How old were you when you picked your first guitar up and what kind was it?

[pes_laul]

I first started skiddle diddling on my dads whatever brand acoustic then when i was 8 he got me a squire affinity strat wich is still the one i use today.:R

 

[WackyT]

Age: 41 (about 2 months ago)
Type: Fullerton Strat clone

 

[DaveO]

17 (about 100 years ago). On a borrowed Harmony acoustic.
One of these days I am going to learn to really play.
Dave

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

44; 1 & 1/2 years ago: Godin Radiator & Godin SD. Still my only guitars.

 

[Big K]

19 and a mid- 60's Fender Mustang

 

[sunvalleylaw]

About 38, having a received a Joshua acoustic as a gift. Plunked on that awhile then basically put it away a few years until starting lessons about a year and a month ago. Playing nearly every day, if only for just a little, since.

 

[Robert]

I was thirteen, and I picked up a guitar from a post order company called "Hobbex" (http://www.hobbex.se/). Complete piece of crap, but I was bitten by the guitar bug, and I upgraded to what I think was a black Stagg, a Les Paul copy.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

I was thirteen, and I picked up a guitar from a post order company called "Hobbex" (http://www.hobbex.se/). Complete piece of crap, but I was bitten by the guitar bug, and I upgraded to what I think was a black Stagg, a Les Paul copy.

Ok, the question is begging to be asked. How long until you switched to primarily strats from the LP copy? This is fun! Good to know some of this history about each other.

 

[Robert]

Hmm, good question, Steve! I don't really know. I had a bunch of different type of guitars until I got a strat. I had a strat when I was 17 or so, then I got rid of it and didn't get one until I was in my early twenties. I need to sit down some day and write down all the guitars I can remember I've had.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

It would be fun to see that list sometime!

 

[Spudman]

I don't even know the name of the acoustic, but it was bigger than I was and it was the same year that man first walked on the moon...that we know of.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

When I was 13 my uncle Freddy Ray gave me a really cool but old Stella acoustic (made by Harmony)...it was a black and reddish sunburst with wonderful tone. He taught me how to tune it and from there I learned how to tune my guitar to the "radio" to play along with songs I wanted to learn.

 

[Jimi75]

13/14 years old

White Synsonic STRAT-type guitar with Maple neck and black pickguard

Squier 15w amp - one channel

one curly cable

no strap

three picks

Book for starters with a felxible vinyl, if you remember those LPs....

 

[DaveO]

Cool. Those little flexible records that came in books. I haven't seen one of those in years.

 

[marnold]

I was 13, I think. The guitar was a POS rental acoustic from the music store. I hated it, it hated me, and my parents wouldn't get me an electric. I eventually got my own cheap POS acoustic that gradually fell apart. When I was 18 I got my first bass, which was also a cheap POS that weighed a ton. A couple of years later, I traded it in for a Peavey Fury p-bass. I foolishly sold that upon graduation from the Sem. Duh! I got my first electric when I was 31.

 

[ShortBuSX]

I was about 8 or 9...Id gotten bored with (breaking the strings on)the plastic toy novelty guitars and begged my parents to get me a real one...which I had to agree to leasons and that Id take it seriously. The dreams of being a rockstar came early for me...I agreed to the leasons, but had no idea what I was getting myself into. My first guitar was a nylon stringed beginner acoustic, the leasons followed. At first I was realy anxious to begin...but Mel Bay ruined whatever fun Id previously thought playing guitar would be...all the songs that Id hated as a kid I was now being taught how to play...wonderful songs that inspire children to takeup musical instruments, classics like Kumbiya, Shell Be coming Around The Mountain...terrible songs that annoy me to this day. I tired of the lessons, but not quite as soon as my teacher had...then he made a deal with me, that he wouldnt tell my parents I hadnt been practicing if I didnt tell them I wasnt learning anything...but I guess his concious got the best of him, because it wasnt long before he told my parents and the gig was up.

Bout 3 years later I was intorduced to the music of Motly Crue and Ratt and was inspired to buy an electric guitar with my own money(actually my parents matched my funds)...but this time without strings attached and on my own terms. Lessons did follow, but this time around learning songs I wanted to with the aid of "tabs" which seemed like a relitively new way of learning at the time. I played till I was 16 or so and then moved on to other hobbies and past times...I felt like Id hit a plateu and wasnt getting any better, my tastes in music were evolving. Id pick up my guitar every once again, but only as a temporary escape or challenge to test my memory and see if I still had the dexterity.

It wasnt till my birthday last year before Id even considered buying another guitar and taking it seriously again. I dont think Id be as into it if it werent for the internet and great places to learn stuff quickly, like here at the Fret or the Telecaster forum...or the hundreds of readily available tab sites.
AND people like ROBERT and DVM!R :R

 

[duhvoodooman]

My first was a total POS Kay acoustic with an action so high you could fly a small airplane under the strings and not hit the body. Sunburst finish, I remember. I was 15, and the first song I learned the chords to was Louie Louie, mostly 'cuz Smoke on the Water hadn't been written yet! LOL!! After that, I had an Epiphone acoustic for a while, then sold that and bought a Guild flattop that I had for several years; nice guitar. I didn't get my first electric until I got out of college and started working--an antique white Strat with a maple neck; real Hendrix-y guitar. Too bad I couldn't play like him!

 

[chordshredder]

My first a Kent single pickup, sort like a strat. Got it around age 13. Once, I was waiting for my guitar teacher, he shows up with three guys who had vapor locked their van. They got his interest because of the guitar cases in back and invited them to see the guitars he built. I visited with the first guy, his name was Tommy Shannon, then Stevie Ray came back out after the drummer went in to get him. He played a few licks on it. They werent famous yet. Crappy cheap guitar but will never part with it.

 

[Plank_Spanker]

12 years old when I bought my first guitar, a Framus Jazzmaster copy. I played the hell out of this guitar for years before I moved on..............


...........................and I still own it:

 

[Brian Krashpad]

I was probably about 12 or 13 (back in the early 1970's), and the guitar was my Dad's no-name MIJ acoustic. He had a rule for us kids: anyone who learns to play one of his intruments, he gives it to that kid. In my middle school they had a guitar class you could take as an elective, but I'd already started teaching myself with a Mel Bay book and a little help from my Dad (who is primarily a banjo player), so it was an easy "A."

I wanted to repeat the course, but the rule for those electives was before you could take guitar a second quarter or semester (can't remember which), you had to first take the other two insruments offered. So I took guitar, and then recorder, and then keyboard.

Then I took guitar again! Both times in the guitar class they just sat me out in the hall with a couple stoner kids who were way better than I, and they taught me stuff.

 

[aeolian]

I was 14 and it was the early 1960s. My parents bought an acoustic for me and my brother. It had action so high it was almost impossible to hold down chords. I built up callous quickly on it though. A year or so later we got a cheap Hofner electric and we started playing surf tunes with one of us on rhythm and the other on lead.

 

[R_of_G]

when i was 17 a friend got an electric [an sg if i remember correctly] and i messed around with it, but had no clue what i was doing. at about 22, two of my roommates played [one had an acoustic, the other an acoustic and a strat] so i messed around a bit more. finally at 29 i picked up a friend's guitar and decided that was it, i was learning to play, and seven years later i am still playing.

 

[Iago]

I was 18. (six years ago) It was a 2.000 Gianinni G-300: poplar body, rosewood FB and maple neck.. really basic. I remember I bought it 'cos I thought it looked like Billy Corgan's sunburst strat!

I always played friend's acoustics whenever I could since I was 15, though I never had one.

 

[7lords]

I was 15 and my friend got a MIA Strat. I knew then that someday I would own a guitar. Well it took 21 years but thanks to music123 and my wife putting up with it, I now own 5 electrics and a bass

 

[Iago]

There is it:

a fair amount of relic' ing over the years...

 

[guitartist]

Let's see...I got my first guitar exactly 40 years, one month and six days ago - I know the exact day because it was my sixth birthday, which just happened to be in the "Summer of love", 1967. You might think I was inspired to start playing by the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, or Hendrix's first album, or the Doors, etc...but no, Glen Campbell's appearances on the Smother Brothers show was what made me want to play guitar!

My first guitar was a crappy Winston acoustic, easily the worst acoustic I've ever played. It eventually completely fell apart about 10 years ago, I kept the neck...just couldn't bear to part with it.

Got my first electric for X-Mas 1970, at the age of nine. I think it came from Sears, it was very basic...wish I could remember what brand it was.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Got my first electric for X-Mas 1970, at the age of nine. I think it came from Sears, it was very basic...wish I could remember what brand it was.

Really?

Because I had a Sears electric guitar from about that time period and I'm GLAD I can't remember what brand it was. It was pretty awful.

 

[helliott]

'Twas 1967, which would make me all of 10. I bugged my parents for about a year and they finally gave in and bought me a big honkin red Grenada semi acoustic. (About 12 years ago I found it in a local music store, could tell by the marks on the back, and bought it. It sits in a box in the basement, awaiting renovation.)
Next was a gorgeous little Silvertone. Wish I still had that one.

 

[ted s]

I was in grade 5, so I guess I was about 10 (30 yrs. ago) Started taking lessons with a rental (make?). After a few months of that my parents bought me own accoustic (no branding on it, still have it) took lessons until I was 17 I think then other distractions took over. Picked it up after that very rarely with major discouragement. A year 1/2 ago a friend of my wifes needs her strings changed so I do that for her. I was bit once again. I started hacking around again very loosely until my wife surprised me with lessons for our anniversary last year. The instructor I have now is a pretty cool dude, mid-late 60ish, was signed on with Motown "back in the day" with The Vancouvers, met Jimi in London in the late 60's...I see him once a week and enjoy my time very much. I know I have alot to learn but I have surpassed where I left off in my teens. I have a greater appreciation for the music I enjoy as well as musicians of all levels.
Hanging out here with "you's guys" and my time with Ed (my instructor) is very inspiring.

Holy shat, sorry for the length..

 

[t_ross33]

Christmas 1972, two days before my 5th birthday. My Dad (or Santa, can't remember which) gave me a 3/4 scale strat-ish solidbody. I didn't have an amp, but I think that was on purpose Didn't really learn anything, but banged around on it for a couple of years until it was lost, along with everything we owned in a house fire.

Fast forward a few years, Dad showed me a couple of chords, but I had trouble stretching my fingers out to reach all the required strings, so I stuck with strumming (badly) A and D or something like that.

The farming community I grew up in was very close knit and there were lots of musicians and jam sessions/parties to be found. Wanting, but not able to join in , I started providing percussion by way of "spoons" Someone mentioned that Dad needed to buy me a set of drums, but a friend intervened and said, "No we need a bass player" and gave me a short scale nameless bass that one of his kids played once upon a time. I pounded away on that throughout my teens until I went to college and spent my student loan money on the Westone I still have today.

Somewhere along the line I picked up my Dad's acoustic and started strumming away. I also have that guitar to this day (the Yamaha which my Dad purchased after the house fire to replace the one he lost).

Although I played (bass for the most part) in bands throughout my teens and early twenties, I've been strictly a bedroom player up until a year and a half ago when I was asked to join a band and play LEAD guitar - crap! I didn't even own an electric at that point!!

So here I am...