Selling your first "real" guitar - any regrets?

[6Tones]

My first real guitar was a 91' Ibanez RG560...Id never sell it for sentimental reasons,my dad bought it. I wore the frets flat in my HS n first year of college (in the shredding days) then it sat for over a decade.
Recently I took it out of hidding and got it refretted/new pups...sure it cost almost as much as what the guitar is worth but it was well worth it ,plays great and the build quality is way better than the chinese reissues out now.
If you can afford to hold on to yours dont sell it.

[thetangmang]

I sold off my Mexican strat that I had for years, but it was replaced by my a 62 AVRI strat (lefty...so you know it was a great find), so I didn't feel too bad about it.

[edward]

I sold my first "real" acoustic ...a humble ca.70s Ovation Legend, rare deepback bowl that played amazing and sounded like no other ovation I've ever heard!! Glorious guitar, not worth much $$, but one that I had history with. Sold it about 3 years ago to get a really nice acoustic. STUPID!!! I love the acoustic I got, but man, how dumb was it to get a lousy few hundred bucks and part with your past.

I will never do that again. My 1980 Strat, bought new, was my first "real" electric and will only part with my hands when I part with this planet. Heck, one of girls has already "called" it ...dunno if I should be proud or scared!

Edward

[Boogie92801]

All the guitars I sold were real.

[Johns7022]

Gear can be replaced. Gear that I sold made excellent financial sense at the time to do so.

[R8R6Ben]

yeah I regret it... I had had a few knock off strats and such but nothing fancy and one day I was looking in a local pawn shop where I grew up (Tenn.) and they had this Les Paul custom style guitar that had been spray painted solid black. Had the proper Gibson headstock shape and felt really nice so I bought it for $350. This was around 1995 or so and I was in high school. I had worked mowing yards and hauling hay all summer and spent most of my pay on this guitar. I took it home and my dad helped me slowly removed the spray paint. A beautiful ebony finish was underneath. When we got to the headstock and got the paint of it was a Gibson!!!! And an old one too! We took it up to Nashville to a well know expert and he dated it as a '69. I played that guitar for about two years never thinking anything about the age just that it sounded great but was super heavy. I took it with me amp shopping and a guy at the shop offered to trade me a PRS McCarty and an old Vox combo for it. Being a stupid kid i took the trade. He knew what he got because I went back a few weeks later and asked him to tradw back or sell me the guitar outright and he basically told me to leave his shop and not come back. So if you are around north west alabama be carefull of what shops you trade with.

[DoctorBob]

I used to think one should have a single ax. I'm 55 now. At age 18,traded my stock '52 LP Goldtop for an old 335. Traded that for a '57 SB strat. Don't remember what that traded for. Eventually I wised up and figured just keep 'em.Now I have 21 geetars which are all keepers.That Goldtop was unplayable with the wrap-around but fabulous honking tone with the p90s (recalling the tone of a then 20 year old geetar). I do wish I had that strat. At the time I was into the Allman Bros and thought it sounded too thin thru the Tweed champ that was also part of the trade.Go figure

[Whiskey N Beans]

I say sell it but use he proceeds to get another guitar you will play. Your parents will have enabled the acquisition in the same way and you'll actually play it. The more that we gather is just more we have to lose.

[edward]

Originally Posted by Whiskey N Beans

I say sell it but use he proceeds to get another guitar you will play. Your parents will have enabled the acquisition in the same way and you'll actually play it. The more that we gather is just more we have to lose.

Actually, I have to temper my initial "you'll regret it" comments with whiskey's excellent advice. If you don't particularly care for, or find "usable," what you have now, then there's no love lost. And superb point WRT the parents. Holding onto stuff just for the sake of it is pretty useless.

Edward

[Broken Cord]

Originally Posted by acwild

Ultimately, when you're dead and buried, your ungrateful offspring are gonna pawn it off for pocket change for something stupid.

Sad, but true in so many cases.

[dughaze]

I sold my first great guitar not too long ago I ever had and do not regret it. It was an 80's Hamer, it played and sounded great, but I could never get used to not liking the body shape and bright yellow color. I bought it because it was set up perfectly when I tried it off the shelf after playing hundreds of guitars. I did not know back then how to setup a guitar or to have one setup so I thought it was a perfect guitar that "spoke to me".

I have had many guitars I have enjoyed more since then and out of the half dozen I have sold while trying to build a nice little collection I only regret selling a Telecaster so I am building one now to replace that.

I think we always wish we could keep them all but it can be fun to continouously trade and get better guitars as we go. I now have a Strat and Edwards LP that I enjoy more than I ever did the Hamer. I unrealistically regret that I didn't keep the Hamer in mint condition unplayed so I could see what it would have been worth now because it would have been alot. But I made a little money with it back then (spent more on beer) and created my awesome 80's chops that I wouldn't have been able to without it.

I always wanted a Charvel but I have no tremolo'd guits in my collection because I want to play and sing and not spend so much time adjusting bridges.

[saluki_law]

Oh yeah. I purchased my first guitar in 1995. It was a Daphne Blue 1964 Fender Mustang. I got it for $150.00. At the time, the $300.00 I got for it seems fantastic. They go for like $1,800.00 now... but the regret isn't really financial. I've owned many Mustangs since but none as sweet as my first.

[chucke99]

The major factor in the development of G.A.S., IMO, is selling one's first real guitar. Twenty years later, you realize you want it back, and you go on the hunt. But finding one just like it doesn't seem to scratch the itch enough. So you seek another,and another...

[saluki_law]

Originally Posted by chucke99

The major factor in the development of G.A.S., IMO, is selling one's first real guitar. Twenty years later, you realize you want it back, and you go on the hunt. But finding one just like it doesn't seem to scratch the itch enough. So you seek another,and another...

So true... your first guitar is a "gateway" to a very serious disease. GAS is no joke.

[captain_bob]

My first guitar was a Charvel Charvette. No regrets getting rid of that one.