First real electric purchase
 

After my recent divorce I needed a distraction, and always had actually learning guitar on my bucket list.

After looking around I grabbed a mint used Telecaster HH FMT. I prefer more of a Gibson sound but the Fender feel. My amber Tele has Seymour Duncans that flat out scream. With the coil splitting option it ends up being crazy versatile. A great first axe for me.

So what was your first buy?

(I am already looking ahead to my next - a Les Paul or possibly a semi hollow, perhaps a Gretsch)

Congrats on the Tele! Here's to a Gibson Les Paul in your future.

The first electric I bought with my own cash was a BC Rich Warlock Platinum series back in '89. It was my dream guitar at the time. I still have it but my other electrics feel so much better in my hands.

Oh boy. You have that thing in your hands you better have something to say!

A new guitar like mine is selling for $729. Not a huge secondary market so for 499 I got it and a case. Could not be happier. It’s really only a telecaster by name and shape. Build quality stellar for an Indonesian build.

Even though I was raised in Orange County, Ca., in the 50's and 60's, and weaned on Fender electric guitars, the first electric that I bought was a Gretsch Country Gentleman that I found for dirt-cheap at the Orange Drive-In Swap Meet in 1969...

I saw this big ol' orange thing from about 75 feet away, and tried to play it cool, but couldn't stand it! I asked "How much?" and the guy said "$35"... I didn't even consider haggling, just got the money for him.

It was in very good condition but didn't come with a case... had I had ANY "real world experience", I would have realized that the guitar had to be stolen and hot as a $2 pistol... but I was just 18 and the thought didn't even occur to me.

I had watched Neil Young and Stephen Stills play those things in the Buffalo Springfield, and I was REALLY excited to have one of my own! Unfortunately, it was in a stand on stage with me when I was doing a duo with a good friend in Yuma, Az., in 1974 and took a serious fall.

The stage was small and hollow underneath and was bouncing as we played a rousing version of "El Paso", and I saw my Gretsch take a dive onto the dancefloor from the corner of my eye... broke the neck, just below the nut... harsh lesson!

My first (and only) electric is a Fender MIM Telecaster I bought new in the mid 90s. It is a "toploader" and it is all stock. I never played it much until the last few months. I am going to get a decent amp in the next couple weeks and am having a lot of fun with it at the moment.

My first electric was a Magnum Strat copy, maple fretboard, black with a white pickguard and a 3-position switch. Cost my parents $100. I installed a 5-position switch, and mounted a black volume knob because I thought it was cool. Played that to death for a couple years, then sold it to a friend's sister, and bought my current Strat in 1980 with my own money saved from babysitting and washing dishes.

I got my first electric with True Value trading stamps. It was a Kay. The strings were only about a foot off the fretboard and I think were made from clothesline. Beautiful instrument. Promptly took it to a local music store and traded it for a Harmony electric, which actually was a pretty decent little axe. Don't remember how much boot I had to give, but it was probably about the cost of the Harmony.

I was 18. :cry:

My first electric was a Gibson Les Paul. Still have it and love it. Great follow up to your Tele, which are a lot of fun.

Gretsch 6117 Double Annie and Ampeg Rocket amp - both bought new in May 1964, both still in my stable but in semi-retirement...

My first electric was and still is a Samick Greg Bennett Royale semi with twin hum-buckers. Great guitar even it doesn't get played as often as it should.

However it didn't take me long to know that what I really wanted to own was a Fender Stratocaster and after that a Telecaster to complete the picture.

My first electric was the ever-popular "No Name-O" brand with a gazillion really impressive sliding switches and pick ups and was supposed to look like a really futuristic Fender of some sort.
It was kind of a pile which was replaced with a Univox Les Paul knock off shortly thereafter.

I was about 14 when my uncle gave me a Kay Twin Thin he had laying around. It had no tuners, nut or bridge. I knew nothing about setup or string sizes, medium sounded reasonable to me. It was a bear with a neck like a baseball bat. I served me well a number of years playing in a couple bands. When I went in the service my brother dismantled it and lost the parts. Some days I miss it for sentimental reasons.

Fender Bullet circa 1982 just like this one (wish I had kept it looking at the price):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1981-1982-S...4248051?_ul=CL

First was a Framus model that was sort of like a Strat with a Tremelo. Learned to play it sitting on my bunk. I bought it in Pforzheim, Germany 1969. My son learned on it and left it behind when he went to college. I beat the dust off of it a few months ago and it still plays well considering the switch is broken so it is single pickup and the bridge seems out of whack. I can make allowances for old friends though. After all, I’m no spring chicken now myself.

A 1964 Gibson SG standard with a '64 B/F deluxe reverb amp for $350 at the guitar center, Hollywood, Ca. in 1968.
The amp has been played almost every day for all these years. The SG was gigged extensively until 1st wife threw it across the room in a jealous fit of rage. It sat in it's case for over 30 years, until a GOOD luthier managed to finally repair it........It never fails to sound great.........And how many other objects in life work so perfectly for about 52 years?