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

[M29]

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

M

[va1cho]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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..................