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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10582
Location: NJ | My first guitar was a POS made in Holland guitar that had horrible action and tuners.
It is still in the basement of my mom's house some day I will take a photo of it and show you what I had to endure to learn to play guitar.
my first electric was a made in Japan marvel, cherry sunburst microphone pickups and heavy as a ton of bricks. It cost my dad about $125 in 1966 and in retrospect boy did he get ripped off. The music store owner did sell him a black face Fender princeton reverb which has been with me to hell and back. Yes I still have it.
so what was your first instrument? |
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Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | My first guitar was a Douglas acoustic which my dad sat on while I was at school one day. Busted it all to shit. I think I've still got the tuners somewhere. It was replaced by a Silvertone electric which got rained on (the roof leaked). 3rd guitar was an EB3 which my mom knocked over and broke the neck.
Do you notice a pattern here??? :( |
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Joined:
March 2004
Posts: 119
Location: Georgia USA | My first guitar was a Yamaha FG 200 acoustic, made in Taiwan. My brother bought it in 1975, and gave it to me in '79. I still play it. He asked for it back last year, but no dice.
My first electric was a Univox Les Paul copy. Pretty sorry.
My first really good guitar was an American Strat I bought in 1990, then sold to a neighbor. I miss it a lot.
My fave is my Deacon Deluxe. Samova had it assembled in 2001 from all original, "new" vintage parts he acquired from Ovation. One of 2 black Deacon bodies they sold him. In fact, this may really be my dream guitar as well.
Sorry to dissappoint, but some of us own one or two good guitars at a time.
Jas
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | The first guitar I ever bought was a Gurian S3R. Still have it. The second guitar was a Travis Bean TB1000 artist which started the whole Travis Bean thing for me that took 25 years to get over, but that's a whole 'nuther story |
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Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 1614
Location: Converse, Texas | My first guitar was a Harmony roundtop. DOn't remember the model, but if I ever see one again, I will pick one up. My second guitar was a Harmony electric, with sliders for pickup volume and tone controls. Al, let me know if you ever get them. |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1196
Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | My first guitar was a Conn acoustic. I made a deal with my mother that if I joined the church youth group, she would get the Conn guitar for me. I was 13 then, and I loved that guitar. I played it for quite awhile, then when I was 17 I got an Ovation Legend. My father has that old Conn guitar now. It still sounds good, but it has a large neck so it is not that easy to play. |
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Joined:
February 2003
Posts: 99
Location: St. Petersburg, FL USA | My mom had an old Kay nylon string lying around, which she didn't even play, I'm still wondering to this day what the heck it was doing in the house... it's probably still there. Anyway, I learned on that thing using the Mel Bay books I found in the piano seat...
But MY first guitar was an Ovation 12 string, don't know what model (acoustic only, natural finish, slot-head I think, around '81, HUGE mistake selling it...). A year or so later I bought my 1612 sunburst, which I play to this day. A year or so later I bought an Ibanez Roadster II elec., which I still have. |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 386
Location: nyc area | for me, it was a st george electric, made in upstate ny...but i learned on a 1916 dyer harp guitar, a double neck acoustic made in st paul by larson bros...still have it!! |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13987
Location: Upper Left USA | I got to borrow my Sister's Guild D50. the neck was the just the right size. It lead me to my next guitar, a Balladeer 1112. then I could play louder! |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | My first guitar was a POS steel string acoustic that developed a bad neck joint. It was terrible.
Next, a very playable Tiesco Del Ray, two pickups, ebony looking fingerboard with neat "fingernail moon" fretmarkers on the side. It had rocker switches for the pickups and one tone, and one volume control.
After that, I got a 72 Telecaster, blonde, maple. Added a Gibson HB in the neck - remember those Gibby HB's that had the Gibson logo on em? I had one.
After that, I got rid of the 72 Tele and was guitarless from about 1977 to about 1980. S'ok, I was trying real hard to stay ALIVE at that point, no time, money or inclination to play. I was ok, just the job and living conditions left about a nickle per month for extravagence.
So, after I met my wife, I got a 74ish Telecaster Deluxe with the worse sounding Fender HBs on it in the world. It also had been HAND painted with about 12 different colors. I decided to strip it and take it down to bare wood, poplar (not alder).
Being frugal and having more sandpaper than money, I sanded it baby's ass smooth and finished it with a can of Kiwi Brown shoepolish, which buffed up to a pretty good sheen. Had that for a few years, but sold it in order to pack some needed heat.
About two years later, in maybe 82, I got a nice Strato which I still have.
Then I got a nice SG from my wife as a present. Used, but it polished up well, and plays great.
After a while, by the late 90's I wanted a Tele again. Ordered a 52 reissue. The store went belly up and I ended up with a legal fight to get my $500 deposit back. While that was happening, I ended up building three Telecasters from Warmoth and Fender parts (well the screws are stainless from the boatstore, not Fender). One was maple with two HBs. One fhole devoid thinline out of mahogany and wild maple with two SC's, and one with fhole out of mahogany and african walnut with two SC's. The latter two I still own, but one of my customers talked me out of the maple one.
Then I got that SMT from Al, and the wife got me that Mandolin.... I thought that would be it, until I fell into that L5 and Heritage two weeks ago. The L5 (POS if you ask me) is gone already, but I think the Heritage might be a keeper.
Next... an LX Custom Legend when they come out.
And THATS ALL!!!! |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | My first guitar was a Kalamazoo K-11. My dad bought it at a hock shop in Frisco for $40 in about '56. He had an L-5 but I was too small to reach around the beast when I was 8 so he got me the Kalamazoo. I had it up until a month or two ago when I gave it to my oldest granddaughter. She has been learning to play at school & didn't have a guitar at home. I could never sell the old Kalamazoo, but I feel good about giving it to her, especially since it originally came from her great-grandfather. It worked out great, I gave away the Kalamazoo & made room for the 1115 Pacemaker I bought :)
/\/\/ |
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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | My first guitar was a lap steel that probably was a Sears or Wards with a small amp that we (my brother and I) bought in around 1951 because we needed a steel guitar to do country songs at that time. They all had a steel guitar in them and I was chosen. My brother had some kind of acoustic which I can't recall the brand that we shared, our friend Bill, who played with us, had a Martin flat top, which I think he still plays, and a resophonic that I can't recall the brand, maybe a National. We all shared the instruments along with our 120 bass accordian that was needed for polkas and waltzes. Brand names didn't mean much to us, just types, hound dog, steel, flat top, arch top, electric (most electrics in our small town were Gibson arch top monsters or their equivalent, we never saw a Les Paul or Fender in that corner of Ohio as electric meant you played jazz or big band and had to take lessons and (snort, chuckle, friggin wimp) vs knowing how to play what you heard on the radio by ear.
I bought some cheap, $15 or $20, guitars in the army after 1953 from soldiers moving out etc, and I recall them being arch tops, one a Kay the others forgotten brands, I believe I gave them away or sold them when my hitch was up. Lived without a guitar until after I was married in 1957, and bought my brothers Gibson SJ Sunburst which I broke the neck on in a fit in CA sometime in the 60's.
Then I got serious and bought a bunch of stuff including my Viper, and got stuck on the mandolin just like the steel of my youth because we needed a mandolin player in our bluegrass bands because they all had one and nobody else wanted to play it cause they already had their instruments mastered.
Bailey |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10582
Location: NJ | You know I didn't even count the 3 or 4 ukes, the mickey mouse guitar, (which my father broke by beating my behind with it) the maccaferri (which my father broke by stepping on it in the dark) the roy rogers guitar, the lone ranger guitar and a couple of others.
I was into cowboys as a kid and the instrument of choice was the guitar. My mom would also babysit me in front of the tv with American Bandstand and I also got the idea that the guitar was something I wanted to do. Somehow I knew that those 4 string ukes had something missing. Somewhere there is a pic of a 3 year old me hugging a uke with my aunt who bought it for me.
Matt
a dyer harp guitar????? I would love to see that some day!!! |
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | 1965 Alvarez Classical guitar... studied Andre Segovia method.... then
1971 bought a really funky Yamaha solid body while stationed on Guam... after I got out of the Navy, I refinished it... I think it became a canoe paddle eventually!
Then, 1972/73 Gibson Hummingbird... wonderful guitar.. kept it until last year... Al has it now!
1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom cherry burst... tried to become another Duane Allman... didn't though!
Now: Ovation Balladeers 12&6, 2001 Collector's Redwood, Tacoma Olympia, Fender Mandolin and Gold Tone 6-string Banjo.
...currently pining away for that Adamas that Al has.....
gassy tim |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | First Guitar:
1976 Custom Balladeer.
Still have it.
Play it all the time (as often as I can get away with, anyway).
Gig with it 3-4 times a month.
Best decision/investment I ever made in my life. |
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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | Back in '74 (19), saw a Madeira 12string in a record store at Paramus Park mall. Borrowed the $200 from my friend Nancy and got it. Sold it when the kids started arriving, Got it back a few years ago, gave it to my now 28 yr old daughter. She loves it 'cause it's her dad's! Have never been able to get that 12 string thing out of my blood I guess...now I play an '02 Custom Legend 12 string,natural top,mid depth. John <>{ |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 782
Location: Waurika OK | My first guitar was a Montgomery Ward f hole acoustic, birthday present from my folks in 1956. My first electric was a Gibson melody maker I bought at a pawn shop in Wichita Falls, Tx. probably in 59 or 60. Unfortunately, I don't have either one now. Sold the acoustic to a friend in college and sold the Gibson and my amp for needed money, had a wife and children, need I say more? My wife had bought me the amp I sold, but she understood.
Noel |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 782
Location: Waurika OK | After I made the above post, I remembered that today is my birthday! So that first guitar arrived 48 years ago today, wonder how it has aged?
Noel |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 1817
Location: Minden, Nebraska | Noel,
Happy Birthday! And may the guitar have aged as gracefully as you.
In 1966 I took my Christmas tip money I had from delivering the Chicago Tribune and went to the local Sears and bought a Silvertone flat top fof $30. It was cheap, badly set up, and the strings could have serve as hawsers for mooring destroyers. But I was determined to play it and spent hundreds of hours learning to play.
After learning several dozen songs by the Stones, the Who, the Yardbirds, etc., my mother realized I was really serious when I came up with my own credible arrangement of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars" (or whatever the heck the original is in Portuguese). She bought me a Fender Jazzmaster (which serve me through my first couple of bands until I discovered that guitar just wouldn't do Zeppelin... thus my first Les Paul.
All that was a long time ago in a universe far, far away. |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 3611
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | My father was exasperated that his 12 year old son wasn't committed to the clarinet, so he allowed me to trade the licorice stick on a relatively good 6-string, circa 1964. Y'know, "Britsh Invasion" time. Well, I wasn't real serious about being a Guitar God, so the instrument languished, was stored poorly, and it finally was euthanized and cremated, I believe. OK, fast forward to 1975, Uncle Sam's Flying Club. Me and my best buddy (probably the best guitarist I have personally known) found a Yamaha FG-140 (remember the old red label models?) in a Sacratomato pawnshop for $100.00 with a chipboard case. Again, my motivation for stardom had not yet arrived. I did store this one well, however. If I had given it a good action job, I might have played it more. Speculative, at best. Finally sold it to one of my coworkers, about 1994. OK, so now it's about 1999, and I figure if I'm going to play with something, besides myself, I better get started. So, my career in guitar resurrection was spawned. Bought an ancient Chicago parlor blues guitar guitar and refurbished it. Great tone, abysmal action. Sold it. Bought a classical POS. Dumped it. Then, Providence struck! Ebay had an auction for an 1111, with a broke-off peghead. I figured, what the hell, give it a shot. Paid $100.00 for another "project". Well, I still have it, and I probably need medication now for my compulsive repair behaviors. I guess there's a moral to the story somewhere. Now, I just need to acquire more callouses on my fingertips than on my palms. |
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13987
Location: Upper Left USA | Happy Birthday Xnoel!
SeeSquare - If you really love something - it's ok to tear it apart and put it back together! |
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Joined:
April 2003
Posts: 2503
Location: Fayetteville, NC | My First REAL guitar was an Epiphone 6 String Acoustic. Sorry Don't remember the Model Name.
It had a solid Top. My Dad bought it for me,..really just to shut me up. I'd begged for a guitar for 3 years before he got it for me. It's the guitar that I learned to play on.
2nd Yamaha FG 335 Acoustic( I think that was the model number) 3rd and most important was My FIRST Ovation. A Glen Campbell 12 String Model.
Dad went in with me to help me buy that one. as I recall, I had saved money for it, butI was $175 short. He paid it and i took her Home!
Thanks Dad ! |
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 2246
Location: Yucaipa, California | That other Post about New Guilds reminded me that I briefly owned a Guild Dreadnaut, dark mahogany with a steam-pressed-slightly-rounded back. It had a big booming sound and was the first guitar to tip me toward the "true roundback"!
tim |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 265
Location: Warrenton, Virginia | My first guitar my Dad paid 15 dollars for new in 1960. It was a Beltone 3/4 size. Strings seemed so high off the fretboard..almost had to stand on it to make a note.
Sam |
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Joined:
April 2002
Posts: 196
Location: Shelton, Washington, USA | this topic has been here before... but we had a lot fewer members then.... always some good stories.
my first was a guitar my dad picked up in a pawn shop for 10 bucks... don't remember much about it. 10 bucks was a lot back then. dad was working in the silver mines and we were bout as poor as poor could be. but he got me that guitar. and i learned a song the first day. (thanx, dad).
first guitar i bought myself was a yamaki 12 string back around 1971 or 72. |
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what was your first guitar.
