggs pickup on it that cost more than the guitar. tempted to give it to my sisters kids as i've done with some of my other reject gear.

james Steinwedell

01-07-2011, 05:35 PM

My first guitar was a Japanese copy of a psychedelic solid body- with a gold-flaked pick-guard and wacky whammy bar. I took lessons from the kid down the street (Carl Verheyen-if you don't know him, he is a pro; check him out on YouTube), and stopped lessons after the summer. My next guitar was another Japanese copy of a tobacco sunburst Es335. It, too, was a piece of junk. Finally, after a few years of finger-strengthening conquests on the bad action on both guitars, I got a new red, 1970 Gibson Melody Maker--the plastic pickups and pick-guard and all.
From there I went from Gibson to Gibson--enjoying them like porn!

DGTCrazy

01-07-2011, 05:47 PM

Mine was a Red Epi ET-290 (right after they switched manufacturing Coronets and went overseas)

Killer pups, but a real skinny neck. Still.....a great guitar to cut my teeth on for a few years until I bought my first LP Standard (cuz Neal Schon played one...LOL)

zodiactone

01-07-2011, 05:57 PM

I had a 3/4 student size Harmony acoustic...my mom and step-dad bought it for me for Christmas one year when I was young. After about a year, and a great deal of time dedicated to playing, they bought me a Cort strat copy.

I spent so much time playing those guitars it is unreal. :aok

dohootowl

01-07-2011, 05:59 PM

The second electric. I know, this is all about the first one, but...this is an Electra LP copy. An excellent guitar, really.
http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/uu15/dohootowl/AlbertSecondElectric.jpg

chrisr777

01-07-2011, 06:06 PM

The second electric. I know, this is all about the first one, but...
http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/uu15/dohootowl/AlbertSecondElectric.jpg

Didn't have the Lester, but I did have that Chicago poster.

dohootowl

01-07-2011, 06:13 PM

Chrisr, that's too funny!! BTW, I added an edit to the above pic--it's an Electra LP Copy! That's an EMC solid state 2x12 Combo (a St. Louis Music brand).

Road King

01-07-2011, 06:40 PM

76 or 77 Strat...3 tone sunburst with rosewood fingerboard, black pickguard and white pups. I hated it because Ace Frehley played a LP and this was not a LP. Besides, no one famous will ever play a guitar with that description. (SRV)
Traded it for a LP a few years later.

ggwwbb

01-07-2011, 07:12 PM

There aren't enough facepalms to go along with this!

Yeah, I know.....it was 1981, before the vintage thing really took hold, but still.....To this day, my brother & I still reming our parents regularly what it was and how much it would be worth today.....

ggwwbb

01-07-2011, 07:14 PM

dude... this story is gruesome. sorry for your loss :cry:

Thanks.....but like I said, it was 1981 when it happened, so I've pretty much gotten over it......mostly....... ~weak smile~

Roadeye

01-07-2011, 07:23 PM

My first guitar was a 2 tone sunburst strat, late 50s. Got it for $50 from a neighbor of mine who bought it second hand also for $50. Played it from mid 65 to probably 70, when I sold it FOR ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS! I tripled my money on a 1950's strat - wow did I feel smart.

When I think about that I still kick myself. That guitar would be easily worth $15,000 today.

jimmydeuce

01-07-2011, 07:34 PM

Still have my Silvertone. My dad bought it when I was born. Wish I still had the amp in case that came with it. It's definitely been played.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y125/steelerz/DSC00459.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y125/steelerz/DSC00465.jpg

rustneversleeps

01-07-2011, 07:34 PM

1987--70's lawsuit Ibanez Les Paul Copy, black/gold. Heavy and unbalanced for my skinny butt back then and the tuners were loose--never stayed in tune (not that I could tell at the time). Thought it was cool at first, but since it was the 80's, I wanted something bright and shiny. Traded it in early 1990 for a G&L. Wish I had both guitars now just for sentimental reasons.

lakehaus

01-07-2011, 07:51 PM

58 Gibson flying v I. Hated it and
got a 59 Gibson LP. What a heavy guitar.
Luckily I still have them both on mint
Condition. Who knew!

You dog! :sarcasm

arem

01-07-2011, 07:53 PM

When I was 16 I scrounged and saved up $150 and I wasn't sure what to do with it, I knew I was interested in a guitar but it was also time to pay for my HS class ring. I was torn, and my mom kept harping on me that I "would regret it forever" if I didn't get the ring. One night my friend and I were in a mall and there was a crappy music store in there, where I saw IT. The most beautiful B/W maple necked Strat I had ever seen in person. It was a knock off by some company called Memphis, but what did I know. I asked to see it and the salesman played a few slick runs on it and I was sold. Got home with my guitar and Moms hit the roof, she was sooooooo pissed at me.

Whenever my mom sees me play I tease her about that story, it's 26 years later and I still love playing the guitar as much as anything, and I have never missed having a class ring for one minute, not even in HS when everyone else got theirs. I was too busy playing in my first band.

That Memphis was a dog of a guitar though, I traded it in for a Kramer Focus within 6 months...

lakehaus

01-07-2011, 07:59 PM

I bought my first guitar new in 1977 for $400 w/ case... a 1976 Gibson SG Standard. My friend had a 67 SG Special that I thought was great, and wanted to get one, too. But, being 17 I had to have a shiney new one. The same bud had a Marshall half stack - probably a late '60s - don't remember exactly which one. His special kicked ass all over my shiney new SG through that amp.

I still have it, and it's gone through a metamorphasis of reversible mods (except solder joints). All orginal parts are in the case, but quite useless to me since this thing is an absolute joy to play and be heard - much improved over stock.

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh172/tidalsurge/Gibson/1976%20SG%20Standard/SGwithBFPR-1.jpghttp://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh172/tidalsurge/Gibson/1976%20SG%20Standard/DSC_0558.jpg

Mattbedrock

01-07-2011, 08:23 PM

My first was an awful Kay f-hole acoustic with heavy bronze strings and 3/4" action. I can't believe I persisted with such a torture machine.

dohootowl

01-07-2011, 08:25 PM

Okay...this one was a little nicer...

http://i432.photobucket.com/albums/qq45/razorbladerob/oasis.jpg

Let me guess---1982? That looks like a pretty killer axe! What is it?

dohootowl

01-07-2011, 08:39 PM

OK...I since I am the OP, I have to put this on here. I wanted a guitar that no one else had. A unique guitar. I had no concept of tone or fretboard radius or any of that crap. I saw an ad in Guitar Player and said "THIS is the guitar I want!". An entire summer of work paid for this guitar! It WAS a great guitar, but didn't need all the electronic riff-raff and I never used it as a 10-string. Sold it in 1992 for $850 with a form-fitting Anvil flight case!

http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/uu15/dohootowl/AlbertandBCRich.jpg

lhallam

01-07-2011, 08:47 PM

'62 SG Special for Xmas in '69. Put in humbuckers, grovers and badass bridge. Hey I was 15. Still got it though. Thx Mom

vashuba

01-07-2011, 08:58 PM

peavey raptor, included in the strat pack deal. Still have the guitar, amp and stuff is long gone

madvek

01-07-2011, 09:10 PM

Mine was a '59 or '60 Les Paul Junior, double cut, cherry finish with matching amp when I was 9 years old. Got it at a garage sale in '79 for $10. We moved overseas in late '79 and took it with us. When we moved back, our parents threw it away.......I'm sure that it made some Spanish garbage man's day.....yep, threw it away......:thud:facepalm

Wow. You win the "regrettable guitar loss" story as far as I'm concerned!

I still feel bad about selling my two '50s Juniors for what I paid for them (bought:$150-sold:$200) in that same time frame.
:bonk

My first was a $50 used Harmony Stella acoustic. Replaced 6 months later with a $150 used Fender Bronco and matching amp! All bought with my own money from paper route/after school job in supermarket at age 15. Paid for my own lessons for a year too. After that, I was in a band and figured I could learn anything else I needed on my own. Yeah, right!

That first band was actually pretty cool. Big band with a four piece horn section, doing Chicago, BS&T, Stones etc all with pro horn charts. We were all high school kids, but all the other players were top notch/all state musicians. We gigged A LOT!. Played lots of dances and proms while we were still in high school, for decent money.

dimperdoo

01-07-2011, 09:15 PM

In the mid to late 70's (prob '78) I voiced my interests in learning guitar. My grandmother worked for Chesbro's in Idaho Falls and secured a student scale acoustic w/ no branding. So far as I recall, it was the epitome of typical.

I have often wondered how to replace it (though I know not how it was lost) since it sounded spectacular - far beyond the quality of any "discount" acoustic one might find today. I'm certain she had someone in the guitar section select it.

speakerjones

01-07-2011, 09:20 PM

It was an Applause acoustic of some sort. I took my first lessons with it, then lost interest for a while until I got my first electric. It was a Striker by Kramer which my pops bought at East Coast Music Mall (thanks Ed Roman!). What a piece of crap. But I didn't care. I could overdrive the mic input on my stereo with it! I played that sorry slab of plywood a lot. A couple of years later, when I started my first band, I upgraded to a Kramer Pacer Special. That was a sweet machine.

aliensporebomb

01-07-2011, 10:14 PM

It begins with a barely remembered series of chipboard and plastic guitar-like-objects starting when I was around 7 or 8 - one was a plastic Sears Emenee guitar - used in my very first non-band band "The Backyard Barbecue" (I'm told a tape exists of a "performance"), a green hollowbody telecaster type guitar bought at a yard sale at 12 (the neck snapped off but it was one heck of a "whammy bar"), and an untuneable acoustic classical at age 13 (dubbed the "garbage bag guitar" due to the gig bag it came in looking like a 2-ply black hefty) that lead directly to my getting an Austin Les Paul copy in 1978 at age 15 for $112 - I paid half and my mom paid the other half.

I remember there was unremovable, unfixable flash on the bridge saddle for the high E string so the darned thing would break constantly. That guitar was enough to at least "start" on.

I think it took so long for me to get an actual "guitar" because my dad asked these two grizzled bar band veterans if he should get his son (me) a guitar because he wanted one (and kept pestering him and my mother since I was young enough to know what a guitar was) and those guys had been playing wimped out 60s and 70s covers for bored businessmen in Northern Minnesota for years and they went "NO! ANYTHING BUT A GUITAR! AVOID MUSIC! DEAD END TO YOUR LIFE! EIEEE!"

After that I got a Gibson L6-S in 1981 and the rest is history.

Leonc

01-07-2011, 10:24 PM

My first guitar...hmm...before I could afford my own, I had borrowed a guitar from a friend who had given up playing. It was some kind of cheapo Italian model with this a god-awful bolt-on neck. It was just horrid. But I did get to learn a lot of basics on it. The following summer I got a job and was able to buy my own guitar--a '63 Strat that was a huge step up. It was almost 10 years old and was not highly valued. Probably paid something like 200-250 bucks for it. I eventually traded it in (idiot!) on a new strat as I recall, which was not really nearly as nice of a guitar; but I didn't recognize that at the time. Oh well...

razorbladeSD

01-07-2011, 11:48 PM

Let me guess---1982? That looks like a pretty killer axe! What is it?

Close - '81

It was an Oasis, Made by Gary Cooper - Koa with an ebony fretboard, Camel bone and ebony binding on the neck and body - I bought it when I worked at GC in san diego in 1980- It was about 1000.00, but I got it for 700.00...still a buttload of cash then. . It was stolen/disappeared from a rehearsal space in 87. Serial was 6620 if anyone ever runs across it.

I found this about them - not much out there, but it describes mine perfectly

: : Has anyone heard of Oasis guitars? I have an electric, double cutaway, matched flame maple body (not just the top, but the whole body!), gold hardware, with early Bartolini Beasty? humbuckers and an ebony fretboard on a maple neck. I bought it new in Denver around 1979 - 1980. The body style resembles an Alembic. I have searched the web high and low without any results. The Oasis factory was in California, I belive. Any information would be appreciated.
Hi, Oasis Guitars was located in Sacramento,CA. Gary Cooper was the luthier, formerly from Alembic and the Grateful Dead. I happen to own the prototype model for your guitar. Mine was all hand built by Gary and his partner-in-crime,Louis Armstrong(not that one). My instrument is made of of Koa-2 piece bookend matched flame koa...hand beveled top with white-black-white binding on the body and neck. The serial number is 018. It was shown in the 1976 Winter NAMM Show in L.A. I received it in late October of 1975. I have since replaced the Hi-A pickups with Seymour Duncans(What other pickups would possbly be worthy?)It's great to find other owners of these guitars...I've got pics if you'd be interested. My Oasis logged some serious study time in L.A. in the late '70's and '80's. I love this thing...I'm sure you feel the same about yours. You can reach me at: jelly_mojoboy@hotmail.com

Here is an old video from youtube about Gary, and showing his work...
k8zxz56003o

semi-hollowbody

01-08-2011, 07:38 AM

My wife bought me a fender strat started package (squire bullet, frontman 15) and my sister bought me a book (chords, scales, modes, theory) and away I went...I learned the a/d/e major triads christmas day lol...

BluesForDan

01-08-2011, 08:16 AM

my first guitar was a yamaha hollowbody (no center block) 335 copy. It had a tremolo arm that moved about 3 inches per hertz. It would feed back horribly if I tried to play loud, and at one point I had an ampeg v-4 with an 6x10* (missing 2 speakers so it wasn't an 8x10 anymore) no name cab. I couldn't play it above one. even my princeton reverb would draw howls over 3 or 4. Plus I was trying to get it to sound like ritchie blackmore, tony iommi, mark farner and whoever played for Alice Cooper.

I thought "It's just electricity, you can make anything sound like something else.":roll

very soon after I got the guitar, I had put it down, leaning on something. It fell over and cracked the nut right by the low E string. There was just enough of the slot left to hold the string in place, and I don't think I ever got it fixed.

I eventually traded it in on a brand new 1974 stratocaster, although I wanted a gibson SG or les paul. They were too expensive. That strat was a piece of shit, through and through. i fought and fought with that guitar much more than the yamaha. Finally, after seeing how nice my lead player's Ibanez was, I bought a lawsuit copy (new) les paul. One motorcycle accident later, I sold all my gear (mics, stands, cabs, PA and that ****ing piece of shit 1974 strat - I can not emphasize that enough) except for the ibanez and princeton reverb.

twoheadedboy

01-08-2011, 11:18 AM

Here's my story:

My first guitar and amp were a used red Squier Bullet and a used Peavey Studio Pro 50 combo. It was 1999 and they were my 13th birthday present. My dad played in some bands as a kid and knew that a tiny practice amp wouldn't be enough to get me from playing in my room to jamming with friends and playing at church, which is what I was ultimately hoping to do. The guitar didn't have the greatest electronics, but it was totally functional, intonated well and stayed in tune. The Peavey was a pretty good workhorse. It didn't sound great, but it provided a range of clean and overdrive tones at bedroom to band-level volumes. After about 2 years, I sold the Squier and purchased an Epiphone Les Paul. At first, I was excited to have such a cool looking guitar, but I soon became dissatisfied with the tone and build quality of the Les Paul. I started working at age 15, and within a year had enough money to pay for half of an Ibanez RG520QS and a Marshall JCM 800 2205 head with a JCM 900 1960 slant cab. My parents paid for the other half. I kept that setup until I was 19, when I got on TGP and GAS took hold. Five years and many purges later, I'm down to a few cheap guitars and a modest recording setup.

prsflame

01-08-2011, 11:28 AM

First guitar was a 1983 Fender squire strat....amp was an old solid state one made by a company called Mako. I think it was called the tube blaster.

scottlr

01-08-2011, 12:21 PM

In 1966 I begged for guitar lessons. My mom pulled an old arch top acoustic out of her closet. I didn't even know it was there. The headstock had J.W. Johnson on it, and it was probably made by Kay or Harmony. It had good action, and sounded OK as far as I remember. It got me through a year or two of lessons. But I wanted an electric. One Christmas, I got a Kawaii POS electric and a 67 Fender Vibro-Champ. I liked the amp, but the guitar was junk. The action was 1/4 inch off the board at the nut, and got worse from there. I didn't know these things could be fixed, so it just sat there, not getting played. The following Summer, I got a paper route and my mom sprung for a new 68 Ric 330/12 and I put my paper route money towards it each month. In hind site, I probably should have gone for the 330/6 instead. But that guitar got me into some bands early on.

sahhas

01-08-2011, 02:03 PM

1st guitar: in 1975, rental student size nylon string, probably 3/4 size. nothing special. didin't love lessons.
1st guitar when i started playing in 1983, a telestar, cheapie $50 pawn shop, wasn't great. probably started being more serious in my playing a yr later when i got a Hondo II LP model also for $50. wish i would have kept that guitar, it was pretty decent...

edwarddavis

01-08-2011, 02:16 PM