What was your first guitars?

[Stratocast]

A 60's Stella with horrible action. Long gone but not missed. First electric Ibanez ST-100. Still have, play and love!

Wow cool
Guitar

 

[december]

MIM Fender Strat, something like royal blue. I think it was only around $250 in 1999. It's long gone.

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

In the early 80's I learned to play guitar on a long term loaner from a family friend, who also showed me a few chords to tide me over before I signed up for lessons. It was a 1968 Telecaster, blond with a white guard, with the two piece maple neck (no skunk stripe). Quite a guitar to learn on, and it started me off on my lifelong love for the Telecaster.

I played that guitar for a few years before I got my own, a red 335. I believe he still has that guitar, but we've lost touch and I haven't seen that Tele in twenty years.

 

[guitarhawg]

My first electric was a Memphis just like this one…it was an upgrade from a beat up old Strad-o-Lin classical acoustic that my neighbor gave me.

 

[jrblue]

First: Harmony classical, which sucked beyond belief. Plywood, brass frets, lightly black-stained fretboard... everything the cheapest possible. Eventually graduated to a Sovereign, which was much better but those guitars are still genuinely crappy (except for miked recordings). First electric: A genuinely no-name MIJ garbage guitar -- like the Harmony, with the worst and cheapest everything, everywhere. I'll never "get" the idea that truly crappy guitars like these are somehow fun or cool, because they play poorly, sound bad, and fall apart. It took too many years for me to be able to own a genuinely decent guitar (an old Guild Bluesbird -- they were cheap back then) and the difference was massive. I loved making music regardless of the instrument, but there's no way I would ever claim that those junkwagon cheapie guitars were at all helpful or good. They just existed, and that was enough -- and all you got.

 

[Slammin Sammy]

Like many others, I got a Harmony round hole acoustic for my thirteenth birthday. It was ok because I didn’t know any better. 2 years later, I bought a brand new 1967 blonde Tele with maple neck. I still have it (It’s been resprayed and cosmetically updated).

The P-Bass is 1977, stock standard, also from new.

 

[Cowboy Chords]

In 1966 I got a 3 pickup Japanese Kingston for Christmas. After a year or two I got a red Fender Mustang at a pawn shop In Texas. Traded it in 1973 an Alvarez acoustic I still own. Not the smartest trade.

 

[willholt92]

My first guitar was a red Squier Strat as part of a starter pack with a Fender Frontman 15. I bought this new in 2004 ish.
Stock picture.

I fully rebuilt the Strat a few years ago, after it had been hung on my wall and not played for a couple years.
Fully stripped the poly finish and respray in Nitro, sanded and oiled the neck, hand wound pickups, bone nut, CTS pots, Full size steel trem block.
It's such a nice guitar now I was pretty shocked how well it turned out.

A year or so later, I converted the Frontman into an undercover Tweed Princeton.
So my starter pack is now an awesome little rig.

 

[Ricoblues]

in 1970... My first acoustic was an Ibanez Hummingbird like model, the first electric was a Fender Mustang. Then a Telecaster and many other guitars but the Telecaster always in first place.

 

[bgmacaw]

Woah, some of you guys have started off with actual Fenders, that would definitely be something I could only dream of. Anytime I get somewhat close to buying one something else pops up and then I have to buy that instead.

I almost bought a Gibson LP Custom like the one below that would have been my first electric. The local music store that was selling it had it discounted down to just under $600 and they would have thrown in a small used amp (maybe a GA-5) for not much more. I had just finished up a lucrative summer job at a beach resort plus high school graduation money so I had the cash. My Dad said that it would be foolish for me to buy it since he wouldn't allow me to play it in his house. He said that I should get something more practical. So, I ended up buying a Minolta SLR camera rig instead. (EDIT: This was circa the mid-1970's)

 

[somebodyelseuk]

I learned on my Dad's (actually belonged to his brother, who died before I was born) '62 Hawk acoustic.
First guitar that was mine, my parents' bought for my 16th birthday from Mameloks on Deansgate in Manchester, was a Satellite Strat-a-like in 1983.
First electric I bought was a new Yamaha SG1000S a year later, and first acoustic a year after that was an Ovation Applause.
Sorry, no pictures, as I don't have the Applause or Satallite anymore, but the Yamaha I still have and is in other threads.

 

[surfsup1955]

EKO Ranger, a decent but cheap acoustic guitar. I bought it during my first Med Cruise in 1974 (USS Independence) while on liberty in Naples Italy. I have no photos or recollection of whatever happened to that guitar but I’m sure I sold or traded it for better equipment within a year or two of returning to civilian life. As there was little to do “out to sea” after my shift was up, I do recall playing the snot out if it for many many many hours - usually with several other shipmates.

Recently I was surprised that Rick Beato featured an EKO Ranger in one of his YouTube episodes ‘What Makes This Song So Great’ documenting Led Zep’s making of Ramble On. Evidently Page used a EKO Ranger for the incredible acoustic track of that song?

 

[tomir]

What was your very first electric and acoustic? I'll start with my first guitar being a rouge dreadnought which I still have and is undergoing a refinish. My first electric was a series 10 danelectro copy. Post pics if you can, I'll have to find mine. Let's see some guitars!

An old, cheap version of Stratocaster. Did not like it and concentrated on playing my nylon string acoustic instead. Had I started with a Telecaster, I would have enjoyed playing much more and never gone on hiatus. Neighbours, though, must have been were pleased with my decision. So, I finally bought a mint 2007 mex tele in 2013 and have kept playing it every day. Only pick acoustic when the rest of the family is sleeping and/or if I cannot find me earphones.

 

[Karmaburner]

What was your very first electric and acoustic? I'll start with my first guitar being a rouge dreadnought which I still have and is undergoing a refinish. My first electric was a series 10 danelectro copy. Post pics if you can, I'll have to find mine. Let's see some guitars!

My very first guitar was a cheap ($25) acoustic with strings about an inch off the fret board. After struggling for a few weeks, a buddy came over to teach me a few chords, tried my guitar and said “get a real guitar”. I called up another friend that always had lots of guitars around and he suggested his 1959 Gibson LG-1. That was 40 years ago and I still have this sweetie (though technically my second guitar).

 

[BlueGillGreg]

Tell me that wasn't City Music Center in Newark.

My first acoustic was a steel string spruce top looking dreadnought. I couldn't remember the name if I had to.

Bought a suction cup 'contact microphone ' type pick-up and played it through my Dad's Heathkit stero amplifier using a 1/4" phone to RCA plug adapter.

My first electric, bought with accumulated gift and paper route money was a '65 3/4 size Fender Mustang from - you guessed it- City Music Center. Still remember the salesman playing blues riffs that I would kill to duplicate, to this day.

I matched it with a brand new Princeton Reverb.

Sold both about 1990 for not enough money, and still regret it.

(Selling it - not the money.)

We went to Rondo Music, I think it was on Rte 22. I remember being awed at the wall of ukes. I was about 5 years old. At 12 I started to deliver the Newark News and the Elizabeth Daily Journal. My money went into a Peugeot ten speed, though I delivered papers on a Columbia 3 speed with bigger tires and big chrome baskets. 2 rides, whoo-ee!

Newark was a fun and exciting place to go. We really enjoyed the Holiday decorations, shopping, museums... until the riots. Oh well.

I traded my S-1 for an old Guild hollow body archtop with a single fake P-90. My brother still has that guitar. I picked up another S-1 on EBay about 15 years ago.

That Princeton must have been nice. The Mustang was such a great guitar for kids. What a great pair!

I wonder if so many people accumulate so much gear because it stings so much to have let go of something that helped shape our expression, so we overcompensate by clinging to a lot of other stuff even though it hasn't had the same level of impact on our playing?

 

[soundcloset]

A Spanish guitar my grandmother left around; she and Pop-pop got it on a missions trip somewhere south. First steel string I bought was a Guild Madeira I got at the mall and switched the strings around. First electric was the first in a long series of home-made attempts to hone in on quality and a clear sense of what I wanted. Being an adolescent that was never the same thing from start to finish. First amp was a reel-to-reel tape deck. first amp I bought was a Peavy Bandit 65.

 

[Moosewatcher]

My first electric. My uncle bought it new, paid 69 dollars for it and gave it to me after about 3 months. The pic is not actually of mine, but it's the same exact guitar. These sell for about 900 to $1000 now, if you can find one. I believe they were made for Sears by Dan Electro.

My first acoustic, and my first guitar actually, was a Harmony. It was all black laminate and I paid $25 dollars for it.

I don't have either now. Sold everything I owned when I got drafted in 1972.

 

[musicamex]

My first guitars are now 60 yr old history from pawn shops in Detroit bought with golf caddy money. I have quite a few now going back to the late 60s purchased new. I build electric guitars now but when I dont feel like plugging in I still play my 68 Martin (purchased new) and A. Dotras Cordoba purchased new in Barcelona in 67.

photo of my collection. A few are one of a kind.

 

[ReverendRevolver]

In 1999 I got a squire strat starter pack for Christmas. Blue. With a garbage ss champ, thin picks(what were they thinking at the music store? 10 year old me snapped them all in half...) tuner, strings, strap, etc.
I put a wide staple through the hole in the strap on the horn end and pinched it with pliers. It stopped falling off. After that, some other modifications happened:
Strap, straplocks, duct tape covering, lace sensors (gold, used, either birthday money or waxed a large boat for the money, don't remember). Locking tuners, because even without the trem moving, it didn't stay in tune.
I bought a V in my early teens and sold it when I was maybe 15/16. I was out of my "tapping shredding tweetly deetly metal phase" and the action was better but I liked the neck less and loved offsets. So I'd evolved into grunge and blues and kept using the strat until i picked up my Toronado when I was 16ish.
Still have the strat, might get it plekd for giggles, after I redo the headstock a bit (might buy a Squier waterslide, also funny).

Acoustic. I don't have access to it right now, but I may add in pictures later. Alvarez solid spruce top. Whatever the cheapest one of those were in the middle 2000s. My dad got it for me for Christmas when I was 16 or 17. It now only frets notes on frets 1to7, should probably get it worked on.
I don't count the $5 yardsale acoustics that I'd fix and give to people (you could replace a broken tuning peg, oil the gears, and slap on used strings from an electric because they were shorter scale).

Amps are another story.

I'm liking how this thread shows the trends in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and beyond. Lots of teisco stuff. Little Dano/Sears stuff. The primary trend is "Whatever my family could afford in 19XX" . Other thing I'm noticing is people who start on electric typically get a better Acoustic when they buy one, and people who start on acoustic get a better, giggable, electric when they buy one. Such is the gift of experience starting with the 1.5" off the board action of cheaper cast-off guitars in the beginning.

 

[MikiLoving]

What was your very first electric and acoustic? I'll start with my first guitar being a rouge dreadnought which I still have and is undergoing a refinish. My first electric was a series 10 danelectro copy. Post pics if you can, I'll have to find mine. Let's see some guitars!

The first guitar I ever played was a mid 60's VOX semi hollow body. It wasn't until I went into the service that I bought my first acoustic. A green Fender that I saw in the Philippines. Later when I returned stateside I traded a quarter ounce for a 70's Takamine lawsuit D18 that I kept for 30 some years until I gave it away to a lad my daughter was dating. He dumped he 2 weeks later and kept the guitar. My first electric was in 1976, a blonde Gibson Flying V year unknown. I didn't like it and gave it away to someone, I forget who. My next acoustic was a 1990 Martin D 28. My next electric was a 1997 Tex mex special tele in sonic blue. Since then Ive acquired 13 more.