First Guitar

[just strum]

Ok, I did a search and I couldn't find if this was already done.

Post pics of your first guitar or find one like it on the web to post.

Here's mine, purchased from a hardware store. It's a Truetone. This is not my actual guitar, but same color and model and I didn't have a case. It weighted a ton and I never knew how to tune it. I was probably 8 years old and I eventually became more interested in taking it apart and then moved on to drums.

 

[pes_laul]

It was a really nice guitar now it just needs to be upgraded. it is either a late 80's or early 90's affinity strat (or atleast that is what the guy who sold it to me said)

 

[ted s]

the acoustic, 1976-1977, I was in grade 5.

 

[bigoldron]

Mine was a Fender Coronado II, similar to this one:

Mine was a metallic green, though. Like too many kids, I got rid of it for whatever reason. It really was a sweet player and I'd love to have it back, in fact, I'd say I'd give my left arm to have it back, but that'd kinda defeat the purpose...

Oh well, maybe one day...

 

[just strum]

Ron,

Yep, that would be a nice one to have back.

 

[bigoldron]

Don't I know it...

 

[sunvalleylaw]

These are the only pics I have of it right now.

It is called a Joshua. It was made in northern California or maybe Oregon by a now defunct company. My wife gave it to me for Christmas around 6-7 years ago. I learned to plunk a little on it, figuring out a version of "Hush Little Baby" for our at that time very young kids, but did not make it much further until May '06 when I started lessons. It now has some serious fret buzzing issues and a hump in the neck where it joins the body and needs some work. If I fret high E at 10 at get a note at 12 or 13 right now.

Here is a partial clip made a coupla nights ago to test out recording it via mic.

http://www.box.net/shared/9h25rks0s4

You can hear all the annoying buzzing, etc. The nut is likely too low, according to the Martin rep that tried to help it out last year. It worked for a while, whatever he did, but alas, the strap on the gig bag it used to be in gave way and it bonked. No visible damage, but that nice set up was gone. When set up properly, it is a bright sounding guitar that has its own vibe. I may move on to a new acoustic, but wonder if I could get anything for it, and think it is best kept as a camping/campfire guitar if I can give it some economical care.

 

[Gil Janus]

My 1973 Léro Model 58 Dreadnought. It's a Korean guitar - I got it at a small music store in the East Village in NYC. I think I paid $150 for it new. It still sounds very nice - even though it has not had that much playing during it's 35 years of it's life. I first learned on it, many friends played it more than me in my different apartments in the East Village or the West Village. It even was used as an emergency replacement for a friends guitar so he could perform at coffee houses and bars back in the 70s. His was stolen - he made some money over months of time - bought a new guitar and returned it to me.

It needs some work now - the bushing for the B-string tuner is missing - how I don't know! It's been sitting in my house in Vermont for the last few years in the basement - but it's not warped or beaten up - just well worn. I gave it a really good cleaning and polishing not too long ago. I put a set of D'Addario EJ16s (12-53) on it. It's now in my bedroom studio and I play it now and again.

Gil

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Mine's the acoustic 6-string below, a gift from my dad. (His rule was: any of us kids that learned how to play one of his instruments, was given that instrument.) No-name 70's MIJ.

 

[mechanic]

My first guitar was a SG copy that Sears was selling in their catalogues in the 70's.
Typical SG but it had a weird pair of slider switches for pickup selection instead of the 3 way toggle switch.
The sliders were mounted near the lower cutaway next to the lower "horn".
Red in color, bolt on neck ect.
It was junk looking back on it, but I wish I still had it
Eric

 

[Jimi75]

A white Synsonic Strat clone with matched headstock, maple neck, black pickguard and hardware. This guitar rocked! It cost about 150 USD.

 

[Bloozcat]

The first guitar I ever owned was a brand called "Hi-Lo". It was a cheap Japanese, nylon string accoustic from the mid 1960's when Japan was still making a lot of junk. From the day I got it, to the last time I ever picked it up, it could not be properly tuned. The scale was off, and so likewise, the intonation. The last time I saw that guitar was many years ago when my little brother was El Cabong-ing something with it.

The next guitar was a Japanese Teisco made electric that had a general Strat type body shape. I can't remember the actual brand name on the headstock, but these guitars were sold in department stores like W.T. Grant's, Woolworth's, and Kresge's (like a trip down memory lane, huh?).

There were three retro-type single coils in it. The kind that were rectangular in shape, with chrome covers around the edge of the pickup and the center around the pole pieces bare. It had slide switches for the pickup selectors, and a tremolo. It was tunable and playable, although the neck felt like a 2X4.

Finally, in 1970, I bought a used Strat for $100.00 that was made in January 1966. It was one of the last of the pre-CBS headstock types, in a three color nitro sunburst. I have a permanent dent in my forehead where I've banged my head against the wall for having sold that guitar...

 

[Katastrophe]

My first guitar was a nylon string Hondo acoustic. I put steel strings on it and over a few years pretty much destroyed the guitar. I don't think the guitar had a truss rod in it, and the steel strings over time ate through the bridge and nut, and warped the neck terribly. That's what I get for trying to get a metal tone out of a nylon string acoustic.

I don't have the guitar anymore, but it looked something like this.

 

[JJ Gross]

My first was so bad they didn't even put a brand on it.
335 copy with a fake Bigsby, bolt neck and a neck made of about 75 layers of thin strips glued together. Probably more glue than wood. Sounded like manure. Played like manure. Heavy headstock wanted to live on the floor. When I bought my second guitar, I screwed the first one to the wall of the barn my band jammed in and left it there. I don't miss it or the bleeding under my fingernails it caused learning to play it.

My second was a 66 Fender Strat in beat up white that I paid $180 for including the cream tolex case. Stolen long ago, I miss that one.

 

[Childbride]

mine was a washburn Augusta. i came home from court totally in a snit one day (after i'd finally really made up my mind to learn this thing that we do), and there was this huge box on the pool table when i walked in the door. i named her Autumn, and i've been neglecting her horribly lately... [pang of guilt]

[must go play the acoustics, must go play the acoustics... but having so much fun playing electric] :rockon:

 

[just strum]

mine was a washburn Augusta. i came home from court totally in a snit one day (after i'd finally really made up my mind to learn this thing that we do), and there was this huge box on the pool table when i walked in the door. i named her Autumn, and i've been neglecting her horribly lately... [pang of guilt]

[must go play the acoustics, must go play the acoustics... but having so much fun playing electric] :rockon:

Wow, I remember that. I forgot that Shiner was playing and then you joined in. I still think it's cool that you two can grab some guitars and jam. You and the Rockets have a cool set-up. -ah, good thread to start - how many people have a spouse, girl friend, boy friend, that also plays guitar? I think Robert falls into that group if memory serves me right.

 

[MrsBigtx]

first guitar.......

Hung on my fathers wall for years in the laste 60"s early 70's (literally by the strap) I picked it up one day and said can I try this? The journey began......

still have it to this day. 1962 Gibson J-50 (blonde version of the J45). Father bought it in a pawn shop for $25 bucks in Knoxville, TN now worth well over $1500. He Lived in the country wanted to play with the local folk, who played bluegrass. Ended up playing a protest song on local radio station of local corrupt govt. He was a Hippie

 

[strumsalot]

Hung on my fathers wall for years in the laste 60"s early 70's (literally by the strap) I picked it up one day and said can I try this? The journey began......

still have it to this day. 1962 Gibson J-50 (blonde version of the J45). Father bought it in a pawn shop for $25 bucks in Knoxville, TN now worth well over $1500. He Lived in the country wanted to play with the local folk, who played bluegrass. Ended up playing a protest song on local radio station of local corrupt govt. He was a Hippie

Cool story.

 

[Spudman]

Fender Jaguar

I'm not sure of the year of mine but it had dots on the fretboard and not rectangles. Someone had repainted it some horrible tomato color before I bought it. Otherwise I borrowed guitars while learning to play.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Cool!! I didn't know you started on a jaguar. How was it? They have a cool old retro vibe to them.

 

[t_ross33]

Cool!! I didn't know you started on a jaguar. How was it? They have a cool old retro vibe to them.

And if it weren't for Jimi, we'd all be GASing for those slick Roadhouse Jags, or Highway 1 Jags, or David Gilmour signature "Blackie" Jags, or Pre-CBS-Buy-out Jags

 

[ZMAN]

My first decent electric was a cherry red 1969 SG copy with a bolt on neck. It was by a new company that nobody had heard of I B A N E Z. I had it about 5 months and then sold it and bough my Gibson SG Special, that I still have.
I paid 125 dollars for it and it was a pretty nice guitar, apparently made in Japan. It was almost exactly like the Gibson SG and even had the open book headstock. I think there was a later lawsuit about these. I was a real newbie then and I didn't know what I had. My friend and teacher had a Gibson SG Custom and I bought a similar guitar but with the p90s. I didn't really like it because of the bolt on neck. It was almost exactly attached like a strat, and I liked the feel of the set neck Gibsons.

 

[Dreadman]

I was 13 when I got my first guitar (acoustic) and I never paid enough attention to the name on the headstock to remember it. Thinking back it might have been a Maestro and was probably a dread but I couldn't say either for sure. It cost me a pair of ice skates on the neighborhood barter market.

It now has some serious fret buzzing issues and a hump in the neck where it joins the body and needs some work. If I fret high E at 10 at get a note at 12 or 13 right now.

Very common problem. If you want more info about it and the steps for a low effort, low cost do-it-yourself repair start a new thread and I'll post what I know.

 

[KrisH]

An Egmond "Made in Holland" parlor-sized nylon string classical my folks got me for my birthday or something in 1967 or '68. They got it at the Discount store my mom worked at (pre-Walmart) and probably paid $20. Surprisingly, I still have it, although the laminated top has become sunken in the past 2 or 3 years (don't know why after so many decades of poor storage), resulting in horrendous action and intonation. It was a halfways decent player until then. Here it is (note the "0th" fret):

Unfortunately, I lost my first electric I got about a half year later (a Decca) and my first bass I got shortly after that (a Hagstrom "Cromwell").

 

[kerc]

This is mine, a 1998 Hamer Slamer DA3 Strat-copy. Still with me, after three pickguard changes and four pickup changes. Everything else is original. Dings and scratches came naturally, too.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Nice Kerc!! With all your Revs, I kinda forgot about this one. I like it! Looks like a good old warrior.

That reminds me, maybe our own Rev. Rawk needs a Rev guitar!