How old were you when you picked your first guitar up and what kind was it? [Archive] - Guitar Discussion Forum

sunvalleylaw

June 15th, 2007, 10:29 PM

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

June 15th, 2007, 10:35 PM

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

June 15th, 2007, 10:38 PM

It would be fun to see that list sometime!

Spudman

June 15th, 2007, 11:15 PM

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

June 16th, 2007, 12:21 AM

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

June 16th, 2007, 03:45 AM

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

June 16th, 2007, 04:39 AM

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

marnold

June 16th, 2007, 09:52 AM

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

June 16th, 2007, 01:24 PM

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!:DR :R

duhvoodooman

June 16th, 2007, 02:13 PM

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! ;) :D

chordshredder

June 16th, 2007, 02:36 PM

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

June 16th, 2007, 02:37 PM

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: :D

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a36/axepilot/Framuspostpic.jpg

Brian Krashpad

June 19th, 2007, 09:12 AM

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

June 19th, 2007, 10:40 AM

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

June 19th, 2007, 11:23 AM

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

June 19th, 2007, 11:24 AM

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! :D

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

7lords

June 20th, 2007, 08:20 AM

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

June 20th, 2007, 08:37 AM

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

guitartist

July 11th, 2007, 06:38 AM

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

July 11th, 2007, 07:16 AM

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.

:D

helliott

July 11th, 2007, 06:49 PM

'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

July 11th, 2007, 07:50 PM

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

July 12th, 2007, 05:30 PM

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 :D 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" :o 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... :p

stingx

July 12th, 2007, 07:34 PM

1981 when I was 14. The very first guitar was a Cort Les Paul Jr. copy that my father picked up somewhere for about $50. It was god awefull to play - the action was extremely high and the fret ends were quite sharp. I played that thing constantly though. I think I traded it for a Les Paul Custom knockoff. It wasn't until my 16th birthday that my dad surprised me with an '83 Kramer Pacer Imperial. The first quality guitar I owned. I took a trip with him to the factory in Neptune, NJ a month or so after getting the guitar because I wanted something changed on it (can't remember now) and ended up meeting Eddie Van Halen there. Very brief meeting where he spoke a few words over the duration of a cigarette. I recall him being quite pleasant.

Robert

July 12th, 2007, 08:24 PM

I think the first electric I ever tried was a Cort Les Paul copy. I was 12 or 13. My buddy had one, and I wanted one so bad after that. He could also play better than me so I was determined to practice and get better than him...

stingx

July 12th, 2007, 08:40 PM

Fingers

July 13th, 2007, 06:09 AM

How old was I........?

Well, I remember being in a lovely warm, dark place......and I found that there was a cord coming out of my tummy...and if I pulled it tight and plucked it.....it made a note. After a while I could play a tune on it.........

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q110/Mutt_33/baby_jack_daniels.jpg

Then one day I was grabbed by my ankles, hauled out into a very bright place, hung upside down and someone smacked me on the arse..................

Justaguyin_nc

July 13th, 2007, 07:43 AM

I dunno how young I first tried... 6-8 with a Woolworth Acoustic.. very first then put down.
At 46-47 got a Sigma Acoustic and been trying ever since. First Electric was a Epiphone Strat Copy.

I am in a fickled state of mind...
How young can they be to learn or hold one...
I always have told the girlfriend, When the Kids and Grandbabies are around they can do as they please
with my guitars etc...
it's all just material things and might spark an interest for them.

Well, My Jimmie Vaughan is a pretty nice guitar that I really enjoy..
But it seems this little one who has been bottle feed from birth, has decided she enjoys it to.

I like to leave the guitar in the stand to grab at will so I keep practicing.
However, although this is just a material Item...
I think she is getting overly excited lately on her new found love of guitar playing.
As you can see from the picture.. she is really starting to
get a grip on the barr chord thing...
She likes the higher end of the neck much better.

Question:
should I make her wear the shoulder strap this early in learning..
or let her do as she wishes?

http://a862.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/120/l_45c852af61cb5b8755279f274402886d.jpg

R_of_G

July 13th, 2007, 08:16 AM

my cat likes to climb up and sit on my amp when i have all my stuff piled up by the door ready to go out and play. unfortuantely by the time i grab a camera he is usally gone.

Big_Rob

July 13th, 2007, 08:57 AM

My first guitar was an old Multivox Strad-O-Lin I bought back in the day for 30.00 when I was 13

havenfun0001

June 4th, 2009, 09:38 AM

Great question. I was 15 and had played drums for 1.5 years. My mate introduced me to hsi friend that had his dads 72 American Strat and a 69? Rickenbacker bass that we used to jam on. Talk about spoiled! The strat has been gigged and re fretted so many times now that it cannot handle a new fret job and the neck needs to be replaced, or it has to be retired to keep it from mods. My mate is now a drummer in a hot band and is saving enough to get another guitar to compare as he can't go to a cheap copy after being raised on such a fine axe. I don't know what he will get, but he is looking at saving a few grand before he walks into a music store as a guitarist again. He is a Fender man and now realises how lucky he was. So do I.

ibanezjunkie

June 4th, 2009, 10:25 AM

erm, i think i was about 7?

played a classical guitar my cousin gave to my dad.

been heavily influenced into blues by my cousin, and his USA strat that he never plays any more (he plays a washburn acoustic mostly...)

Auriemma

June 4th, 2009, 11:02 AM

I was 6. My elementary school principal told my parents I had to much energy and I should have a hobby (yes, I was THAT much trouble). My grandfather said he would take care of it. We went to a music store (under a furniture store and looked around.

I came home with a 3/4 scale Kingston Folk guitar and lessons. I still have it in my closet. How I played it is beyond me.

I got my first electric (Toyota Barney Kessel semi-hollow) a year later after my instructor said I needed a better guitar.

I have been playing ever since (38 years)... and still SUCK! :thwap:

ShootTheGlass

June 4th, 2009, 11:20 AM

28, which was last year. It was a PRS Tremonti SE, which I still have and now has PRS USA pickups and a push pull pot. :)

djmcconnell

June 4th, 2009, 03:43 PM

When I was about 3 or 4, my mom let me play her guitar laying across my lap. In 3rd grade, I got my own no-name classical guitar and took lessons for about 2 years from a cool hippie guy named Michele.

After that, I pretty much only tinkered with the guitar until my wife bought me my Takamine in 1984 so I could sing and play at a friend's wedding (the Paul Stookey "Wedding Song." Yecch!) I put a pickup on it and it's my only acoustic guitar.

I only took the guitar out once or twice a year after that to let our kids play and to noodle around.

I started playing again in earnest almost 3 years ago when my youngest went off to college. I've been playing constantly since then, taking lessons on and off (back on now) and playing with our church worship band.

I love the guitar — it's officially my passion.

street music

June 4th, 2009, 03:48 PM

I'm too old to remember that, I was very young , it was an acoustic of some sort that's been about 47 years ago.

markb

June 4th, 2009, 04:23 PM

I was about 13 and had a fried who had several guitars. The one I made noises on most was a Klira strat-like instrument with a strange red vinyl finish. In fact it was more like a cheaper Hofner Galaxie (http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/gallery/gallery2/gallery4/gallery7/gal68.html).
I got my own first guitar for my 14th birthday, a horrid Jedson tele look-alike. http://jedsonguitars.net/ scroll down to "Tele-style B" to see one in its full horrific glory.

Perfect Stranger

June 18th, 2009, 11:08 AM

I was probably 14 and it was a Silvertone and the case was an amp.

EmmaLovesJak

June 24th, 2009, 03:57 PM

ibanezjunkie

June 24th, 2009, 04:00 PM

For my 14th birthday my mum hunted down the cheapest guitar she could find on the internet, I played it without knowing what the hell I was doing for a while, and didnt touch it again until about a month ago. God I can't wait 'till I get a new guitar.. :S

you mean you didnt touch it again till i let you play on my gear and you want to get into it now?

=]

ahh im getting you your new amp for your bday =] cus im so awesome to you.

just strum

June 24th, 2009, 05:11 PM

I took a stab at it when I was about 12 or 13 with a guitar my parents purchased from Western Auto (it was more on line with a hardware store)

It looked just like this.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h16/auroraohio/Guitars/truetone.jpg

Equal it weight to this

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h16/auroraohio/mini_cooper1.jpg

hubberjub

June 24th, 2009, 07:02 PM

I started playing my dad's Yamaha classical when I was 11. I bought my first electric at 13. It was a Series 10 Strat copy that I bought from this 16 year old skater kid for $50. I played it for a year until it was stolen (by the skater kid I bought it from).

mapka

July 29th, 2010, 02:26 PM

1969 or 70 Framus Acoustic (still have). I was 8 and influenced by my fathers music taste (country) and more specific, Johnny Cash. Got the guitar from mom and dad for Christmas. First teacher was very good except for the dreaded Mel Bay torture! Got my first electric from my parents a year later. Heit with a Checkmate amp (still have also). I had found The Doors! Went away to school in 74 and the playing fell silent till the late 80's. Got the bug again, bought a 1979 ES335 and got acquainted to the blues. Been playing ever since!

riverrick

July 29th, 2010, 05:05 PM

Think I was 11 or 12. Had a plastic Roy Rogers guitar I think it had nylon strings. Then one year my Dad got me a cheapie electric (Sorrento). I was hooked after that.

jpfeifer

July 29th, 2010, 05:44 PM

I'm always late to these threads ....

I was 13 when I first started playing. My first guitar (that I owned) was a Fender acoustic. It was a crappy guitar but I played it all the time. I also borrowed guitars from other people. The school where I went would lend out classical guitars over the summer break. I did that a few times.

Then I saved up and bought a used Ibanez Les Paul copy after I had played for a couple of years. It was my first electric. I played that guitar all through high school. It was also a crappy guitar. It wasn't one of the really "good" Les Paul copies that Ibanez had made in the early 70s.

Come to think of it. I owned low-budget guitars until I graduated from college. This is when I bought my Martin and my Fender Eric Clapton model. These were the first "good" guitars I owned.

The one lesson I learned is that you will never regret buying quality guitars. But I do have some low budget ones that I regret owning, they seemed like a good idea at the time :-)

--Jim

M29

July 29th, 2010, 06:59 PM

Hey K! I was 16 and the git was a 59 I think, Les Paul Junior.

M

Eric

July 29th, 2010, 07:30 PM

Well, as long as the thread is being revived anyway...

I think I was about 15 or 16, and I found my mom's old classical guitar somewhere. Man did that thing suck! I kid you not, it must have had about 1/2" clearance at the 12th fret.

I tried to play whatever I could on that thing, mostly my favorite rock tunes at the time (on a classical guitar...). I bought an acoustic through a mail-order catalog that was 36" from end to end and had horrific fretwork. Somewhere in there my parents bought me a Fender acoustic for my birthday, which was my only guitar until I was ~24. Its primary function involved sitting in corners.

I bought a Squier strat off of ebay, started playing a bunch more, bought a Seagull, bought an Agile, sold the Squier, and I was off to the races. That probably started around age 26.

Wow...5 years gone since then??

Katastrophe

July 29th, 2010, 08:06 PM

I got hooked on the guitar by looking in the Sears catalog when I was about 8 years old. All those Strat, Explorer, and LP copies!

My Dad bought me a little Hondo nylon string acoustic that same Christmas. I got bored and didn't touch it for a long time, because I couldn't make sense of the instructional books at the time (especially with no instruction).

Fast forward to age 15. I ran into more people who played, and had a buddy at school that had a Les Paul who let me play, and showed me a few things. My Dad had a buddy who played in his own country band professionally, and he showed me my first chords, using the Roy Clark Guitar Method book.

It was all downhill from there. My mom got me a Strat copy from the Sears catalog, along with a solid state amph that weighed a ton, and had a switch for fuzz tone.

I don't have the old Hondo anymore. I had put regular acoustic strings on instead of nylons, and pretty much destroyed it over the years.

guitarhack

July 30th, 2010, 08:55 AM

About 15 when my parents bought me a cheapo no-name acoustic guitar with baling wire for strings and that good high action I've seen mentioned above. Talk about callouses! I eventully saved up some money and bought a Harmony Sovereign when I was 18. That was my only guitar until about ten years ago when I traded my truck for some cash and and a couple of electric guitars and an amp. Then I bought my Taylor 310 and pretty much retired the Harmony.

Kazz

July 30th, 2010, 09:29 AM

Well since we are digging up threads from a year ago I will chime in. I was about 7 and my Grandmother bought me a really cheap red acoustic guitar. My aunt put me through classical lessons for a couple of years. I hated it. I wanted to play like Ace Frehley. I still have the guitar under the bed. Thank goodness for my Washburn D46 because it is so much easier to play than that old piece of crap.

Monkus

July 30th, 2010, 10:42 AM

Holy resurrection Batman ! I was 13/14 and I had to play for a chick that had to sing for a wedding with guitar accompaniment. She was hot though much older so I learnt Peter, Paul and Mary's "the wedding song'. Twas on a palmer acoustic nylon that my dad had gotten for Christmas one year.

otaypanky

July 30th, 2010, 07:37 PM

Does this count? 1958, 6 years old, a Gene Autry plastic guitar made by Emenee. It had a block with buttons on it that you attached to the neck with rubber bands. When you pressed on a button it fretted a chord.
Then for my 10th birthday my folks rented a Stella acoustic for me that looked like the one in the next photo. They also gave me the gift of some guitar lessons ~ gifts I will always treasure :thankyou

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w49/otaypanky/DSCF0001-33.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w49/otaypanky/002.jpg

deeaa

July 30th, 2010, 09:16 PM

I *think* I must have been 15 and my two first guitars I built myself.

Here's how it looked:
http://www.thefret.net/imagehosting/thum_101494a65ff409189a.jpg

I later built a black V shaped guitar as well, sadly no pictures remain I think. It was a very ambitious build as well, I built it hollow like an acoustic with thick maple sides and I forget what for tops...light as a feather, but those home-made birch necks sadly had no truss rod so it was impossible to get them to play very well.

I actually didn't know _anything_ about playing a guitar when I built my first one, I had never even tried one in my hand properly at that stage...so it was a complete learning experience.

My first 'real' guitar was a horrid 'Musima' branded sunburst strat copy.

LeadedEL84

July 30th, 2010, 11:21 PM

Oh this is a funny one...... I never tell this story to anyone outside my family and probably shouldn't tell it here.

I was about 5 years old and wanted a guitar more than anything. My older cousin had a student acoustic and the body was painted (in 70s tradition) red,white,and blue. Looked like something Tom T Hall or Neil Diamond would have. I wanted one too. I was in a department strore with my uncle and I saw the little guitars with nylon strings and plastic body and neck. They all had band names and pictures on them. My uncle asked me which one I liked and I showed him the black KISS guitar with the guys in full make up. I thought Gene was the coolest. Little did I know he was doing research for Santa....
Well a month or two later it was Christmas morning. As we all sat around opening gifts everyone watched as I got to my super special gift. I opened it and there was the black guitar I wanted.......Well almost the one I wanted.......It WAS black.......But the guys in the picture looked different.............Hmmmm either the adults got confused or they ran out of KISS guitars when they went back to buy it. The guys on this one didn't have any cool face paint. This one said.......The Bee Gees!!!!
So a month or two later there was a house full of kids and the dreaded Bee Gees guitar came to an end when it was left on the couch and someone sat on it and broke the neck. I didn't cry.
The following Christmas the broken guitar was replaced with a JC Penny catalogue ,student acoustic. It had steel strings,a burst finish,and was real wood. It had a zero fret and unfortunately this was the only fret that was in the correct place. This guitar was always out of intonation which made it really hard during my early attempts at learning chords.....
The story of my first REAL guitar is amazing but it is alot less funny. I will save it for another time. It belongs on a thread about guitars you wish you never would have let go.

syo

July 31st, 2010, 09:57 AM

That would be the plastic Beany and Cecil 4 string with the music box inside when I was about 5. :beavisnbutthead:

Then took a break until picking up my first real guitar (a MIJ HM Fender Strat) when I was 28).

Meritone Music

August 8th, 2010, 04:42 PM

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

same! I starting on my dads huge old acoustic when I was 6 or 7. Then scratched it real badly using a coin as a pick at a family party.. luckily my dads reaction didn't discourage me from keeping on playing :) this is me playing my first nice electric as a teenager, my hardearned Hamer USA w flyod rose and all.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvzGWUOItz8

otaypanky

August 8th, 2010, 06:22 PM

Pickngrin

August 8th, 2010, 06:44 PM

Age 15, perhaps? Some less-than-crappy acoustic guitar that had nylon strings (but I don't think that it was supposed to). Then a really cheesy, no-name 70s kiddie electric guitar, then I bought a Squier Strat at the ripe age of 16.

Rotor

August 11th, 2010, 03:19 AM

Oh I was 15 or so and my first acoustic was a Kay nylon string. In the kicking myself for not keeping it Dept... My first electric was a Univox natural blond Les Paul copy. That thing musta weighed 30 pounds. Stunning guitar! I've been looking for another one for years.

va1cho

August 11th, 2010, 12:17 PM

16 years old and play on really oldest guitar from my dad.He play on this guitar before 50 years.Now i play on Ibanez guitar and i want Ibanez JEM7V guitar :P

Brian Krashpad

August 11th, 2010, 12:26 PM

16 years old and play on really oldest guitar from my dad.He play on this guitar before 50 years.Now i play on Ibanez guitar and i want Ibanez JEM7V guitar :P

Be sure to post in The Fret Players forum with an introduction thread!

Welcome.

kidsmoke

August 12th, 2010, 06:40 AM

At 34(2003), on an Alvarez laminated/solid top acoustic I had purchased years earlier from a co-worker for my son. Action was high, but the first three frets were playable. The kid never picked it up.

I had always wanted to play, but was somehow convinced it would be far too difficult. I was just looking for a challenge. I had also given him an easy Complete Beatles song book. Worked my way through "Let it be" and was hooked. Now this is the "music room"

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/tiokimo/P1100514.jpg

turn 180 degrees
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/tiokimo/P1100513.jpg

syo

August 12th, 2010, 09:04 AM

Nice comfortable space you have there Tio Kimo (and infinitely cleaner than my own). Sounds like buying that guitar for your son was the best gift you could have given yourself!

bigG

August 12th, 2010, 10:57 AM

13. Was a Gibson SG (cherry red). My parents had bought it for my brother and he never touched it. I was taking accordion lessons and learning theory and standards (Satin Doll, In The Mood, etc...) at the time The Beatles hit, so I drug out my brother's guitar, bought a Beatles song book, taught myself basic cowboy chords from the diagrams in that book, and it's never ended. (Needless to say the accordion was soon sold to finance my first bass [a Framus - violin Hofner knock-off] and amp [a Standell half-stack - well, a head and cab, anyway] so I could join my first band, that happened to need a bass player, not another guitarist. The rest is alot of history in my own mind...)

I was WAY lucky to have had a VERY nice guitar to learn on! :dance