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Everyone remembers their first time, right?
My first was a 3/4 size cheapo Japanese 60's special, followed very shortly by a cooler full-size guitar, probably a Teisco like this one:
While it looks really cool, and I wish I still had it, it wasn't set up particularly well or very easy to play. This led to my giving up guitar for several years.
In college I got back into it and got a 1970 Goya classical, like this G30:
It was quite a nice guitar, although over the years it has developed a bad neck bow. My ex-wife now has it. It had a sweet tone and was quite comfortable to play. Though I started out with classical repertoire, I evolved toward fingerstyle and eventually jazz.
What were your firsts?
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12-04-2017 04:06 PM
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1st was a Yamaha flattop bought new for $99.99, my brother still has it.
then a 70's Gibson ES-175, Jimmy Bruno bought it from me when he moved back to Philly
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My first guitar was a cheap Japan made three pickup slimline (fully hollow with a Bigsby copy). It played poorly and it is a wonder that I stuck with the guitar with that cheese grater action! A year later (1969) I got my first good guitar, a Guild M-20 (probably from the first batch of Westerly made Guilds, though it had a Hoboken label). I sold both in 1973 to acquire my first Gibson, a 1970 ES-175.
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Mine was one and the same: 1936 Martin 0-17 inherited from my uncle when I was 14 in 1960. First electric was a birthday gift from my parents in 1965: 1960 Les Paul Jr. with original faux alligator case - purchased in a pawn shop for $75. Wish I still had 'em both.
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My first guitar was the typical nylon string classical rental. Then when came time buy a guitar I got one of the many Japanese electric guitars most everyone I knew started with. Mine was a St. George with a ton of chrome pieces and three pickups and a neck like a 2x4.
One of the guys at school who played many instruments had a St. George electric bass. One summer when he was playing more sax than bass he with his neighbor's help, turned the St. George into a fretless. They removed the frets and planed the fingerboard and put it back together. I never heard of fretless bass this was way before Jaco so I thought it had to have frets. Boy was I wrong and it sounded great. I ran into the guy a few years ago and we hung out for awhile. He still has the bass though he mainly plays upright now and said the old St. George still sounds good.
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My first guitar was a no-name Strat copy.
My first "real" guitar was a 1980 Gibson S-1
Gibson made these from 1974-1979. According to a Gibson rep I spoke to, the serial number made it a 1980. My theory is, it was built in late '79 but didn't leave the factory until 1980. I like to think it was the last one made. It was stolen along with the rest of my gear when my house got burgled, but I had stopped playing it long before that. The frets were worn down to almost nothing, and a refret would have cost more than the thing was worth. It did have sentimental value, though.
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My first guitar was a weird no name 12 string I got in grade school. Even without the octave courses, it was fiendishly difficult to play the action was just ridiculously high. Put me off guitar until after graduation when an Andy Summer fixation made me get a Schecter Tele. That didn't last long. A couple of years later a mate offered me a lovely P90 equipped ES-175 I loved but couldn't afford at the time... I didn't touch a guitar again for over 30 years...
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My first guitar (still have it) was a 1963 Yairi classical guitar. All solid woods. Light as a feather...I mean no more than two and one-half or three pounds.
I had to have a steel string flattop, however, so I got a $17 Prestige flattop from the Navy Base Exchange in Virginia Beach in 1967. (Still have it, too.)
My first serious guitar was a '65 Hagstrom I that had been sitting in the music store for several years, unsold. I made an offer in 1969. Voila! (Still have that one, also.)
Many, many guitars later I still enjoy looking, making offers, and adding to the inventory--with occasional compensatory reductions.
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First guitar was a '65 Harmony Sovereign. First good guitar, a '61 strat.
MD
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used circa 1961 gretsch anniversary...made in brooklyn, bought years later in queens..it didn't travel too far! hah
i traded it to rudy pensa...who had just opened his 48th st shop upstairs...wish i still had it!
cheers
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I was real lucky, first foray into twanging was a WEM Rapier bass and WEM Wesminster valve amp.
Although I was hankering for a Precision bass and Bassman now I realise those WEM's were class.
First proper guitar was a '69 Precision Bass and a 70's Bassman 100. All sold for bill's. <sigh>
An '88 Telecaster bought new. Case candy and all. It was maple necked in Midnight Wine. Swapped for my first archtop. Ahwell
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My 1st guitar was a Monkey Wards flat-top Mom and Dad bought me for $10 the summer after 7th grade in 1968
It died a horrible death from a drunken camper (me) who El-Kabonged it on a campsite marker my Senior year in High School....
My 1st REAL guitar (that I owned) was a Mozerite I bought at House of Guitars in Phoenix in 1975.
Very cool surf guitar, played and sounded great... Stolen... allegedly by the Guitar Gods who were still pissed that I broke my Wards
whilst hammered.
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My first guitar was a plastic archtop called the "Tiger" Guitar made by a company called Emenee. you wore the amp around your shoulder on a strap!
*LOOK* Emenee Tiger Plastic Guitar COOL Vintage 1960's | Reverb
Here's what drew me to the lure of archtops as a mere 9 year old...
My first "real" guitar was a Hagstrom solid-body electric, plastic front, blood-red:
I played it through a Sears amp that I thought was a tube amp, 12" speaker, tremolo, reverb. I have never found that amp again online or in a shop, so I likely have some mixed up recollections.
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First guitar in 1970 was a Kasuga D200 flat-top, Martin look-alike. Wonderful bell-like ringing tone but lousy uneven neck.
After upgrading via Eko Ranger 12 string, then Yamaha FG180, my first real guitar was a 1962 daphne blue strat, replaced in 1974 with my first ES175D (1959)
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I built the first guitar i ever owned. It was a comparative mess, but sounded better than I deserved it to. The chambered solid body was clamped together for gluing by putting a washing machine on top of it.
I even made PU’s.
Looooong gone. It weighed about the same as an average neutron star, so almost as much as a late 70’s Les Paul.
First good one was my 5th guitar I made. I had it until around 2000.
First serious amp was also a home brew effort. A two 6L6 beast, more or less a Fender type circuit. I still have it, albeit with some upgrades over the scrounged parts used to make it in 1981.
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First guitar was a student rental from my teacher. It was horrible. The "action" was too high and the wood too thick, but it was just $3 a month.
In 1963 I got my first good guitar--an Epiphone Casino, ES230, sunburst, double P-90s and an Epiphone Tremotone. Made in Kalamazoo. Essentially an ES330. First time I changed the strings I took the "tune-o-matic" bridge off and noticed that on the bottom it was stamped "Gibson ABR-1". I was in heaven.
Emenee. That's a name from the past!
Tony D.
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Learned on my Fathers 1953 ES175D. I snuck into his bedroom when he wasn't home and taught myself how to play from Age 8 to Age 12. Then I got caught. After the beating, he asked me to play something for him. He was shocked. A year later I bought a Black Ibanez Les Paul Custom Copy for $190 from Maher Music in Clifton NJ. About a year after that, I bought a D'Angelico New Yorker (Im kidding, it was actually a D'Agostino D60r) from Mascara Music in Belleville, NJ. The Ibanez was stolen from our rehearsal studio in the mid 80's. I still have the D'Agostino D60r. Its in Mint Condition, although the bridge plate is beginning to lift off the top a little. That guitar is an incredible piece of workmanship. Its sounds amazing still to this day. I have 12 Chromes on it. The bridge lift has made it a little hard to play..
JD
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Joe
Originally Posted by Max405
I don't think I ever heard a story about what happened to that 1953 ES175. If you are inclined to tell it, I'd love to hear it!
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First guitar was a 1960's Stella (parlor size) that my Mom got me during the Beatles invasion craze (they drove a lot of sales.)
I remember the steel tailpiece allowed me to play behind the bridge and go 'plink plink' and such, early free jazz from an eight year old
First electric was a "Hi -Lo" from Federal's Dept. Store in Detroit (this was a rebranded Teisco most likely) and the matching 10w amp.
That guitar was where I started playing out with others, we did a gig at our elementary school with the set list ripped from the "Play Guitar with The Ventures" LP. After a few years, started doing modifications on that guitar, repaint, new pickguard etc... We were very young kids watching John Lee Hooker play at the Chessmate, and listening to Hendrix on radio. This was when I got my BF Super Reverb that I still use.
First "real" guitar is kind of a blur between a short-lived Dan Armstrong (used) followed by the *only* new git I've ever purchased: A custom-ordered SG Deluxe with two HB and Bigsby, walnut stain for $275 from Gibson via Metro Music in Detroit. Neither the SG or the Dan Armstrong (acrylic) were "keepers" and that set me down the path to acquiring "real" guitars like the used Fenders /Gibsons that were readily available at affordable prices. Best deal ever was the 1954 LP Jr @ $40, regrettably traded that for a Strat after a few years. In these faraway days of youth, I did get my first "real" ARCHTOP too, and I still have that L7C acoustic with JS floater.
Stella Parlor (generic sample pic)
Hi-Lo electric (generic sample pic)
My own '54 LP JR (!! not Ralph Armstrong on bass)
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I played my father's guitars growing up, when I could, and learned a lot less from him than I should have. The first guitar I actually owned was (still is) a Gibson J45 that I bought in a pawnshop in Columbus, GA, near Ft Benning, between airborne and ranger schools. It's only so-so, with an adjustable wood bridge, and with a 2 stamped on the back of the head. I have no idea why, I never found anything wrong with it other than the bridge, which dulls the sound.
The first really nice guitar I acquired was a 1978 Benedetto 7-string. I was afraid to play it much, terrified of scratching it or worse. It was in mint condition, owned by a collector, then sat in a GC in CA for many years. I got it for peanuts and sold it to pay for a new roof on my house. Since, I've acquired a couple of lower-end Benedettos, which are as good as I can imagine a guitar to be, at least electric.
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I had a Kay electric, similar to the one in the original post. It wasn't set up particularly well or very easy to play. In fact it did not even work. This led to my fascination with guitar building and repair at a young age![the Kay] wasn't set up particularly well or very easy to play. This led to my giving up guitar for several years.
I re-wired it with a single 'junk box' humbucker from the music shop. Cast aside likely after someone's Dimarzio Super Distortion replacement. This humbucker was wired straight to the output jack. I left the gold cover on it, because my soldering pencil I had at the time was not hot enough to get the cover off. New pickguard made from the clear plastic top of a record player and painted on the back side. New frets. Yes I found a bag of frets in a bargain box for $1.25 at a music store. I just pried the old ones out and pounded the new ones in.
To top it off, the EVH guitar player issue 1979 just came out, so I got some tape, black and white paint and re-painted it.
I wish I had a picture of it I only had it for about 4 months until I realized I kind of learned how to play. I traded it with $$ for a 1971 Fender Mustang. The Mustang was $120 and they gave me $20 off for the Kay.
My first amp was pretty cool. I used a mono Bell Hi-fi amp with exposed tubes and transformers (still have it) that I mounted on a crate (like Crate amp). Then filled the crate with some spare speakers I had. I had 3 speakers and put all 3 in there with some chicken wire over the front. I then made a fuzzbox from spare parts based on a preamp schematic in Guitar player. The fuzzbox was not on the floor, it was mounted on the side of the crate. There was no on-off switch; it was 'ON' all the time!
The first song I learned was 'Purple Haze.'
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My father's guitar toward the end of his life was a Kay-made Old Kraftsman ES330-type, with the huge Kelvinator headstock. It was a very nice guitar, and played very easily once he got it set up. Unfortunately, it was left sitting in the outdoor cellar for years after his death, and by the time I got it, the truss rod nut had frozen on the rod, and when I tried to turn it, the rod snapped immediately. I still have it sitting in a closet, and I really should have it fixed. Kay made some decent guitars.
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My first guitar wasn't bad, a very heavily used Washburn Strat copy.
My first real guitar was my tele, the same tele you see me with a lot here. I was 18...cost me $650...that was the most money I had ever seen. The short of the long story was I had went to get a "real" Strat, and hated 'em...then I saw this tele, floor model 1996 American Standard...I had never thought much of teles, but I thought, well, what the heck? It was love at first strum. 21 years ago. Shiiiit.
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My first guitar was a strat copy -- a Martin Stinger. Unfortunately, that floating bridge/tremolo set up was a such big mistake -- it took me a decade to learn how to tune and really put me off really learning to play guitar for a long time. A snark would have been so helpful back in the day. I did finally figure out how to lower the bridge down onto the body on a strat. that was a revelation. And that's when my guitar playing began to evolve a little faster.
In retrospect the Martin Stinger was a pretty decent guitar -- I kinda wish I'd kept it.
But I learned more playing on my Ex-wife's old Yamaha acoustic than I ever did on the strat copy.
Guitar was a long slow start for me.
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The first one I owned was a solid body Zim Gar. The first good git was a strat I bought along with a bandmaster and a 2x12 cab for something like $550. I had to take two different bus routes to get it home.
I got it all because my Dad took away my Zim Gar and I think it was a heath amp because I ticked him off.
When he heard me playing the strat in the basement he crashed in the room at the top of his lungs and yelled: "I THOUGHT I SAID YOU...couldn't ... play... that... damn... guitar... hey, whose guitar is that" I told him it was MINE and I bought it with MY money and if he took it away, I'd call the cops on him.
When I woke up with a black eye I knew some things for sure, one, he'd never take my stuff away again, and getting whacked closed fist was worth it :-)
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