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

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...

[stingx]

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****]

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]

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...

You would still sound great on the biggest POS guitar around.

[Fingers]

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.........



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]

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?

[R_of_G]

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]

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

[havenfun0001]

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.