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

[sunvalleylaw]

It would be fun to see that list sometime!

[Spudman***]

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.

[Jimi75]

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]

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

[ShortBuSX]

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!

[duhvoodooman***]

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!

[Plank_Spanker]

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:

[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.

[djmcconnell]

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]

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.

[riverrick]

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.

[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

[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