Selling your first "real" guitar - any regrets?

[TFC]

Here's the situation: I still have my first "real" guitar. It's an '86 Charvel Model 5 that was bought brand new as a high school graduation gift (thanks mom & dad!), and it's still in great shape. I wanted an electric guitar for a few years before getting this, so it was a huge deal. I played tons of gigs with it thru 1995, and then it sat around as I didn't play for several years.

Now I'm back into playing, but my tastes have changed and I no longer play the Charvel. The neck is too thin, the double-locking trem is a pain, so it ends up lonely and bored in the corner of my room, rarely seeing the light of day. (Funny thing is, I still think it looks cool in all its pointy glory.) Any other guitar of mine in that situation would have been bought and sold several times on Craig's List by now, but I've got some strange attachment to this one.

The thing is, I don't like having more stuff than I need, like to get rid of what I don't use, I could use the money and I'd love to buy something else that I'd actually use instead of having it sit around. Yet it's still here.

I'm curious to hear from those of you who have been in the same situation and what you did. Did you keep it because you're just too attached to it? Did you get over the silly attachment to the inanimate object and turn it into some cash/something useful? Did you sell it and regret it, never again able to get a full night's sleep without hearing its voice calling out to you, "Why?? Why?? Don't you love me anymore?" And so on.

Just curious...

[esoteric pete]

my folks bought me a jap 57' ri strat when i was about 14. it was CAR, and had a satin finished V neck. it was a pretty good guitar actually...

eventually, i shaved down the neck and made it more comfortable, since at the time, i didnt care for V necks. then i decided i didnt like maple boards, so i got a MIJ 62ri neck and put it on there. i had it up until a couple years ago actually..

i should have kept it but traded it for a tophat club deluxe that i no longer own. that was a good amp, but it wasnt something that my folks struggled to buy me when we were poor. shame on me.

[Giraffecaster]

the fact that you're asking this tells me you're attached to this meaning you shouldn't sell it because you'll regret it later down the road

[sixty2strat]

I still have my first good guitar a 79 Sienna burst fender strat. I bought it new. Worked as a dish washer for 3.35/hr in a bar on Friday n Saturday night to buy it as a teen.It was my only guitar for almost 10 years. More a Lp guy these days my R8 gets played most out of 28 guitars, kinda a sin, but if I gotta play Jimi or Gilmour no other strat I have comes close for getting that tone.

Giiraff is right. Never ever seriouly thought of selling it. When I get gas I wait and never sell a guitar or amp, sold a mint ep3 once and regretted it for 5 years now

[acwild]

I had a mint Charvel Model 6. Just like you, my tastes changed. No regrets selling it because there's almost an unlimited amount of other cool guitars out there that I still want to get my hands on. Yeah, they can have sentimental value, but they're tools. Ultimately, when you're dead and buried, your ungrateful offspring are gonna pawn it off for pocket change for something stupid.

[sixty2strat]

Originally Posted by acwild

I had a mint Charvel Model 6. Just like you, my tastes changed. No regrets selling it because there's almost an unlimited amount of other cool guitars out there that I still want to get my hands on. Yeah, they can have sentimental value, but they're tools. Ultimately, when you're dead and buried, your ungrateful offspring are gonna pawn it off for pocket change for something stupid.

Do like the vikings burn all your stuff,

[pete692]

Anything-- amps, pedals, guitars-- anything, is on my watch list for selling. If a guitar of mine sits untouched in the closet for more than a few weeks, it has good reason to be nervous. Nothing's sacred, especially my first piece of shit guitar.

[smolder]

My first was a solid body sunburst Harmony. When I next bought an SG special for $125, I never looked back. I literally have no idea what became of the Harmony. I sold the sg to buy a les paul... and now that one is worth close to 5k. Shoulda Coulda.

[GAD]

I have direct experience here. Take my word for it.

Don't do it!

You'll convince yourself that it's cool. At some point, you will seriously regret it.

[_MonSTeR_]

This isn't a guitar, it's a gift from your parents. Keep it. You'll thank me when they've passed but you've still got the hight school graduation present they bought you.

[tone4days]

i'm torn on this ... i mostly come down on the side of 'sell it'

but i will admit to infrequent, very small twinges of 'wish' that i still had my first electric - a guild S60-D ... i traded it in to get my next guitar (which i still have but never play) ... it would be 'kinda' cool to put it in a display case with a pic of me playing it at my very first show ever and hang it in m y music room ... but other than that nostalgia kick, i really do not miss it ... i have plenty of other guitars that i do not even play that are much better guitars ...

good luck,
t4d

[Luke Gibson]

Originally Posted by _MonSTeR_

This isn't a guitar, it's a gift from your parents. Keep it. You'll thank me when they've passed but you've still got the hight school graduation present they bought you.

+1 wise advise!

My Mom bought me a new 1976 Ibanez Destroyer, I traded it for a 50 watt Marshall (long gone) I've regretted getting rid of it, now even more since my Mother has passed... I even remember the Serial # L765656

[The Golden Boy]

I regret selling my shitty "Carlos" brand acoustic. I haven't found an acoustic I liked as much as I liked that crappy guitar. I sold it for $10. Damn.

Originally Posted by GAD

You'll convince yourself that it's cool. At some point, you will seriously regret it.

This is why the "vintage" market is booming. People getting all old and buying the shit they had as kids. Remember 10-15 years ago, you could have found a mint example of a "shredder" type guitar in pawn shops for next to nothing.

I remember a friend of mine buying a $1300 Kramer Pacer Baretta. Thirteen hundred dollars. For a high school kid in 1985 or so... Outrageous. A few years back I saw a store with 2 of them- $200 a piece- covered in dust, and they'd been sitting there for a long, long time.

[jayn]

If your tastes have changed, move on...sell it.

My first "real" guitar was a Peavey T-60 from '79. I did keep it for over 20 years, but sold it on eBay about 5 years ago. It was actually a great guitar even though it was butt ugly and heavy like a truck. But, I hardly played it past the mid-80's.

My first "real nice" guitar was a Yamaha SG2000 that I worked all summer in high school to afford. I never really bonded with it and my tastes turned to Strats and Mark Knopfler shortly after I bought it. So, I sold it about 10 years later and got a Strat and Fender amp.

Didn't really regret either... But, then, I only keep what I use and I've sold a bunch of really good guitars since then with little to no regrets. Just make sure you buy something you really dig with the money you make.

[TFC]

Thanks for all the responses so far. Keep 'em coming. I hadn't though about the "gift from the parents before they passed on" angle. Food for thought.

Originally Posted by GAD

I have direct experience here. Take my word for it.

Don't do it!

You'll convince yourself that it's cool. At some point, you will seriously regret it.

Care to elaborate about your experience, or is it too painful?

I had a mint Charvel Model 6. Just like you, my tastes changed. No regrets selling it because there's almost an unlimited amount of other cool guitars out there that I still want to get my hands on. Yeah, they can have sentimental value, but they're tools. Ultimately, when you're dead and buried, your ungrateful offspring are gonna pawn it off for pocket change for something stupid.

This is my general outlook on things as well. I'm not big on nostalgia or "stuff" in general, yet...