Show Your First Guitar

[bobio]

Fender CD-280s Dred bought in 2009.
Just an inexpensive entry level acoustic guitar.
It had its problems out of the box, took it to a local luthier.
He replaced the nut as he "said" the slots were too low.
When I got it back, it was worse than when I sent it to him
Found Bob Colosi on the internet and sent it off to him.
He put in a new bone nut, saddle and bridge pins and did a setup.
If I recall, he didn't do it himself, he has a luthier he works with.

Welcome to Custom Guitar Saddles

guitarsaddles.com

Still have the guitar today and it still plays like a dream.

 

[loudboy]

Teisco, right after bringing it home from the store - 1967, 10 years old.

 

[HootOwlDude]

My first electric anyways. My Mom bought it for me from Apple Music in Fredericksburg, VA in probably ‘89 or maybe ‘90. A partscaster, obvs. It was the one on the wall that grabbed me. I knew jack about electrics, but I picked the right one! The body might be a Fernandez, but that’s a guess because the neck plate has that name. Pretty sure the body is mahogany. I forget what the neck is but I remember from the last time I looked at the heel it is from a California company. It is a nice birdseye maple/rosewood neck, though could stand a refret. The headstock decal was added by me in my twenties when I had too much time on my hands. It reads Fiender Freakocaster with my phone # at the time as the serial #. Stupid. . I actually made it with MS Paint on my IBM and printed it on dollar store tattoo paper and laquered it on. Has stood the test of time! It had EMGs in it with a white pickguard when I got it. The EMGs died. The torty guard here is a drop-in fashioned with Mighty-Mites that are not all that bad. The trem bridge does not move and never has since I’ve had it. The nut is the leftover part from what appears to have been one of those microtune deals. Works fine! Sounds great! Will never part with it!!

 

[Telecaster88]

Ibanez Roadstar II, my mom got it for me for my birthday in 1984. Technically I had an unidentified acoustic for a few months a few years earlier, but I never really played it.

And that's my matching dad.

When I got my '88 Tele I traded the Ibanez to my bass player for a 70s Epiphone acoustic. She still has it (and I still have her Epi).

 

[BryMelvin]

Here's my first.

I started my musical journey one week after I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan
show. That was 1964 and I was 10 years old. When I asked my parents if I could
take music lessons, my dad was elated as he had tried to teach me clarinet when
I was 5. I was not interested at that time, so he didn't push the issue. He
was very happy that I was now showing interest in learning music.

I took lessons from Norman English studios in Lansing Mi. RIP. He had made a name for himself
in the big band era playing lap steel. He was a great teacher.
My first few months of once weekly lessons, were spent playing on a 5 dollar per week rental.

It was a pos Stella acoustic that cost at least 30 or 40 dollars new. lol The action at the
12th fret was unplayable with the strings being a half inch off the fret board. I remember measuring
it with a ruler. It was all my young fingers could do to play chords in the open position.

My parents wanted to see if I would stick with it before committing to buying an instrument for
me. Norman had started a company called English Electronics, and he had Valco make one for him
that he could sell to his students. It had Tonemaster by English Electronics on the head stock. $150. CASE INCLUDED.lol

The guitar has a reso body with a very unique design for the time, and that is the acoustic/peizo
style pickup buried in the body under the bridge, along with a humbucker.

I took lessons from Norman for a couple of years before stopping. In hindsight, I wish I had continued
the lessons, however the foundational building blocks he taught me were there and have served me well.
I've been self taught ever since. I hope I never quit learning. Thanks Norman.

'65 Tonemaster Electric by English Electronics

Show yours and share a story or two.

My first guitar was actually more of a uke

Here's my first.

I started my musical journey one week after I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan
show. That was 1964 and I was 10 years old. When I asked my parents if I could
take music lessons, my dad was elated as he had tried to teach me clarinet when
I was 5. I was not interested at that time, so he didn't push the issue. He
was very happy that I was now showing interest in learning music.

...


Show yours and share a story or two.

My first guitar was actually more of a Ukelele. Don;t have a pic . Borrowed this from Ebay. This was around 1956 or 57.

 

[FuncleManson]

Mid-sixties Harmony Stella H927. A gift from my brother-in-law. I still have it.

 

[David C]

I would love to show a photo of my first guitar, but the JC Penny catalog it came from was lost over 50 years ago. It was a real POS.

 

[Red Ryder]

1966 Silvertone Silhouette still have it.

 

[Beachbum]

Fender Coronado circa 1969.

 

[dsutton24]

 

[StoneH]

1934 National Duolian. Handed down from Grandfather, to Father, to me. At 10 years old, I didn't know what a steel guitar was and actually learned to play chords on it (ouch!)

 

[Papanate]

The First guitar was a Classical Guitar bought at Thearle Music Co in La Mesa at Grossmont Center. It came with 5 lessons, a strap and a weird Music book (with things like Greensleves and other not fun for me music). Long since gone - I don't even remember who I sold it to. This is not my guitar - but it is one just like it.

My first electric was a Les Paul Style guitar from Sears - It played okay - and I had a real Gibson Humbucker put in the Bridge by American Dream Music. I only have the Sears Wish List Catalog to remember it from. I didn't get the Amp.

 

[yegbert]

1934 National Duolian. Handed down from Grandfather, to Father, to me. At 10 years old, I didn't know what a steel guitar was and actually learned to play chords on it (ouch!)

I can relate to that! My dad had a Hawaiian steel acoustic, but had quit playing it by the time I was a teen. It was made to be tuned to some open tuning and barred with a steel bar. The action was too high to fret, but I could hear what the note should have sounded like with a muted plunk sound. I had a chart in my piano book showing the standard tuning EADGBE. So I tuned it to that and learned basic cowboy chords on it. That was the first guitar I “played”.

 

[Fretting out]

My first guitars were my dads Gibson marauder and 72 tele, the tele felt better but the Gibson sounded better

The first guitar that was mine was a cheap Jackson super strat that I got on my birthday in 2003, it’s crap compared to guitars of the same price today

My first professional grade guitar that was mine was a 79-8O fender lead ii I got a year after the Jackson

 

[middy]

My dad had a Gibson F-25 like this around the house when I was a kid. I finally decided to pick it up and learn how to play it when I was about 16. I practiced my butt off and he let me trade it for a Guild S-250 a year later when I joined the high school jazz band.

Because the band director was sick of looking at my pink Series10 Strat copy

 

[gitold]

My brother had a little mahogany Gibson that he never played so I learned on that, cowboy chords and some leads. This was in 69. I convinced my Mom to sign for a new Tele at Joe Fava’s music store on 8 mile. 2 of my favorites, Joe Walsh and Jimi Page played them so they must be good. When I got to the store with Mom the salesman convinced us that any smart young musician knew that the way to go was the Fender Jazzmaster for only a few dollars more a month. Knowing nothing about electric guitars except that the Jazzmaster looked like a rocket ship compared to the Tele we got the Jazzmaster (At full price). When I brought it home my older brother who was in bands and had played for years asked me why I bought a Beachboys guitar. Years later I realized he had sold me a 65 or 66 NOS that had been sitting in the store for years (this was 1970) because it had binding with dot fret markers. I loved that guitar even though between it and my Ampeg Gemini VI I had the cleanest sounding rig money could buy which wasn’t what you wanted back then. Traded it for a Ovation in 72 because who wouldn’t want a guitar that was both electric and acoustic!! Wish I still had that Jazzmaster. Bad Polaroid pic is all I have left of it.

 

[Ed Driscoll]

First guitar was a Woolworth acoustic with strings seemingly a foot off the fretboard that my parents bought for me when I was ten years old, so I could take lessons in school and learn first position chords. Sadly I don't have a photo of it.

First electric guitar was a Hondo II Les Paul clone (which weighed as much as Norlin Les Pauls typically weighed back then) bought from Sunset Music in Willingboro, NJ in December of 1982, along with a Marshall Lead 12 amp:

Guitar and amp were purchased a few weeks after buying this at the Moorestown Mall and burying my head in it:

 

[jays0n]

Not the absolute first, but close to it.

This poor thing, an early 80's Fender Bullet. I just had to make it better by hacking off its integral metal "bridge," drilling it for string-through ferules, and installing a left hand strat bridge. Sure wish I'd left it alone. Thus began a lifetime of molesting perfectly good instruments.

View attachment 940795

It does have a nice neck, if a little small for my paws. I keep it out of sentimentality and as a reminder not to mess with stuff. It hasn't worked

Mine was an 81 Bullet as well. Your creative mods are pretty creative. The others in the Bullet (80s Bullets not current bullet line) would probably enjoy seeing and hearing about it:

Fender Bullet Owners Club

Don't imagine there are a lot of folks with these, but have seen a few around TDPRI and hope we could get those, as well as fans, the curious, and ... so on and so on, together to chat about the guitar. I actually tried to start similar thing in a Yahoo group but that died miserably. Hope this...

www.tdpri.com

 

[jays0n]

My mom and uncle got together to buy me an 81 Bullet in the early 80s. I never really bonded with it then but it was what I had. Now I treasure them out of nostalgia. Here is what it looked like (from photos of one I bought later, also from the thread about them: https://www.tdpri.com/threads/fender-bullet-owners-club.166850/):

The top load bridge design, with the individual saddles, while pretty darn creative on Mr. Page’s part, always rattled too much for me. Now, I have one I modified to have three saddles from a Tele and I like it much more:

 

[wblynch]

My first guitar was an Airline from Montgomery Wards. My mom gave it to me for Christmas in 1965. I was 13. It cost her $35. It was pretty junky. Had a single pickup and a wooden bridge. I don’t have a picture but here is one like it.