First Guitars You Started With - Back To Your Roots

[Dazed 0]

My guess is most of us did not start out with a Gibson Guitar but something a little lower on the totem pole. So I thought I would start a post to see where our guitar roots started hehe.

 

My first guitar was a Tara Acoustic. After ripping my fingertips to shreds for several months, I picked up an Electra guitar. It was kind of cool from the standpoint that it was an electric, I could get more than one sound from it and my fingers were healing quite nicely using it. It was burgundy with a single dimarzio humbucker in it but what was was odd or cool, take your pick there, was that you could see the several layers of wood they had glued for the body on the edges. Add a Fender Champ Amp and a Big Muff and I was a guitar god. Well I thought so but my parents and neighbors did not share my point of view.

 

Then I spotted a Gibson Les Paul Standard in Tobacco Sunburst that caught my eye in a magazine. I remember begging my dad for $1066 to buy it. We went and looked at it at a music store and placed the order. That guitar logged so many playing hours during my junior high and high school years I think I was close to having to have it surgically removed. This same guitar met a tragic end that I will share at a later date.

 

So how did you start out before you got your first Gibson?

[Cruznolfart 114]

I bought my first guitar, a Framus Texan acoustic, in the PX in 1969. Before a year was over I had purchased two more Framuses; an electric 6 string and an acoustic 12 string. I have all 3 of them still, in various stages of playability...or not. I didn't buy another guitar until the year my Dad left this world, 1998. I was 50 by then. Since that first '98 purchase I have acquired several additional guitars and had one built to my specs. My first and only Gibson, a Songwriter Deluxe, was purchased in '07.

[cookieman15061 447]

First guitar was an Aria Nylon string acoustic.

 

2nd an Aria SG copy

 

3rd an Aria 12 string acoustic (sense a pattern here)

 

4th an Electra les paul copy (the one with the little sound fx cartridges in the back)

 

5th a Kramer 3000

 

6th an Alvarez Artist Acoustic

 

7th an am std Fender Strat

 

8th Epi Casino

 

But my 9th guitar ( I know what the heck took me so long) was a Les Paul. My 3 kids all moved out and I could finally afford one.

[L5Larry 201]

The first stringed instrument I picked up as a child was a baritone uke that was lying around the house. From there it was to a "Marco Polo" nylon stringed guitar my older sister had also abandoned. My first electric was a "Ranger" I told my mom I had to have (cause I thought it looked like a Strat).

 

 

Then to a "Lyle" SG copy, and finally got my first REAL guitar in 1974, a used 1960 Stratocaster.

 

 

Got my first Gibson in 1975, a '64 Reverse Body Firebird III.

 

 

and my BRAND NEW Tobacco Sunburst Les Paul Standard a year later (1976).

 

 

16 or more guitars in between............ and my most recently purchase was a Historic ES-345 in 2000.

 

[Californiaman 308]

Gibson ES-175

[rockman82 4]

It's funny. Most people start on an Acoustic guitar, but that wasn't the case for me. I started on my dad's right handed Peavey T-60. My second guitar was a blue Squier Strat that i later sanded. Then i got my first left handed guitar(which is what i count as my first official guitar). I got an Epiphone SG G400 in 2006, and later got a Fender Stratocaster in 2008. I later plan to get a Gibson SG Faded in worn brown if i can find a lefty.

[Basshole 0]

Ibanez Sound gear bass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best bass I have ever owned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wish I still had it.

[dem00n 736]

A washburn strat which i still own and love.

[Bluemoon 8]

I don't even know what my first guitar was. It was a piece of garbage. I think it might have been a used Hondo, but I am not sure. The strings were like a foot off the fretboard

 

Second guitar was an Ibanez--great guitar

Third was an Ovation acoustic--OK

Fourth was a Fender strat--MIM...Sucked

Fifth was a Tacoma acoustic---Fantastic guitar

Sixth was a Gibson LP--Fantastic

[duane v 458]

My first guitar was and is a Gibson SG200...... Got her when I was 10, and had to deliver quite a few Herald Examiner news papers to acquire her[biggrin]

[zigzag 291]

Kent electric, one pick-up, 1966.

My first lesson, on a locally made, Fred Nance, flaminco guitar, 1965.

[rocketman 176]

A Takamine acoustic which I still own. I got my first Gibson about a year later and I still own that...

 

[milod 663]

My first guitar was a no-name classical bought the summer of '63. Next box was a Stella 12-string I refinished, although I ripped off a buddy's Vega banjo for a while in early '64. Friends kept pushing me to get better and better classicals until late '65 when I got in a rock band instead of just folking around... <grin>

 

Hmmmm.

 

Anyway...

 

Dennis, your Framus pieces were way, way better than that first box of mine. The action wasn't all that bad, but I think it was made out of orange crates. A friend had a Framus classical. I remember not quite liking the neck, though.

 

Cali-man - a 175 as your first? Sheesh, I'm green with envy wishin' I'd had something like that at first.

 

m

[MojoRedFoot 76]

I got some asian made Goya G-4 dreadnaught copy for Christmas when I was 12. I still have it but it is retired as the bridge is coming off causing major fret buzzing on the 2nd fret.

[GIANTRobOT420 1]

Series 10 jazz bass

[Riffster 345]

I had my brother's 60's Mustang for like 3 years when I was a teen, he is a Spanish guitar player mainly although he just got an electric recently.

 

My brother wanted to start a band and bought the Mustang but the plan never came together, he moved out got married an left the guitar to me until he sold it. He offered to me and I declined because I wanted a Strat which I did not buy until 20 years later. I regret not having bought it but not because of the guitar but because I stopped playing for a long time. I like acoustic guitars but they are an afterthought for me.

 

When I tried to get back into playing I made the mistake of buying an uninspiring Epiphone Les Paul Special II package and then a Epiphone Les Paul, much better but when I bought my Gibson Les Paul Vintage Mahogany and finally got good sounds I started enjoying playing.

 

[cwness 0]

Age 10 Kay Acoustic steel 6 string.

 

CW

[AXE® 507]

The first electric was a Melodier by Teisco. It looked something like this.

[Nick Beach 28]

The first electric was a Melodier by Teisco. It looked something like this.

 

If you ever want another one I know a guy selling...

 

But I've got a pic of me with my first guitar that I'm going to get into the computer then I'll post it up.

[AXE® 507]

If he wants any more than 10 bucks he's asking too much.

[Gibson4life 1]

My first guitar was a Strat copy. It sucked and I got it when I was 8.

2nd was a Mitchell Acoustic, this one I had for 2 years and it was OK.

3rd was a Epiphone Les Paul 100 this one was decent

4th was a Gibson sg standard this was an amazing guitar and got me hooked to gibsons.

and the list goes on................

[charlie brown 771]

This is like my first (ever) guitar, only mine was the "Western Auto" ("Truetone") brand version (exact same guitar), though.

it was traded for a better "Harmony" flat-top.

 

My First Electic guitar (less than a year later): 1964 "L" series Strat. Thankfully, I still have it...

 

CB

[AXE® 507]

I had one of these in High School. It burned in a house fire.

The Harmony Rocket.

 

[vourot 12]

I had a takamine explorer copy. It was black .

I bought it with money from my paper route. It was stolen

years ago. It was a well built nice playing guitar.

[urbs 0]

A Kay SG copy , burgandy color , broke every string 10,000 times before she was run over and had to be put down .