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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | New member TommyK makes an excellent point about wanting to expand his guitarical horizons but staying within his personal budget. Except for perhaps a privileged few, I bet most OFC members started exactly in the same place as Tommy. So, I'm curious. If you can remember, what was the make and model of your very first guitar, how much did it cost, and in what year did you acquire it? I'll start. My first guitar was a Sears Silvertone sunburst acoustic that my Dad bought from a pawn shop in 1959 for $15. My first electric was a mid-50's Gibson ES-125 3/4 scale that my neighbor loaned me in 1960 (that I then kept for the next 12 years!). How about the rest of you? |
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Location: south east Michigan | I bought a Tesio electric from a friend for maybe 20 bucks. |
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Location: Warren,Pa. | Back in '74 I borrowed $200 from my friend Nancy and bought a Madiera 12 string from a record store in Paramus Park Mall. I still have that guitar sitting here in a Guild hardshell case I purchased at a later time. John <>{ |
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Location: SE Michigan | An old mid-60's Fender Mustang, red with white pick gaurd. I bought it used for something like $120. I was 14 years old (1974)and I put it on layaway at a local music shop where I was taking lessons. They let me play it during lessons but I couldnt take it home until it was paid off. It took me a couple months to pay it off. It was a pretty lousy guitar but I wish I had kept it. |
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Location: Isle of Man, UK | Technically my first guitar was a random no-name Spanish guitar from the roof space... That christmas, after everyone realised it was unplayable I got a Squire Strat. First proper acoustic was a Yamaha FG series...
Good idea Prof!
JB |
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Location: NJ | '76 CustomBalladeer.
Bought it(NEW) for $350 (with a free HSC).
Still my primary guitar. |
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Location: Avondale, AZ | Mine was a piece of crop no name or model accoustic that was strung for left handers (I am a right hander). It was given to me by my best friend in high school my freshman year. I got a lot of practice tuning. When I bought my 1976 Ibanez gold top les paul, my playing really improved. |
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| ovation baladeer 1112.
not sure what year it was.
still own it and it stil sounds and plays amazing. |
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Location: Phoenix, AZ | My first guitar was a Vox solidbody electric, back in '64. But, something was wrong with it and the dealer had to send it back to Vox. It may have gone all the way to England because it took about four months until I got it back. In the meantime, the dealer lent me a Les Paul with twin P-90's. When he needed that back, he loaned me a Mosrite. You'd think with such great intro equipment I'd play better than I do. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | A Univox copy of the Gibson ES335. A friend in 71 or 72 tried to sell it and a Fender amp for $100. Since I didn't play guitar, I told him I didn't want it, but gave him $35 for it and the case. Later, when I found out the amp was worth a lot more money, I tried to buy it from him, but he wasn't broke anymore. Never did get an amp, so I played it through my stereo.
I did some neck adjustments and sold it in 77 for $125 so I could get my first Ovation. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | A 5 string (one was broke) left handed Stella acoustic with horrific action. I practiced until my fingers were bleeding and then figured out it was the wrong hand that was bleeding. |
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Location: Indiana | My first guitar was a real POS Lindell (sp?) Brand new it cost me $81.06 including guitar,case,amp,cord, picks and sales tax around 1965.My first bass was a Realistic (yea, Radio Shack) violin shaped bass a few years later.Another POS.I still have both.My first good guitar was my 60 strat that I bought for $135 around 1966-7, I think. Still have it, too.
Bill |
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Location: North Idaho | Started out on my Dad's old Silvertone 1940 something archtop. He gave it to me this past Christmas and now I have a restorer. |
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Location: Hicksville, NY | Wow ... responding to this thread surely brings back the good ole times! :eek:
It was in the summer of 1981, when I first got the guitar bug. My first acoustic guitar was a Gibson J-45 sunburst knockoff. It was made in the Philippines, with the abalone inlays on the frets, and it even had the Gibson logo on the headstock! The looks alone can really fool you, but soundwise, it pretty much sounded like s***! :D It used to be my cousins' and it stayed in my aunt's closet for many years after she eloped with her high school sweetheart -- surprisingly they're still married to this day. My aunt gave it to me out of anger towards her daughter at that time! The guitar did got me into playing, but my naivete also got in the best of me that I got it severely damaged in one year. Shortly after that, my dad purchased me a Korean-made Harmony, which would be my guitar throughout my high school years.
My first electric was my Fender Stratocaster, which I simply call my 'beloved.' I love this guitar, simply for her unique appearance. The back is solid wood with no compartment for the tremolo, and she only has one tone control in addition to the volume. Plus the output jack is located where the second tone control is normally placed -- something uncommon in the typical anatomy of a Strat. My dad gave her to me as a Christmas/Birthday present in 1983. As mentioned in a posting I did a while back, my love affair with her was like a roller coaster ride. I would have my highs where I'd play her for weeks and even months. Then I'd lose interest, and she would collect dust indefinitely, until I pick her up, and then the whole cycle starts over again. Around 1995, when I realized that electric guitars were not my thing, I gave her back to my dad for safekeeping. She would remain out of sight, out of mind in my parents' attic until I rediscovered her last October 2005. Today, she is fully restored, and I am slowly getting to know her again. |
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Location: Texas | Originally posted by Mark in Boise:
A Univox copy of the Gibson ES335. Mark,
I had one of those too! It was my first "decent" electric guitar.
My Univox had a "tremolo" arm (I guess like a very cheap Bigsby). Did yours?
I finally gave the Univox away to friend who was learning to play guitar.
-Gary K |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Yes, mine had the tremolo. When I first got it, I'd just strum the open strings and wail on the trem. Then I spent about a year learning Stairway to Heaven, note by note. Never learned the solo, though. My second guitar was a handmade dreadnaught. $75. No way to lower the action to where it was playable. Sold that to buy the Ovation, too.
The Univox guitars are still around. I was thinking about picking one up for about what I sold mine for, but then I got into the O electrics. A Tornado would be close enough. |
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Location: Southern California | One of the things I like about this site is that every few weeks someone starts a thread that brings back a flood of memories... some of which I haven't thought of in beacoup years. :)
For example: my Grandmother used to have an old, beat up acoustic guitar she kept in a closet. She couldn't play it, and neither could I... but I loved making noise on it. (some would say my playing techniques have yet to change :p ) I have no idea who made it; there was no name on the headstock.
My Dad apparently was motivated by the fact that I liked thumping that old beat up guitar. He got me and my brother a Teisco electric (complete with practice amp!), which I found out years later was a Vox knock off. This I guess would be my second "first" guitar. The third would be a no-name nylon-stringed acoustic my parents got me when I wanted to take a guitar class in jr. high so I could actually learn to play. (and, as the teacher told my Dad, electrics were verbotten in class! :( ).
After using the Teisco through high school, I bought myself my first "real" guitar. It was a Gibson Marauder from Guitar Center, complete with HSC. I drove 160 miles r/t to buy it, and thought it was sooo cool. :cool: My garage band mates at the time were impressed... it was the first name brand instrument any of us had owned.
It wasn't until a few years later (when I got serious about being in a "playing for money" band) that I began suffering acute GAS attacks, and began acquiring the collection listed below.
One thing this thread made me realize... despite the fact that I hadn't thought about it in decades, now I'm wondering what happened to that beat up old acoustic from my Grandmother's closet. I'd love to have it, just for the sentimental value. :) |
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Location: Colorado | Yamaha FG -75, 1974 |
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Location: Central Florida | My very first guitar was also a sunburst Sears Silvertone that a friend of my brother gave me in 1968. A year later I "graduated" to a "Tele Star" acoustic that my parents bought for me at Jefferson/Ward's department store for around $20. It would be another two years before my first Ovation would come into my life. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub |  |
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Location: SoCal | Boy, I remember seeing those in the Sears catalog and really wanting one.
My first guitar was also a Sears, I think. My dad got it when he was a boy and then traded it to his brother, who gave it to me when I was in the 2nd grade. Here's a pic of it
I don't think the white pick came with the guitar.... |
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Location: NJ | made in holland pos,high action, made my fingers bleed.
first electric was a marvel made in japan. you could talk through the pickups. I thought that was cool LOL |
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Location: San Bernardino, California | 1st and 2nd were both gifts from my parents.
First was a Douglas acoustic, $30.00 at the local department store. 1963-64? My dad sat on it and totalled it.
Second was one of these:
http://www.glyphmedia.com/vintagesilvertones/gallery_gtr-harmony147...
It got rained on when the roof leaked when I wasn't home. The body de-laminated. The rain also destroyed my '63 twin reverb. |
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Location: Tennessee | 1975 Takamine F-400S. |
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Location: PNW | Don't remember... no-name nylon string classical, early '60's. Met its splintery demise after a bout of flight from the top of my car (oops). First electric, a Hy-Lo :rolleyes: A real POS bought at a bargain chain store called White Front, again in the '60's. First 'real' guitar, '72 Gibson Les Paul Custom (Black) Anniversary model. Wish I still had that one... |
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Location: Central Oregon | Here's mine. Late 30's early 40's Gibson Kalamazoo. My dad got it for my from a hock shop in Frisco for $40 about '57-'58. I gave it to my oldest granddaughter a few years ago.
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Location: Avondale, AZ | It is nice to see that some of you still have the first guitar. Jeff W. it is great to see your amp case and guitar. The picture looks like it was taken when everything was new. Do you still have it all? |
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Location: GA USA | I still have my first guitar, too. In 1980, I wanted a guitar for my Bday (20th) and my brother gave his Yamaha FG200, which he got from a pawn shop in 1975 (traded a bunch of records for it). It is a great guitar. My son played my S771 and had his friend playing the Yam the other night at church. He now refers to it as "his". I tried to set him straight on that.
Mark, my first electric was also a Univox, Les Paul copy. Bought it off a friend for $100. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Originally posted by OldLiverJones:
It is nice to see that some of you still have the first guitar. Jeff W. it is great to see your amp case and guitar. The picture looks like it was taken when everything was new. Do you still have it all? Though the pictured guitar is exactly like my silvertone, it's not. My guitar long since passed into the hands of some other kid, who I hope, pursued his lessons with more zeal than I....
I remember being more fascinated by the set of glowing tubes than practicing my scales.... |
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Location: La Quinta, Ca. | My first was a Kay given to me on my birthday in 1956. |
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Location: NW NJ | Somewhere around 1971 I bought a Contessa (Hohner step down brand) acoustic 12 string for maybe $89.99. Played it through high school and college doing alot of John Denver/James Taylor strumming. It really was just a piece of crap. First, the top started to belly like I've never seen, then the bridge just ripped clean off of the top (so I bolted it back on - literally), and finally the belly got so bad that the top delaminated. Did I mention that the neck twisted too? Oh well, I put guitar down for about 20 years. Now, I've been back into it for that last 7-8 years. Still don't really know what to do with my Viper to get it to sound the way I hear it in my head ... |
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Location: Toronto | My brother-in-law gave me an Eko 6 string back in the early 80's - and by then it had plenty of miles on it! It's claim to fame - Harry Chapin actually played it once when he was playing the same venue as my bro-in-law. None of the mojo was passed to me... |
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Location: Omaha | MrDano,
I have a Harry Chapin story too (poor Harry...);
but first: my first guitar was a Spanish classical bought in Madrid in 1970/1 (my dad was stationed at Torrejon AFB outside Madrid). The guitar cost 100 pesetas, which was around $12.50 at the time...pretty good deal. It didn't take me long to put steel strings on it, and it lasted for around 3+ years like that...around the time we moved back to the states, the neck literally came off the body...
...back to poor Harry; he came to our college (Wayne State College, Wayne, Nebraska: IOW, the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!) to do a concert. His clothes and guitar got on the wrong plane, so there he was...my roommate was helping set up for the show, knew Harry needed a guitar ASAP, and borrowed one that I had just sold to a girl (with the promise I would give her--ah--lessons). I had played it (a cheap lam. top Alvarez with a magnetic pickup at the end of the fingerboard) lefty, was restrung right when I sold it.
Poor Harry, all night I listened to that cheap thing buzz every time he played the low E string at the 2nd fret...a problem I'd had with it. (I don't think anyone else other than Harry and I noticed, but thankfully it wasn't the third fret...would've been much more obvious...)
Memories... |
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Location: Germantown, MD | Around 1965, I got a Silvertone POS with--get this--a little amp built into the body. I can't remember whether it used a 9 volt battery or AAs. A couple of years later, I got a Gibson Melody Maker 2 pickup--first decent guitar. First acoustic was a Yamaha FG-130, now in the hands of my younger son. First Ovation was 1117-4.
Peace,
John |
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Location: Southern California | I like the picture of the Silvertone posted by Jeff W. In my first garage band, one of the other guys had one of those. Great idea Sears had.. who wants to buy and haul around an amp when it can be built right into the guitar case?
Continuing the Sears tie-in, the guy who owned it became our bass player... and his first bass was a Sears copy of a P-bass. I never asked if he was bummed that the bass case didn't have an amp built in. |
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Location: Illinois | I guess since I seem to be the inspiraton for this thread I'd better chime in.
My first is the 1980ish Epiphone FT145SB "Texan". Got for Christmas when I was just out of High School. Don't know why Santa took so long to get the hint.
Flat top dread with cherry burst. She is aging beautifully. I've re-glued the neck block for the 3rd and hopefully last time. (a deficiency of those FT Epis newly minted in Japan back in the 80s)
I put Nylon strings on her for a flamenco class I'm taking. The strings came in a package with Segovia's picture on it so I thought they must be good. (I can't remember the brand) Before re-stringing I re-hydrated the body by placing warm water in a container inside and covering the sound hole. I replaced the warm water daily for 3 days. I installed new frets through the 12th and a new MOTS saddle.
GOD! can she sing. I don't think I'll ever put steel wires on her again!
There's only two guitars I think sound better. A Hummingbird and Gibson AJ. All others have been just as good to no where near as good. |
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| Sears and Roebuck 'Gene Autry' Silvertone... |
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Location: Edmond, Oklahoma | First guitar: New 1981 Takamine F340 acoustic dreadnaught. Bought in 1984 at a music store's annual clearance auction in Lake Owasso, Oregon (Portland suburb). $120. I later learned I'd gotten a pretty sweet deal. 21-1/2 years later, I guess it's finally broken in. Has a few nicks, but sings sweet and clear. Played it church just this last Sunday. Has since been upgraded with an under-saddle Fishman pickup, strap locks, an ebony arm rest, and a TKL case. I guess it has sentimental value. It's probably the only thing I have from those early days of marriage, when my wife was pregnant with our first child. Said child just turned 21, and is now a few months away from graduating college. If only I'd been serious about playing then, instead of carrying it around for umpteen years, before getting serious about learning to play. For that, I probably need to thank my second child. When she wanted to learn guitar, I joined in and have kept playing ever since.
First electric guitar: Pawn shop Ibanez RG-470. $110. Mid-80s vintage, bought in 2000 or 2001. This is my "project" guitar. Have replaced 2 of 3 pickups, converted tremolo to hardtail, upgraded tuning machines to trimming/locking. Now it's completely in pieces, as I'm going to sand and refinish it. In hindsight, over the multi-year renovation, I've spent more money than I would have on an equivalent brand new guitar, but at that time, I never would have spent that much $$$ on a guitar. And, at least, it's one of a kind now. Not like having a custom guitar built, but pretty challenging, in its own way. |
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Location: Fayetteville, NC | My first guitar was a Acoustic Epiphone. I don't remember a whole lot about the model number but iI remember that it had a solid top, and adjustable Bridge saddle(had adjustment screws) My dad bought it for me in 1975 and i kept it until 1984 when i sold it to someone who wanted a guitar to learn on. |
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Location: Central Massachusetts | man, talk about deja vu, I just stumbled across this on eBay... Jeff, you have a few hours left if you want to chase your youth!
(d'oh, the OFC server just took a nice little nap from 1:50pm pacific to about 2:10pm)
oh, and to stay on topic.. I'm getting a late start.. my first guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul Special II in 2003, my 2nd the Balladeer LX in '04. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | OK, the real answer, many of you have seen my rel first guitar, it's been shown many times and places. Old number 6. |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Originally posted by dvd:
man, talk about deja vu, I just stumbled across this on eBay... Jeff, you have a few hours left if you want to chase your youth! |
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Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | OHMIGOSH!!!!! My first guitar was extremely similar to the Silvertone in Jeff W.'s picture. The amp-in-case was EXACTLY alike, the guitar very close, mine had a slightly bigger pickguard, but it was still sparkle black with a white pickguard. Traded it to my best friend for a crummy acoustic (which didn't make the move to Michigan with me after college).
First guitar I bought was the "old Applause", a 1976 AA14-4, which I still have, and can be seen in my Gallery.
Roger |
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Location: Orlando, FL | Mine was also a Sears Silvertone acoustic guitar, bought in 1965 for about $21 new. Didn't sound great, or play great, but it got me hooked. |
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Location: Spokane, WA | Technically, my first guitar was a Roy Rodgers thing when I was like 5, but really my first guitar that I cut me teeth on was a red and black Arbor Explorer that I bought in 1984, when I was 15. Just like Gibson Explorers, only cheaper. Very 80's. It actually had pretty good action, though, and over the next few years I put Seymore-Duncan pickups in it and a locking tremolo, and that thing just screamed. Unfortunately, I hocked it for rent, (or beer money) when I was 19 or so, and was never able to get it back. :( I've had a bunch of electrics since, but I miss the gaudy ole Arbor. LOL |
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Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | In 1964 I got a Kay semi hollow electric guitar with 2 pick ups, from the Speigel Catalog. What a piece of crap. Strings 1 inch away from the fretboard. The next year I bought a 1965 powder blue Jaguar. A big improvement. I still have and use my first amp. A 1965 Ampeg Gemini I . It rocks at full volume. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | OK, Here's a little twist on this question,
How many of you still have that guitar or have recently reaquired one very similar to it? |
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Location: Upper Left USA | I can get twisted with it! My first guitar that I actually purchased is on my wall after being reclaimed. In celebration it sports a Bill Nichols TRC and is strung as a Poor Man's Baritone.
The wood tones on this 32 year old guitar are spectacular and playability is great. The Owner needs lessons though! |
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Location: Cicero, NY | My very first one, an absolute POS of epic proportion, is not in my closet anymore. This was a "guitar" that you had to literally stand on to get the wires (and , no, I don't mean strings - WIRES down to the actual fretboard. They were a foot apart if memory serves. Anyway, my younger brother wanted to learn to play and, well, what are older brothers for...? |
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Location: Keller, TX | My first was a 3/4 size electric Peavy. It was actually a really nice guitar. Satin neck. Burst finish. Sold it at a pawn shop many moons ago. Wish I still had it. |
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Location: Avondale, AZ | My first one has long since decayed in a land fill somewhere. At least I hope that is what happened to it. I hate to think there is someone else suffering on it. Maybe it was added to a campfire (nice thought). |
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Location: nyc area | Montgemery wards bass...still owned by a childhood friend... |
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Location: vienna, west virginia | My first acoustic was a 3/4 size harmony that i bought from paper route money in 1971 and spent the first few hours with a wood rasp and file working the bridge to playable height. i guess the old gibson lap steel i got from my grandfather in 1970 was my first electric. you ever try to play black sabbath on a lap steel?
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1969 gibson les paul gold top deluxe
1975 ovation breadwinner(original owner)
2005 breedlove ac25sr+ (original owner)
???? gianinni craviola acoustic 12 string
1973 guild f48
1970 rb-250 gibson mastertone BANJO
pipemaker |
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Location: NJ | ". . cliff
Member
Member # 116
posted February 01, 2006 07:50 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'76 CustomBalladeer.
Bought it(NEW) for $350 (with a free HSC).
Still my primary guitar. . ."
Bought the guitar in '76 . . . . I was 20.
Years later, the top cracked . . then split.
In '96, my ex and my daughter took it to the Factory to have it repaired. They couldn't do the repair in time, so they replaced the entire top/bowl assembly so that the guitar was ready for my birthday . . . I was 40.
My original plan was to take the Pacemaker on the Cruuuz with me. I got it real cheep, and wouldn't be upset if it got wet/banged up.
I was re-stringing it this weekend for the trip and then decided against. It sounds nice & all, but with the way the neck is, it's got some minor tuning issues that I don't think I'll have the patience to deal with in a rum-induced stupor (plus I can't fingerpick it.)
Decided to take the CBalladeer instead.
30-year-old neck on 10-year-old body on a 50-year-old player.
Lotta birthdays there.
Figgered it'd be best if we all celebrated together . . .
(Besides, if the ship goes down - or I decide to become an illegal ExPat somewhere - I'll have "company" :-) |
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Location: Cicero, NY | A friend of mine just came back from a 10 day Catamaran sail around the Caribbean. A new port every day and the biggest concern every day was the rum supply. Bet your Cruuuz is going to be just as nice, Cliff. When do you take off? |
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Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | .... a week later, when asked what he did for his 50th birthday, Cliff responds, "What Birthday?" |
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Location: closely held secret | My first was a Harmony Stratotone hollowbody electric given to me for Christmas when I was 14. Cheap, but built like a tank. My brother threw in an Ampeg R2R in which the drive motor had died to use as an amp. The Ampeg eventually died from overuse (great distortion, tho!).
Still have the 'strat' in the closet almost 40 years later, minus frets and bridge. I hope to restore it someday. Played a lot of Ted Nugent and Pink Floyd on that old thing... |
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Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado | The first guitar I ever touched is immortalized in song. (see http://tinyurl.com/nvl2j )I then bugged my mom to buy me a Harmony acoustic in 1961. A Model 150.
It traveled with me all through the Great Northwest till I could afford something better. I gave it to a nephew who might have it still.
Between then and now, I bet I've had over a hundred guitars. Some memorable. Some not. At some point, I decided that I'd rather buy them than sell them, so I now just look for keepers.
Cc |
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Location: Madison, Wisconsin | My first guitar was a uke. My parents bought it for me when I went into the hospital as a kid for and extended stay. |
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Location: SoCal | My 1st was a no-name acoustic that my grandfather had been planning to throw away [warped neck, etc.)
Did my best with it but to no avail. Even had a guitar store in Salem (Oregon) look at it - they laughed.
Went to Univ of Oregon in '66...in the Spring, pledged at Sigma Nu. Either that or ATO's (animals) and Sigma Nu had more golfers.
Note that the Sigma Nu house is a specific part of the tour for new freshmen as the scene for Animal House.
In the Spring of '67, at a toga party, the guitar (sans strings) met the same fate on the stairwell as Bluto's guitar.
Yes, filmed at Univ of Oregon. In fact, the scene where they hit the golf ball that knocked the guy off of the horse - that was my frosh dorm in the background. And, yes, the frat house was very close to the movie. Maybe why I joined the Marines half way through my Soph year?
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Charming guy with guitar:
I gave my love a cherry / That had no stone / I gave my love a chicken / That had no bones / I gave my love a story / That had no end / I gave my...
Bluto: [grabs the guitar and smashes it against the wall] Sorry. |
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Location: Orlando, FL | My first guitar was a yamaha classical I got from my Dad when I was in high school. This wasn't the ideal guitar for me then since I wanted to rock n roll. I bought a cheap hollow body electric with no name on the headstock from a department store. Not a terrible guitar I kept it for a few years. Within a year (1974) I got my 1112-4 which I still have. |
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Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | Actually there's a picture of me with my first guitar, the stinkin Kay, in my gallery. I was standing in front of a picture of the Dave Clark Five with it......anyone remember them? |
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| I had a Yahama FG-180. A warped neck that was bad enough to use a slide. |
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Location: NJ | I had some POS made in holland guitar. it is still somewhere in my mother's basement and it is amazing that I even learned to play. My fingers would literally bleed while I tried to learn |
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Location: Spain | My first guitar was a no name spanish guitar given by my godfather .This was quickly replaced by a black thing apparentley made by a guitar company called Lorenzo it came from a catalogue and I know my folks worked real hard to pay for it.Its only when you play a good guitar after about 4 years that you realise its a miracle that you stuck at it....! |
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Location: Spain | Sorry if anybody tried to read that before I went back and corrected it {mucho cerveza esta noche} |
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| It is perfectly understandable that you drank a lot of beer tonight. :D
Me too. |
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Location: SoCal | My first guitar was an f-hole (my wife hates it when I use language like that) Sears POS. I still have it and there's a pic of it in one of my folders. |
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Location: Illinois | Originally posted by Cc:
The first guitar I ever touched is immortalized in song. (see http://tinyurl.com/nvl2j )I then bugged my mom to buy me a Harmony acoustic in 1961. A Model 150.
It traveled with me all through the Great Northwest till I could afford something better. I gave it to a nephew who might have it still.
Between then and now, I bet I've had over a hundred guitars. Some memorable. Some not. At some point, I decided that I'd rather buy them than sell them, so I now just look for keepers.
Cc
Harmony. Maker of fully half of the guitars made during the 50s and 60s. Not the best guitar in the world, but as their ads read, "The best guitar you can buy for the money you'd spend". Silvertone was one of the many brand names made by Harmony. If it was bought from a catalog deparment store, Sears and Roebuck, Monkey Wards, Penney's, it was undoubtedly a Harmony. Sears owned the factory for many years.
If you had a guitar in your past, there's a 50/50 chance it was made by Harmony. Yup, I have one. A Harmony Stella. Paid $15 on a garage sale for her. It was over priced, but I'd never part with her. |
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Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado | Hi Tommy,
Glad you liked the link!
My mom and Eddie (Edward) Ruscha's mom were best friends and we live with the Ruscha's for a couple of years. Of course Mason was always around since his parents lived a block away in O.K.C.. He let me fool around on the Stella any time I wanted and even taught me a couple of chords. I wish even a little of the talent that occupied that house had rubbed off on me. Eddie is world famous as an artist. His brother Paul has not only written symphonies, and an award winning photographer, but also owns a well known art gallery. Of course you know about Mason.
Me.. I was just the snotty nosed kid that hung around them whenever I could.
Cc |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | My first was a Sears catalogue acoustic when I was 12. In my later teens I took great pleasure in smashing it to pieces.
First electric was one of those pawnshop specials from Japan. dozens of mojo switches all over the place, and a four inch speaker powered by eight penlight batteries. It would feedback when cranked.
I don't recall the sound of it at all, but somehow miss it anyway.
Can't remember what happened to it...(that kind of youth :rolleyes: )...but I may have traded and paid the difference for my Pan semi-solid body. Which lead directly to my love for the O T-head. (I was looking for a 335 at the time) |
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Location: East Tennessee | My first guitar was a Kay arch top. Real high action. I eventually added one of those spring loaded magnetic pickups that fastened between the end of the fretboard and the bridge. I would step on the cord and pull it lose at least once a day.
The first song I learned to play was "O Lonesome Me". I know that probably dates me but one thing I've learned as I have gotten older is you are as old,(or young), as you feel.
I still love to play and I still love to learn new songs.
Great post. :cool: :) |
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Location: Avondale, AZ | |
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Location: Avondale, AZ | It is perfectly understandable that you drank a lot of beer tonight.
Me too.
I think Driftwood just said he had alot of beer not that he drank it. |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Originally posted by OldLiverJones:
I think Driftwood just said he had a lot of beer not that he drank it. Around here that translates as; "Hey, c'mon over!" |
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Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Originally posted by fillhixx:
Originally posted by OldLiverJones:
I think Driftwood just said he had a lot of beer not that he drank it. Around here that translates as; "Hey, c'mon over!" one thing I've learned as I have gotten older is you are as old,(or young), as you feel. I believe that should actually read, "You're only as old as the women you feel!" |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | This has been a great nostalgic thread. Thanks for the memories. Harmony sure introduced a lot of us to guitars during our youth. |
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Location: WILMINGTON, DE | I can't remember what came first. I am pretty sure I learned on a borrowed Guild hollow body electric that I never amped. At one point I had a bass guitar. I also had a 12 string that I think I traded for the bass. The 70's were good to me....... Then I bought my Ovation. Still love my O. |
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Location: PNW | Hahahaha, reading this thread I come across this from Davek1076:
Technically, my first guitar was a Roy Rodgers thing when I was like 5... I had one too! Bright red w/white painted rope binding and a pic of the Roy-n-Trigger themselves.
You're not talking about this are you? Until you mentioned it, I'd forgotten all about mine. Thanks for the childhood memory!
Methinks the bridge might need a wee adjustment on this one... |
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What was your very first guitar?