Your First Electric Guitar (and, do you still have it?)

[bear222]

My first was back in 1966, a horrible red burst Kingston, with three pickups and a very strange whammy deal on it. The real prize was the little 5 watt Alamo amp I got with it. I was too green to know about overdriven tube amps back then...I just knew that when I turned both knobs [vol. tone ] all the way up it sounded pretty cool. I'm not to sentimental about the guitar [although I wish I had those old single coils for one of my build projects ] but I wish I still had that little Alamo amp.

[Belzeebub]

My first electric was a FAKE Fender Stratocaster in black with double-ply white pickguard and a "maple" neck. This thing was so bad, that when i got the chance to buy my second electric, i took it apart, then sanded down the finish to the bare wood. To my surprise, the wood actually looked like plywood!@ The guitar was never assembled anymore and i basically threw it into the trash.

[charlie brown]

Speaking of Casino's, and "Beatles,"....I read somewhere, that Lennon's distortion sound on "Revolution" was

actually done on the "board," as opposed to through his amp or a pedal? Does that sound right/familiar?

I know he uses a BFDR, in the film/video of that performance.

 

CB

[Guest]

Speaking of Casino's' date=' and "Beatles,"....I read somewhere, that Lennon's distortion sound on "Revolution" was

actually done on the "board," as opposed to through his amp or a pedal? Does that sound right/familiar?

I know he uses a BFDR, in the film/video of that performance.

 

CB[/quote']

 

On the July 10, 1968 re-make recording of "Revolution" (the "slow" one was done on May 30,1968) the distorted guitars (both John and George) were achieved by going direct injection into the board and over-loading the tube pre's. Doesn't quite sound the same when it's done on a modern mixing board with solid state preamps. In the video the amp Lennon is using is a '64 Fender Deluxe (one of his favorites) which is like a DR but without the reverb-20 watts/2-6v6's.

 

...and Al's your uncle.

[charlie brown]

OK, Al...here's where I (assumed) and got it wrong. George is using a Deluxe Reverb, in that video, anyway...

because it has 6 control knobs, on the Vibrato channel. I assumed they (he and John) were using the same model of amp

for some reason, all these years...probably because you can't really see John's amp that well, except that it appears to be

the same size etc. Anyway...that's why I thought it was a DR. So...I bow to your expertise. ;>) Thanks, for the info/correction.

 

CB

[Lerxst1281733995]

 

 

Well....I'm as "old as dirt' date='" as they say. Mind and body! LOL! My good friend had that same Harmony Jaguar copy, and prior to my getting the "Strat," he used to let me play on it, sometimes. Compared to my "Truetone" it seemed like it

played itself![/quote']

 

Heh.. I don't really remember too much about the playability of mine... I was just 13 or so and didn't know much about guitars at the time.. I don't recall it being a struggle to play, though.. I still have fond feelings when I think about that guitar... I remember trying to play along with my Beatles records before I knew more than 3 chords... Just faked the rest..

[Lerxst1281733995]

 

I got my first guitar 12/25/64' date=' a red Domino with a small Supro amp. [/quote']

 

I used to have a Supro amp with the original Jensen speaker... I think I threw it in a dumpster after getting a "real" amp... I wish I still had it now... I also had a Maestro fuzz pedal that I loved to death... I really wish I still had that.. Don't know what ever happened to it...

[Dave]

Everybody needs a high action guitar to start with. How else you gonna build them callouses quickly? "If you stick with it and learn on the cheapo, we'll buy you a nicer guitar." That's what my parents told me. I got the Harmony after about a year (really wanted an Epi Sheraton). I used to drool over the Epiphone catalog. My guitar teacher was an epi dealer and I got GAS waiting for my lesson and looking at the epi's hanging on the wall.

[carverman]

 

On the July 10' date=' 1968 re-make recording of "Revolution" (the "slow" one was done on May 30,1968) the distorted guitars (both John and George) were achieved by going direct injection into the board and over-loading the tube pre's. Doesn't quite sound the same when it's done on a modern mixing board with solid state preamps. In the video the amp Lennon is using is a '64 Fender Deluxe (one of his favorites) which is like a DR but without the reverb-20 watts/2-6v6's. ...and Al's your uncle.[/quote']

 

That had to be an old mixing console. Some of the older broadcast consoles like (McCurdy Radio out of Toronto)

did use 12ax7 preamps in their mic inputs, but the majority were already going solid state at the time.

In early 70, I was working at a large recording studio in Toronto, and the 32in/24out recording/remix console used monolithic op-amps on their line/mic inputs. There was so much headroom that overloading was impossible by design. Lot of the guitar players back then preferred to use their own amps/preamps anyway and we just miked them directly from the speakers.

[luvastogie]

A strat copy kit guitar from Grizzly.com that I finished and put together a little over 2 years ago. Needs a little fret work but the neck is fast and straight. Pickups don't even sound too bad. Used a transparent Candy Apple Red spray paint so the grain shows through. It looks more cherry red because it doesn't have the silver undercoat to make it turn the Candy Apple color. It's pretty, even if I do say so myself.

 

Oh, and of course I still have it. I'll never get rid of it.

[SG1973]

This was my first electric. This is not the actual guitar, but it's exactly like it. I wish i had kept it. Not that it was anything special, but just for sentimental reasons. It was an 86 model, and yeah, I got it in 86. I got my first guitar in probably 84-85, but this was my first electric. It was a Kramer Aerostar ZX-30.

[Rob Dobbs]

still have my first guitar bought back in 1988/89, the trusty Epi EA250 signed by the band that made me pick up a guitar the Jesus and Mary Chain.

 

[charlie brown]

Well, Rob...gotta hang on to that one, right?

 

CB

[lpplayer]

My first guitar was a bass... A "Montaya"... Some short-scale Japanese POS made outta bananawood (actually' date=' I think it was particle board..)[/quote']

 

I had a Montaya as well back in the 80's...a SG copy with a Bigsby-like trem.

 

My first electric was a Harmony Marquis Les Paul copy, which is long gone. I got it for Christmas out of the JC Penny Christmas catalog. It came with a 10 watt Harmony solid state amp, which I still have. The amp had controls for volume, tone, and a tremolo speed and depth. For about a year, I thought the tremolo could not be shut off- I kept the speed control all the way down at its slowest point and lived with it...till one day I was cleaning dust off the amp and the speed knob clicked off. Except for an annoying electrical tingling when I touch the metal on my guitar (anyone know what that could be?) I still play the amp every once in a while, and it still sounds great.

 

The Harmony Les Paul had a bolt on of course, and two chrome humbuckers with a sunburst finish. I remember being annoyed that the neck pickup was set awat from the edge of the fingerboard- I wanted the closest thing to a Gibson as possible. Later when I began taking the guitar apart to see what it was all about, I noticed the "carved" top wasn't one at all...it was a piece of curved wood "bubble" over the top of the guitar.

[Vic Flick]

 

I used to have a Supro amp with the original Jensen speaker... I think I threw it in a dumpster after getting a "real" amp... I wish I still had it now...

 

I just Googled Supro amps' date=' and I found this one. I'm pretty sure this is the same one I had.

 

[center'][/center]

 

[charlie brown]

Yeah, and to think a lot of the old "Blues Pioneers," got some of those incredible tones, from really

cheap (even by their day's standards) old tube amps. I once preamped a similar inexpensive tube

amp, into my Twin Reverb, back in the old days (pre-distortion pedals)! Used it for the "overdrive!"

It was an amazing sound/tone. Kind of an early (if somewhat bulkier) pre-curser to the "Boss Blues Driver"

or Ibanez "Tube Screamer," for lack of a better description.

 

CB

[gibiphone]

My first guitar was a Gibson SG JR. Single P90 pickup. Ran it through a Fender Champ amp. Loved that combination.

 

Sent to 'nam, had to sell them.

[Ron G]

Except for an annoying electrical tingling when I touch the metal on my guitar (anyone know what that could be?)

 

That would almost certainly be a bad ground

[Lerxst1281733995]

 

I just Googled Supro amps' date=' and I found this one. I'm pretty sure this is the same one I had.

 

[center'][/center]

 

 

Mine was grey (silver) tweed with a chrome control panel on the front with bakelite knobs.. I think it was like 8 or 10watts or something.. I was too young to appreciate it.. I was actually kind of embarrassed by it... Had I known at the time that Jimmy Page used a Supro amp, I probably wouldn't have thrown it away!

[johntrem]

Got mine in 1967 through a J.C. Penney catalog. I mowed lawns for it. It was a sunburst hollow body, single pickup, single cutaway. I chose a hollow body because I couldn't afford a guitar and amp at the same time. It had no name on the headstock. I sold it to a friend when I bought a Kalamazoo KG2A, the SG shaped one, in 1969. I ran into the fellow that I sold it to in a bar in the late seventies and asked him if he still had it as I wanted to buy it back and he said he'd just sold it. I once saw that first electric in a Taylor ad. The ad showed numerous guitars hanging in a guitar shop window and that first electic was among them. I never knew what it was until maybe five years ago, when I found out it was a Kay.The model known as a Speed Demon. It was the only guitar I ever sold and, of course, I'd love to have it back. All the rest, about sixteen, I've kept. I did sell a Heit Deluxe bass to a friend who on occasion has loaned it back to me.

[bluefoxicy]

Epi Les Paul Special II, which I seem to have replaced with an Ibanez S470DXQM viking red.

 

And by "replaced" I mean "I've been playing the Ibanez once in a while." That thing can't overdrive my tubes at anything but max amp volume. The DiMarzios in my Epi LP can make the tubes scream at half volume, so I'm still using that mostly instead of my poor shiny new guitar.

 

I'm going to throw some Evolutions and a Chopper in the Ibanez I think... different tone qualities between the two guitars, instead of sculpting it into a drop-in replacement (now that'd be silly). The Epiphone I'll finish up on (push-pull bright cap and push-pull single coil tap), haven't gotten around to it yet.

[bluefoxicy]

Yeah' date=' and to think a lot of the old "Blues Pioneers," got some of those incredible tones, from really

cheap (even by their day's standards) old tube amps.[/quote']

 

The amp I just built is a Valve Junior clone-ish, some marshallized components, some of my own designs. I get a little preamp distortion easy, due to how I did the plate resistors on the 12AX7 and dropped the cathode resistors.

 

It sounded like crap with a JJ E34L, too much compression (not easy to overdrive) and too smooth once I got it sounding good. Warmest sound EVER, too warm.

 

Throw in an Electro-Harmonix or Tung-Sol 6V6, bias it, it SCREAMS in blues. Throw in a JJ 6V6 and it's got more of an EL84 break-up, crunching out rock. An EH 6V6 costs me $9.50 from a local store, $12 online.

 

I'll schematic it up and post it to A&A some time, but I want to remove a bitmo mod from it (the Duo knob) and put in a Big Muff style knob

 

amps aren't hard, but can you PLAY?

[charlie brown]

Yeah, that's always a good question, isn't it? Guitars, amps Vs Talent!

I play well enough, to know how much more I need to learn/improve.

Someone said, once, that "the guitar is one of the easiest instruments

to learn how to play, and one of the hardest, to learn to play...WELL!" I believe it!

[TWANG]

1965 or 1964

I forged my parents name on a sears credit application..

remember, John Kennedy was killed with a 14.00 rifle bought through a magazine ad.

and one day a semi pulled up and backed into our driveway.

 

The local sears guy was ticked because we didn't go through him. heh.

 

I got away with it, and was allowed to keep my 35.00 guitar, chipboard case, amp, cable, strap, pick, pitch pipe, and Johnny 'Guitar Boogie' Watson How to play guitar book, from which I never learned a thing, it being written as if you had a teacher beside you.

 

It was a black les paul deluxe copy of the finest balsa wood. At least it weighed about that much.

single bound body. flat top. twin mini humbuck looking highly microphonic pickups.

black diamond 'so you think you need fingertips you little sissy' strings.

plastic knob tuners, open geared, rust friendly and about a 5:1 ratio.

 

five watt amplifier. all toob. squealed like a pig at any volume at all. but amp or guitar.. I could never really tell.

two knobs and a power switch. 8" speaker? maybe 6".

 

I remember my brother asking me to play something for him.

Got carried away and stepped off the rug onto the cement floor of the patio.

 

hello voltage, nice to see ya, ben franklin around, 'scuse me while I kiss the sky.

 

A certain Mister Young, lurking nearby, stole my impromptu dance and made an entire career out of my humiliation.

This is why we must attack Canada, first.

 

I have NO idea what happened to either of them, as I soon became a bassplayer and you know how we are.

 

My knees still get twitchy when I play Louie Louie.

[charlie brown]

LOL! I can see it! I even know what guitar you are talking about!

 

CB