Your First Guitar?

[KKV]

Shout it out.  Who remembers their first guitar?   Mine was a powder blue Ibanez Strat that my mom had on lay away for months.  Like an idiot I traded it for another in middle school.  One of many questionable decisions from my youth!  I hope my son holds onto this one.  Merry Christmas to all. 

[j45nick]

Your son is a lucky boy! My first guitar was a $5 Mexican-made  nylon-string guitar converted to steel strings. It's a wonder I kept playing after that one.

When I gave my guitar-playing great-nephew a nice graduation check a few years ago, he "wisely" went out and spent the money on a new Strat. Hope he keeps that one.

[zombywoof]

My first guitar was a 1930s archtop which a friend of my grandfather's had sitting in a closet and knowing I wanted a guitar so bad I could taste it  gave to me for my birthday.  Not sure what it was only that it had a back finish.  It remains the only time I have ever received a guitars as a gift.  

Edited December 25, 2019 by zombywoof

[gearbasher]

My first was a Framus 12 string that couldn't handle 12 strings anymore, so it was strung with  six. It was given to me by my older sister's boyfriend.  The action was so bad that it could have been used for archery.

[AzariahJames]

My first was a nice mid 80’s ovation ultra, big bowl. Really nice guitar. Had a bone saddle made for it and setup done and it never needed another. Sorry that i traded it.

[Boyd]

Well, my first was an all-plastic baritone ukelele that my Dad found in a junk store for a few bucks when I was about 12. It was a POS, but I learned some basic chords. The piano was my serious instrument from then through high school. Around 1969 I got a terrible no-name cheap electric guitar that just wasn't playable, and after that I traded my way through a variety of electrics, ending up with a telecaster thinline. This photo was me visiting my parents enroute from Pennsylvania to California in 1973 or 74.

Within a year I traded that for a 1974 Gibson J-50 Deluxe that I kept until  giving it to my son in law a few years ago. Here's my "Gibson family" -  me and the 1965 J-50, my son in law with my 2008 J-50 and Granddaughter with a Maestro that I gave her, just for fun. It's terrible, but was cheap and looks just like a little J-50! 🙂

Merry Christmas everyone and best wishes for the holidays!

Edited December 25, 2019 by Boyd

[BoSoxBiker]

Technically speaking, my first was so bad of a player that making an Am chord took 10-15 seconds. A warehouse club Yamaha Strat shaped thing. About to give up, I drove to the local GC and told the salesman of my difficulties. He hands me a 2004 Ibanez GAX-70 from the all. Hit the chord instantly and the rest is history, as they say. It sounded great stock, but I tinkered with it quite a bit. P-90s and flat-wounds being the most fun. I have a complete wiring included set-up for active pickups upstairs in a box, but the guitar and a small has been at a friend's house for 2+ years as he slowly plucks away at learning.  No harm - no foul.

[KKV]

Great Holiday inputs.   Thanks for sharing guys!

 My kid has been in his room a few hours now with a Beatles book Santa brought.  He came out just now and said “Dad, my fingers really hurt.”

”Son, if it feels like you’re squeezing too hard...it means you probably are!”

Time for Ham! 

KKV

[Dave F]

Here's my first one. Still have it. Mom and Dad got it for Christmas, I'm thinking 1963.

Bought my grandson (4 yr old) his first one this Christmas.

 

Edited December 25, 2019 by Dave F

[BluesKing777]

 

Didn’t we just tell this story recently?

Anyway, I will tell my story (again) from a different angle.......

1964, eight years old, doubt I knew what a guitar WAS, and my father took me with him to his boss’s house, no idea why now. Probably something about biz, sales or more likely no sales? The boss’s wife played her bought that day, everyone excited, acoustic guitar! BK’s mouth was probably dragging the floor and then.......right place at right time: she gave me her old dread! A no name - no sign of ID on it. Zip.

So we banged on it for a few years, stretched it, taught myself something, met all the guitar players at school!!! With some fancy footwork I somehow talked my father into springing for lessons!

And we are still trying to learn it!

 

BluesKing777.

 

[zombywoof]

1 hour ago, Dave F said:

Here's my first one. Still have it. Mom and Dad got it for Christmas, I'm thinking 1963.

Bought my grandson (4 yr old) his first one this Christmas.

 

 

The infamous Kay K1160.  Who removed the painted blocks on the board?  

Edited December 26, 2019 by zombywoof

[Larry W]

My first was a brand new 1967 Fender Malibu.    I wish I still had that.....but I wanted to be "electric" 2 years later.

 

[QuestionMark]

First, was a Stella.  When I was 9. It had a painted on sunburst.  I was happy to have my own guitar!

QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff

 

[Dave F]

22 minutes ago, zombywoof said:

 

The infamous Kay K1160.  Who removed the painted blocks on the board?  

I wore them off then painted my name on the fret board. A few years back I replaced the neck (shown below) but it did not look right. I then had the original board planed and refretted. I need to get the blocks back on it. 

 

 

[G Mac]

My first was a Silvertone archtop that played like an egg slicer but, I learned on it well enough that, a few years later, my folks bought me a Hagstrom III for Christmas in my 14th year. Man, I cried like a baby when they brought that out! I still had it until a few years ago whenn I had to pay the damned rent and got screwed selling at my local music shoppe. I sold it for $125...I see 'em on Reverb for $700-1000. It sucks having to sell stuff under pressure! Anyway, that's that story. Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) to you all!

[sparquelito]

When I was but a sprite in the 1960's, I had a couple of dime store box guitars. 
One was stolen by the movers, and another was sold away. 

I can remember the very first guitar I bought with my own money. 
It was a 1976 Epiphone FT120. 
I played it for over 40 years, and it traveled with me all over the world, on my Army adventures. 

Just last year I gifted it to the local drug & alcohol addiction treatment center. 
They can always use another guitar on the wards. 

Anything that helps an addict or alcoholic to stay occupied, and to stave off the cravings and the madness. 
It's all good. 

The photo below is not mine, but that's what the old girl looked like, time I handed her over to the nurse on the wards. 
🙂

[Tman]

1965 Cherry Red Melody Maker. Wish I still had it.

[uncle fester]

my first was a Hondo II electric (Les Paul copy) back in 1980 or so...  first one I bought knowing what I wanted was a fender strat back in '00

Edited December 26, 2019 by billroy fineman

[fortyearspickn]

12 hours ago, QuestionMark said:

First, was a Stella.  When I was 9. It had a painted on sunburst.  I was happy to have my own guitar!

QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff

 

 

Yep. Stella. Bought at Macy's  Roosevelt Field for $29 as I recall. Gave it to my younger brother who had even less talent than I.  How that poor guitar suffered ! 

[Holiday Hoser]

 

I remember me and dad going into a San Diego pawn shop in 1972 near the navel base and I'm sure some sailor back from Viet Nam had hocked it for gas money. That Tiesco had more switches than the Rockefeller Christmas tree. But she was mine and I loved her long time. The sad thing was there probably was a '59 Les Paul  a little higher up on the wall we could have got for $650 bucks. But then the 1970 Riviera we were driving only cost 350.

[olie]

I,too got a Stella first.My grandmother got it by sticking "Lucky Green Stamps" from a grocery store into a whole whack of little booklets and giving the guitar to my sister who tired of it and passed it on to me. Talk about sore fingertips! In highschool I saved up and got a Harmony Sovereign and threw that Stella out.The Stella was a late 50's vintage I believe.

[Twang Gang]

Mine was a Roy Rodgers model from the Sears Catalogue (probably) that I got for Xmas about 1957 or so like this one:

No one in my family knew anything about playing or tuning a guitar, but we did have a piano.  There were instructions with the guitar showing that you tuned the low E to the piano, and then went up to the fifth fret and tuned the A, fifth fret tune the D, fifth fret tune the G, fifth fret tune the B and fifth fret tune the high E.  An error in the tuning instructions so the b and e were always out of tune.  Tried for a long time to figure it out, but it always sounded bad.  Six month later a friend of my Moms visited from Texas and she knew how to tune a guitar so we finally got on the right track.  

It was made from some sort of fiber-board for the body with a plastic fingerboard, but it did play.  I kept it for about 4 or 5 years gradually learning  little by little, but never got any lessons.  Eventually I bought a steel string parlor size guitar made from wood, but the Roy Rodgers was the only guitar anyone ever bought and gave to me.  First decent guitar was a Gibson 125 (see avatar) that I bought used about 1965 with a small Ampeg combo amp.  Don't really miss the 125, but wouldn't mind still having that amp.

[Sgt. Pepper]

A '79ish Gibson The Paul. Not a LP. Those heavy walnut ones. I got it in '81 or so. 

Edited December 27, 2019 by Sgt. Pepper

[Russell Davis]

Sears WG59 acoustic.  Made in Korea.   Pic is not mine but same model.  Christmas gift back in 1978.   Currently sitting in a storage unit. 

 

 

[Bozz]

Mine was an Airline from Montgomery Ward in '65.   I was hoping for an electric, but an acoustic showed up under the Christmas tree that year.  I have no idea what model was and I'm not even sure what happened to it after I upgraded (?) to a Conn a couple of years later.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Bozz