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July 2013
Posts: 98
Location: Des Moines, Iowa | Okay, I added the second part of the subject of this new string, because I didn't want to start something that might go WAY outside the lines in regards to All Things Ovation-y, cause HEY.. I read the Slipkid Manifesto and I do try and be a good little boy most of the time.
ANYWAY... Tony was talking about his 61 guitar collection, which got me to thinking about the collection of guitars I've had over the years (not all at once) and that brought me back to that first guitar... the one that started it all (for me)... the guitar where I learned my first chords... the notes on the fretboard... and this would be that guitar. A buddy of mine had two of them and sold me one and started showing me how to play. They were both originally bought at Sears & Roebuck
Teisco Del Ray Tulip style guitar and boy did I love that Whammy bar... 
And my first Ovation I didn't even realize WAS an Ovation until MANY years later when I actually had a "real Ovation," because my true "first Ovation that I owned" was a vintage 1738 Matrix 12-string. I thought it was just a cheap knock-off of an Ovation (which it pretty much is...) and it wasn't until years later when this thing called "The Internet" came along and gave me the OvationGuitars.com website that showed a picture of my guitar in their "Archive" section... and here's what it looked like (deep bowl and Volume/Tone pre-amp) Here's it is (or what it was...): 
So, what was your VERY FIRST guitar? Maybe you didn't even own one at first, but it was just someone else's guitar that you learned your first chords, notes, and songs. How about your first Ovation? I know many of you in this group were there.... in the beginning of Ovation and buying some of the first models ever made AND buying them "off the rack." No customs here or Adamas... just nice early Balladeers, Artists, and Classics. Just some SillyLittleBoy putting his two cents in... Okay, maybe if you count ALL of the change I've thrown in since joining the group just a short time ago, well... it probably does add up to about $38.40. Hey, that's just "my two cents worth" marked up for inflation. THANKS! |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7224
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Brothers from other mothers... first electric was a Del Ray but with the 4 pickups and all the switches and such. First Acoustic was an S&H Greenstamp buy that I still have. And... my first Ovation acoustic was a Medallion... which guess what... Medallion is what they first called "Matrix"... but mine was a 6 sting. Too weird... but I guess that's why we have the word coincidence in the dictionary. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | Probably not a big jump from a Teisco to my first guitar, a Univox. I think that it was an HR2, but I never knew the model when I had it. My first acoustic was something someone made that probably gave up on guitar making after that failed attempt. The action was so high it hurt to play. I think it may be the reason that I still squeeze way to hard for barre chords. Sold those and used some of my fiancée's cash to buy my first Ovation Matrix so I had something decent to play for our wedding. Still have both and they've worn well. |
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July 2005
Posts: 1609
Location: Colorado | First guitar = Yamaha FG-75...first O was a pacemaker 12 |
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December 2003
Posts: 13988
Location: Upper Left USA | The first guitar I bought was a Custom Balladeer 1112-1 which I pretty much learned to play on about 1976.
It's on the wall today! |
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August 2011
Posts: 887
Location: Always beautiful canyon country of Utah | My first guitar was under $100 but I loved it with all the ardor of a beginner as I strummed the only three chords I knew and sang all the old folk songs as my dream of playing and singing began to be realized. Alack and alas at a campfire singalong shortly thereafter it perished under the wheels of a jeep backed up by none other than myself. From this experience I learned that one should never place one's guitar on the ground behind your vehicle before backing up! Perhaps my youth and the beer and my female companion had me slightly distracted at the moment?? My heart was broken at the loss of my new companion but as with so many sad experiences this cloud had a silver lining. I married soon after and my wife used $200 of our wedding money to buy me a Martin (new)(this was 1968) which I still have and which was all I ever needed until buying my first Ovation 4 or 5 years ago. It was always the pinnacle to me but it seems like a toy now compared to my Adamas. But I will always have it because it was such a good friend to me over so many years and was my constant companion through some dark nights of the soul!! |
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August 2011
Posts: 887
Location: Always beautiful canyon country of Utah | And I no longer have the wife but I still have the guitar. Is there something to be learned here?? |
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December 2006
Posts: 6994
Location: Jet City | The first guitar I bought was an Ovation Preacher which lasted for a couple months, then upgraded to the UKII. There's been a bit more than a hundred that have passed through since, the ones I couldn't part with stayed (Currently, there's 30something). Many past and present are documented on my website (in signature below). I have a dead hard drive full of pictures of some I don't have anywhere else. There were some interesting, cool, and weird ones not documented on the site like an Alvarez Dana Scoop, '84 Custom Shop Gibson Explorer, Arbor Star Body, etc.
First acoustic, other than the Carlos student guitar bought for me when i was 5 or 6, was a Fender Concord. That was my only acoustic for 20+ years. Had lots of other electrics though.
First Ovation acoustic was about 10 years ago now, a 1778LX.
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February 2014
Posts: 708
Location: moline,illinois | My first guitar was a Chinese copy of a Ibanez jem7v.it looked cool but went out of tune if you used the whammy bar and had high action but it was mine and fun for what it was worth,i sold it to help buy a used Ibanez prestige and discovered the difference between cheap guitars and good craftsmanship.my first ovation was a legend 6756lx which I still have and still plays great, usa ovations are a symbol of quality craftsmanship to me and one of the reasons I fell in love with them. |
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | My first guitar was a beater Guild that was given to me in 1975.
Someone gave it to me because I expressed an interest in learning some chords.
This guitar had changed hands many times.
The action was quite high... but it was Free.
It had the names of all the previous owners carved-into the guitar.
More recently, I bought a Lyon by Washburn pseudo-strat in 2005.
$97 at Target with an amp, tuner, lesson DVD, and a really nice gig-bag.
I still have it. (one day I will give it to someone in need)
Then in 2006 I bought a Korean 4861 Balladeer, and discovered the OFC and GAS.
I do not have the 4861 any longer and I kinda miss it.
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December 2003
Posts: 13988
Location: Upper Left USA | RE: "And I no longer have the wife but I still have the guitar. Is there something to be learned here?"
Dave, please tell me you didn't set her down behind the Jeep? |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | I was going to say something about still having the Matrix and wife, but then the anologies kind of went off in weird directions. Sound, bowl depth, no cracks in the finish and that sort of thing. |
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February 2003
Posts: 2178
Location: the BIG Metropolis of TR | My very first one was a inexpensive (cheap!) nylon stringed classical (which I put steel strings on  ....early Folklore??) that I bought from Woolco dept. store circa '67/'68 for $14.99. After that one, I got a dreadnought sized Hondo brand with strings so high you could park a truck under them  My very first Ovation I got was a 1978 model 1112 Custom Balladeer w/case (that I still have today) I traded a (barely running) Motobecane moped (much like the one pictured...and wish I had it back also) I got it in late 1979 and since then have owned as many as 14 Ovations....I still have 9. 
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August 2011
Posts: 887
Location: Always beautiful canyon country of Utah | Woody and Mark you guys remain clever and irreverent (but not irrelevant) as always!! |
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September 2005
Posts: 98
Location: SF Bay area, California | My first guitar was a gift from my parents, I still have it. A nylon string from Montgomery Wards. I guess it was $25, must have been 1969.
About 1983 I bought an Ovation 1121 (mid-bowl) at a US Customs auction in Portland, I think for $75. I had Kent Rayman refret for the cowboy chord wear.
I still have the 1617-4 that I got that next year. It has no cracks, but has always had some waves showing in the top. I bought it back from a pawn shop after a 'housemate' stole it.
I had a beautiful slothead 12, natural finish, that I don't remember the model of. I loaned it to a pretty woman, and it was lost in a burglary of her house. She paid for it when she received the insurance settlement.
I'm certainly proof that owning good instruments doesn't make one a player.
M^2 |
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Joined:
July 2013
Posts: 98
Location: Des Moines, Iowa | Awesome responses... and sure brings back old memories, because I think some of you were either some of my friends earlier in life OR shared the same guitars. I most definitely remember some of those old acoustics with such high and tough action that you could play it for about 30 minutes before either your fingers bled or you got a Charlie Horse in your forearm (can you even do that?)
Mr. O - that is a trip... it might be interesting some day to see how our similar journeys of guitar brands/types transposed to guitar styles and genres. Now if you tell me you used to be an old Metal Head, I'm going to go wake up Rod Serling and tell him he's been renewed for a new season.
I remember when a buddy of mine in the US Army (that's where I first picked up the Teisco) went out and spent like... $800 on an acoustic guitar and this was in 1978. I was like, Dude... you got robbed. Who would pay that much for a guitar? Well, a lot of people I learned eventually. His guitar was a Gibson Hummingbird Dreadnaught.
I had bounced a bit back and forth at times from electric to acoustic, though I think learning on an electric was a whole lot easier. Once MTV came out with Unplugged... I did... and kind of stayed that way, though all my acoustics are also electric.
Unplugged was the BEST thing ever on MTV. Watching and hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan do his solo acoustic set, true magic! If you don't remember it, never saw it, or just want to relive it, here it is... (Thank You YouTube!)... and I do kind of like Stevie just a little. FYI - I have a black cat named, Lenny. http://youtu.be/FQ_DdgxRSak
Edited by SillyLittleBoy 2014-02-28 9:11 PM
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My Very First Guitar and My Very First Ovation