Tell me about your first good guitar

[The Bard Rocks]

Must have a been a Martin 0018, cedar top (how nice that smelled!). But after I visited the Martin factory and played one they had there for folks to pick up, I was no longer satisfied and had to find one as good. Looked hard for months and finally ettled on a Martin M38, realizing that by then the sound and feel of that particular factory guitar was gone from my memory. I kept the M38 20 years, then decided I needed something louder and - somehow- better. That's when I stepped into it knee deep.(Or maybe waist deep, but I don't like to think I waisted my time.)

[koine2002]

I’ve owned a variety of entry level all laminate guitars over the years. My first good guitar was my Simon & Patrick Folk in high gloss sunburst. It has a solid cedar top and wild cherry back and sides. It’s my workhorse.

[Rudy4]

It must be related to the average age of AGF members, but I too purchased a Ovation Balladeer as a first "good" acoustic guitar.

Over the next few years I started to hone in on Bluegrass and seeing local bands playing mostly Martins I talked to players and did some serious thinking about my Ovation. I examined it carefully and came to the conclusion that each of it's "features" were really designed to maximize profit for the manufacturer.

Given all that, I decided to move to a good wooden guitar. A trip to my local Martin shop clued me into some of their peculiarities, like the lack of truss rods, etc. The shop owner showed me his personal D-45 that was beautiful up until the first time he took it out to a gig and had the top spider web from opening it before warming up to room temperature.

Then there was the price.

I left the shop, pondered a bit, and thought that they were made in a factory by mere mortals such a as myself. I bought the only 2 books available at the time on guitar construction and carefully built my own.

Hopefully that wasn't TMI!

[warfrat73]

My first acoustic was a Takamine G-330 (I think), purchased in 1998. It had a ramp where the neck met the body... it was kind of a mess.

My second acoustic guitar was my Bourgeois DR-A, purchased in 1999 that I still have and still think is a very good guitar. I got lucky.

[Mark Stone]

My first good guitar was my first guitar — a Gibson B-25 that was given to me by a fellow hippie in 1971. But I didn’t know it was a good guitar until long after I gave it away to someone else lol

[brad4d8]

First good guitar was/is my F212, got it in August of '65, still have it. Gets played regularly.

[Ceabeceabe]

Used Takamine 12 string bought in 1981 in highschool. I was in a bunch of bands in school and with friends, playing electric guitar and trumpet. That Takamine was a real step up from the electric and the 6 string acoustic I was playing at the time. Stuck a dean markley or the like sound hole pickup in it and away we went. Had it through about 2000.

[jseth]

My first "good" guitar was a Guild D-40... I had saved my pennies for a couple years, and went down to Fullerton Music in Summer of 1967 and plunked down $269.32 for a brand new Guild D-40...

Man! I loved that guitar!!! Took it with me everywhere in the chipboard case it came in - even took it to Hawaii with me when I went off to college there...

That guitar was stolen from me when I lived in Ocean Beach, playing in a duo in 1974. Broke my heart... for a while, I actually wondered if I could still play guitar on something else...

I was wrong, of course, but it really hurt when that guitar was taken...

[PassingThru]

My first good guitar was a D28 purchased from Spicewood Music in Port Arthur, TX in 1967. Needed money in the late 70's and had to sell it. It's my biggest regret. Now, I'm shopping for a mid 60's D28. Big ouch for the price.

[musicman1951]

My first good acoustic guitar was a Martin D-28. I was in college and working part time at a music store. I seem to remember a price around $395, which was a lot more money some 55 years ago.

My wife's cousin has it now. I sold it to him so I could afford a piccolo trumpet many years ago.

[JKA]

Originally Posted by Daveyo

We all talked about her crummy first guitars
I want to hear about your first good guitar
Mine was a guild 25 factory black
I still miss that guitar
How about you?

Funnily enough so was mine. A Cherry red D25. Interesting to see so many Guilds as the first decent guitar.

[KenL]

And here's another Guild story.

My first good guitar was a '99 Taylor 710, cedar over rosewood. Beautiful guitar, pretty woods. It was a big step up from my cheap old Alvarez.

But then I stumbled across a Guild D-46. Strummed it once and had to have it. Brought it home, sold the Taylor. I had that Guild for 23 years.

[EZYPIKINS]

My first "professional" guitar I bought was an electric guitar Built by a brand-new company in 1980.

It was a G&L F-100 series II Hardtail. I wish I still had that guitar. Same year I got my very first acoustic guitar(that wasn't borrowed from my Dad)

It was a used 1979 Guild D25M. Had it until just a couple years ago.
d25m.jpg

[Pickcity]

Mid 60’s Gibson LGO. It actually belonged to my uncle, but he allowed me to keep it as long as I wanted. It’s the guitar I learned on as a kid. I wish I still had it.

[raysachs]

I started playing in late 1977 (age 18) on a horrible $60 pawnshop guitar - epically awful. I was a broke college student at the time. After I’d been playing about a year, I was sure I was gonna stick with it AND I was working and making decent money for a single kid in 1978. So I went around playing every good guitar I could find in Tucson for $500 or less. Head and shoulders above everything else I played (to MY ears and hands) was a 1968 D28, with a nice dark patina (I think guitars in Arizona got sunburnt too) and a couple of cleated repairs in the top. The guy at the shop (the OLD Rainbow Guitars, a tiny strip mall shop up on Grant right near Campbell, before they had their current big shop on Campbell between Grant and Ft. Lowell) kept going on about 68 being the last full year they used Brazilian rosewood, which meant nothing to me at the time, but he seemed pretty impressed by that. I paid somewhere around $400 or $425 for it, took it home, and it was my only acoustic guitar for 25 years. I sold it right around 20 years ago - I’d stopped playing and I was pretty sure I was done for good. I got about ten time what I paid for. If I’d known I was gonna get way back into playing, I might have kept it, but turns out dreads are too big for me to play comfortably anymore, so I’d have probably sold it eventually anyway. That was a wonderful guitar though, BIG amazing sound.

-Ray