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Posts: 5881
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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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | I bought a Tesio electric from a friend for maybe 20 bucks. |
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February 2004
Posts: 1634
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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January 2004
Posts: 338
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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December 2004
Posts: 370
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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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | '76 CustomBalladeer.
Bought it(NEW) for $350 (with a free HSC).
Still my primary guitar. |
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October 2005
Posts: 803
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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January 2006
Posts: 16
| ovation baladeer 1112.
not sure what year it was.
still own it and it stil sounds and plays amazing. |
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April 2004
Posts: 234
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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March 2005
Posts: 12759
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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January 2002
Posts: 14127
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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May 2004
Posts: 383
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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November 2004
Posts: 286
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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July 2004
Posts: 812
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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December 2003
Posts: 77
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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March 2005
Posts: 12759
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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November 2005
Posts: 111
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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July 2005
Posts: 1609
Location: Colorado | Yamaha FG -75, 1974 |
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June 2002
Posts: 863
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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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub |  |
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March 2002
Posts: 15678
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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December 2001
Posts: 10583
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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January 2003
Posts: 1498
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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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | 1975 Takamine F-400S. |
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January 2006
Posts: 16
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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What was your very first guitar?
