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

[Monkus]

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***]

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

[deeaa*]

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

Here's how it looked:


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]

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***]

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

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

[Meritone Music]

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.

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***]

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

Here's how it looked:


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.

That's pretty remarkable !!!

[Pickngrin]

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]

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]

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]

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*]

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"



turn 180 degrees

[syo***]

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]

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!

[tunghaichuan***]

I was 19. My first guitar was an ESP 60s Strat copy. Three tone sunburst, rosewood board. A very nice guitar. Not long after I got it, I found a set of used EMG SA pickups cheap and replaced the rather bland stock pickups.

[DrumBob]

It was a $15 Teisco POS, the lowest quality imaginable. Totally unplayable. I went from that to a Gibson Melody Maker, a big improvement.